Lost Connections - our new, archive-based short film, streaming now on BFI Player.
We’re excited to announce that Lost Connections has launched on BFI Player and is now available to view for free.
Lost Connections is a new short film about our extraordinary collective experience since March 2020, told using the sights and sounds of the past. Drawing on footage from almost 200 films held in archives across the UK, Lost Connections weaves together a powerful collage of isolation and community, freedom and captivity, anxiety and hope.
Artist and performer Hussina Raja provides contemporary narration which interrogates the images of the past, gives voice to the uncertainties of the present, and poses the film’s recurring, central question: Can we always be connected?
It’s a film about recovery. Though it takes the past as its reference point, the purpose of the project was to say something about our collective responsibility to build better futures. We wanted the film to honour our mixed feelings about our gradual reconnection with each other, our communities and the world around us. - Dr Emily Munro, National Library of Scotland
Lost Connections is the result of a unique collaboration between 12 of the UK’s Regional and National Film Archives. It was produced by Yorkshire Film Archive and supported with National Lottery funding through Film Hub North’s ongoing 2021 archive film season, New Directions.
As part of the New Directions season, UK film exhibitors can screen Lost Connections online and in-venue for free. For more information on the film, the story of its production and to enquire about a screening, visit our Lost Connections landing page.
Lost Connections is an expansive project – it brilliantly showcases the riches of our public film collections and represents a huge range of communities in the UK. It’s great to be making it widely available to audiences across the country, both in cinemas and at BFI Player. - Andy Robson, Film Hub North
Archive film projects supported with National Lottery funding as part of New Directions are set to continue throughout 2021.
Recent events in the season include: ReDrawing Edinburgh, a series of site-specific installations marking a moment of historic change in the Scottish capital a century ago; and Coalfield Stories, a programme celebrating 40 years of collaboration between the Amber Film & Photography Collective and the communities of the Durham coalfields.
Lost Connections was supported by Film Hub North on behalf of the BFI Film Audience Network (through National Lottery funding) and produced by the Yorkshire Film Archive.
