The North West Film Archive needs YOU!     #lockdownlife

The North West Film Archive is asking for YOUR help – we want to create as wide-ranging a picture as possible of what life was really like in the North West of England during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, so we’re looking for your perspectives on these unprecedented and worrying times.

We’re living through a unique period in our lifetimes – social distancing, lockdown life, friends and loved ones far from reach – and the North West Film Archive wants to preserve your experiences of this time for future generations.

So, whoever and wherever you are in the North West, if you have any video showing life at home or at work – the empty streets, the experiences of key workers, the Zoom parties, the weekly applause for the NHS on your street, etc, etc – we’d love to hear from you.

You can send your videos straight to us here, or via a file transfer service such as WeTransfer or DropBox to n.w.filmarchive@mmu.ac.uk, and one of our team will be in touch.*  Please ensure that these are your own video clips (not owned by third parties) and that you are entitled to deposit them with us.

Film and video have a unique ability to bring the past to life – you can see the smiles, ‘smell’ the sea air, and ‘taste’ the candy floss of the holiday makers on the beach.  You can hear the noise of the cotton weaving looms and ‘feel’ the floor rumbling underfoot.  For over forty years, the North West Film Archive has been collecting and preserving these moving images depicting the lives and experiences of North West people from the late Victorian era right up to the present day for everybody to learn from and enjoy.

Through our collections, we’re able to show what life was like for the people of the North West of England during significant periods in our history – the home-front during the First and Second World Wars, the strikes and political demonstrations of the 1980s, the ‘Swinging 60s’, the rise and fall of the North West’s cotton and textile industries.  But we also look after the memories of the everyday too – daily working and school life; the high days and holidays; the weddings, babies and birthday parties; as well as the ‘ordinary’ domestic lives of the region’s people.

And now it’s your turn – we look forward to hearing from you.

* If you are having difficulties, or want to use an alternative method to get the files to us, please contact us at n.w.filmarchive@mmu.ac.uk for assistance.