LOST AND FOUND

Oliver Crocker discovers why film really is fabulous

- Oliver Crocker

It's now two years since a new initiative burst on to the scene to help preserve thousands of vulnerable film reels which, serendipitously, has become the best hope of finding long-lost British television treasures in years.

Film is Fabulous! is a voluntary organisation run by film collectors, cinema lovers and vintage television enthusiasts, working with film historians at De Montfort University. John Franklin, a film collector for 40 years and one of the visionaries behind the scheme, was inspired to act in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. “We tragically lost a lot of film collectors overnight, including many friends of mine. When their homes were cleared out, the films and equipment they had spent their lives collecting were lost; literally thrown into a skip. It was heartbreaking.”

Films were junked because the collectors had left no instructions in their wills as to what should happen to their precious reels. With executors under time pressure, limited further by Covid-19 restrictions, there was nothing that John or the wider collecting community could do to help. “That’s when I thought that we should really try to do something to provide assistance for elderly collectors and their families.”

In October 2023, Film is Fabulous! held its first event at Leicester’s Phoenix Cinema and Art Centre, bringing more than 150 film collectors and dealers together for a special festival. “The original premise was to encourage the attendees to make a list of their films and to put clear instructions in their wills to avoid more collections being junked.” However, following the successful event, a survey revealed that some collectors were having trouble cataloguing their films, as John explains. “Film collectors tend to be elderly people in their late 70s or older. While everyone wanted to make a list, their age meant they were now having trouble lifting their heavy film reels, or even seeing the information written on them.”