Databasing key documents and narrative chronologies of artists' film and video distributors in the UK

Project start date: 2005-10

Project end date: 2008-11

The project created a database – the Film and Video Distribution Database (FVDD) – of chronological information and key documents relating to artists'/independent film and video distributors in the UK from the 1960s to date, which have been collected as part of two AHRB funded research projects. The database will be accessible via its own URL and via the British Artists Film and Video Study Collection. Users' searches will generate bespoke chronologies, fully referenced bibliographies of the related documents held online, and direct the user to further relevant material on the BAFV Study Collection website. This will provide an extensive and previously unavailable research resource. The research has focused mainly on the London Filmmakers Coop, London Video Access/Electronic Arts, the Lux, Circles, Cinema of Women, Cinenova, Albany Video Distribution, and Film and Video Umbrella, together with the organisations that have funded them, namely the Arts Council, the British Film Institute, Channel Four, Greater London Arts, the London Film and Video Development Agency, and the GLC. Among the documents available on the database are committee meeting minutes, policy documents, promotional material, development prospectuses, reports, funding applications, press coverage, budgets, artists' and funders' correspondence, royalty statements, and audience feedback sheets. The FVDD has been conceived as an ongoing project which can be added to as more material can be processed or comes to light.