From flickering black and white images made on a hand cranked camera in Bradford’s Town Hall Square to mobile phone footage of City Park's ‘mirror pool’ nearly 130 years later, Bradford has a rich film history.
Those early films are safely stored in the vaults at the Yorkshire Film Archive, and will last for centuries, but today’s footage is at risk … we’re facing a digital black hole.
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In the cloud, on hard drives, memory sticks, or uploaded to video sharing platforms, moving images made now, on a multitude of devices, need preserving too.
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This is YOUR Screen Time! Your time to ensure Bradford today, your communities, your way of life, your stories are saved and celebrated for generations to come.
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And what better time and place than Bradford (UNESCO City of Film) and Bradford 2025 City of Culture to launch this important contemporary collecting campaign.
Be a part of Bradford's Moving Image legacy.
We’re looking for filmmakers with an interest in local stories, culture and identity.
Content-creators passionate about the events and people of the Bradford district.
Bradfordians who capture the moving image memories of family and community.
Why submit something to Yorkshire Film Archive?
As your regional film archive, we’re committed to safeguarding your films to the highest quality, respecting your rights and your wishes for future use.
It is critical that we collect digital footage now to ensure these contemporary
films, from across the district, will be accessible for generations to come.
We specialise in preserving analogue and digital films for the long-term, keeping up to date with changes in technology and digital preservation standards.
There’s always a risk of digital formats becoming outdated, memory sticks getting lost, hard-drives being wiped, and the uncertainty around video sites lasting forever.
Your films could be part of history.
What films are we looking for?
We’re searching for contemporary footage made in the last 20 years, that is representative of the people, communities, landscapes and cityscapes of Bradford and district.
Films can be any length and shot on professional cameras, mobile phones, or anything in between. Footage must be clear with good quality sound and visuals.
For preservation, we aim to collect films at the highest-quality digital version that you have available (e.g. .mov or .mp4).
Clean versions of the film without subtitles or watermarks are preferred.
Respecting copyright is important. Please obtain permission from the copyright holder to submit the film.
We want submissions from a cross-section of the community, even if you don't consider yourself a filmmaker. We're interested in footage that can help tell the story of this incredible place in the heart of West Yorkshire!
I have films, what next?
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If you have any films that you want to submit, we need to view and assess them. For many reasons, we can’t collect everything that is submitted.
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After the assessment, we will contact you and either request permission to formally acquire your film into our collection, or advise you on other arrangements if it does not meet the criteria.
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If your film is chosen, you will be asked to sign an acquisition form, giving you the opportunity to discuss any copyright restrictions, permissions, and acknowledgements.
Where can you send your films?
If you would like to send your film(s) to us (.mp4 or .mov file formats), please download and fill in this Deposit Form.
Be sure to read the Terms and Conditions attached to the document.
Deposit Form
Please upload the completed Deposit Form, along with your film(s) to us here:
https://spaces.hightail.com/uplink/yfa-bradford
If your file(s) exceed 25GB in total then please upload in multiple submissions.
For any issues or queries please email Alexandra:
Your film(s) will be assessed and we will contact you within 30 working days. Films which are not chosen, will be deleted immediately from our server after a decision is made.