Dear British Film Institute,

I am writing to ask for an update to my FOI request dated 23 June 2023. What proportion of the British (or “United Kingdom” in the BFI Collections database) feature-length (40 minutes or greater) film works which have a Film/Video Item held in the BFI National Archive collection have “Viewing” status? What is the decade-based breakdown (by content date)? Can you provide these figures as raw numbers and percentages please?

I would also like to request a list of the British feature film works which are held by the BFI but are not available for viewing.

Yours faithfully,

Mr T Morgan

Hi Sian,

Thank you for your reply. I received responses to the previous request (https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/v...) on 11 and 14 July 2023. It would be appreciated if the data query for this request could be run at least a year since the last one, which was presumably on or before 14 July 2023. The aim of my request is to measure what progress, if any, there has been in the year since that data was collected, with regard to making more film works in the BFI Collection/National Archive available for viewing. If you have any questions or clarifications on this, please let me know.

I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan

Hi Sian,

Thanks, I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan

Hi Sian,

Thank you for providing this.
You write “Additionally, the narrative around what data is, or isn’t, held has not changed from our previous response.”
So are you saying that the current statistics are the same as in my previous request last year? The statistics are in these responses: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/v...
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/v...
Also, you refer to “data” which is held - do you mean “film works”, rather than “data”?

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan

Hi Sian,

It appears that there are 2,340 films (or feature-length works) in the new spreadsheet, whereas there were 2,292 in the previous file. So the overall statistics cannot be exactly the same as last time.

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan

Hi Sian,

Thanks for clarifying. Can you please provide a current set of statistics, as per my request? Reference number FOI 2425-032. Link:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/v...

The second part of this request has been answered, but not the first.

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan

Hi Sian,

Thanks. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan

Hi Sian,

Many thanks for this information. Apologies if this was something I could have found out by searching the BFI Collections database. As BFI Filmography has now been added as a search field, perhaps that is the case, and I didn’t realise I could have done it.

Based on a BFI Collection search, there are 11,062 results for British feature film items in the BFI Filmography. Adding the filter “Viewing copy held” brings up 3,559 results. You quoted 3,562 above, so I wonder what accounts for the extra three items? Internal information - perhaps new acquisitions - not yet in the public database?

If I add the Filter of Work type: Film (which shouldn’t be necessary in theory), there are 3,539 results. There are 18 classified as TV (such as Channel 4 features, it seems), adding up to 3,558 (one less than the total). The other categories of “Work type” have no results. So there is a discrepancy of three or four items in the figures.

When searching for Filter - Film / Video collections: Material held - Film / Video / Digital, there are 5,904 results.
So that implies there are 5,158 BFI Filmography works not held by the BFI Archive at all.

I hope you are having a good weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan