The Screen Bandita archive comprises a scintilating variety of films in numerous different formats (8mm, 9.5mm and 16mm), with material dating from the 1920's right through to the 1980's, and comprising of an extraordinarily wide scope of themes and content, shot by both professionals and enthusiastic amateur cinematographers!  We are also delighted to have a treasure- trove of recovered photographs and slides collected from car boot sales and attics, at home and abroad. Generous donations have also added to our collection and the Banditas are always delighted to give a new home to orphan film materials.

 

Our archive also holds a vast array of vintage viewing and moving image memoribilia; from viewmasters and reels to toy projectors, slide viewers and cinema parephanalia!

 

The first acquisistion came courtesy of the Filmhouse Cinema in Edinburgh. Their film vault had been housing a collection of 16mm films from the National Museum of Scotland for many decades and it befell to the Banditas to watch and log the collection. A task we were happy to undertake!

Since then our archive has grown considerably. 8mm films have come from junk shops and family archives, and recently a new collection of 16mm films has been donated by the Edinburgh Film Guild.

Cries eminating from the EFG offices at the Filmhouse voiced concerns about who would be interested in these 16mm archive films? A friend knew that the Banditas would not only be delighted to give a home to these outdated formats, but would be able to re-use and re-appropriate the films and make sure that they are appreciated by new audiences, some 60-70 years after they were made.

Our archive not only provides material for ourwork, but also feeds into our learning programme for schoolchildren. Slides can be viewed on our lightbox and the history of film can be discovered through our constantly-growing collection of archive films.