The BFI National Archive has brought 400+ UK-produced online videos into the National Collection, preserving 30 years of digital content
The BFI has brought 400+ UK-produced online moving image works spanning the last 30 years into the National Collection to preserve them for future generations.
Curated highlights from the collection are available UK-wide online via the BFI Replay platform.
The videos include Twitch streaming and TikTok twerking, ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) videos and unboxing videos. The collection also includes the earliest social memes and the biggest viral sensations.
The BFI says “preserving the 21st Century’s defining moving image art form marks a historic milestone for the BFI National Archive and the UK’s screen heritage”.
The project is part of a major two-year heritage project, supported by the BFI Screen Heritage Fund awarding National Lottery funding.
The BFI National Archive’s curators have included works to preserve because of their creativity and technological advances in filmmaking as well as the impact and engagement they have had with the British public, and for being a record of our social history.
From early 1993 webcams, and flash animation cartoons to TikTok short form and the wide variety of types of online content you can see on YouTube the collection also includes work from defunct online spaces as well as work originating far from the big platforms.
The oldest work in the collection is Eschaton: Darkening Twilight (Hugh Hancock, 1997) and the most recent example to be preserved is How to Make a Roman Gladiator Helmet, from Scratch (British Museum, 28 August 2025).
The shortest work in the collection is the 11 second slapstick viral meme, I Can’t Believe You’ve Done This (Paul Weedon, 2007) and the longest work, and the longest single work in the BFI National Archive to date, is the Daily Star’s week-long Will Liz Truss Outlast This Lettuce? livestream from 2022.
The online video collection also includes Badgers (Jonti Picking, 2003) and viral video sensations such as Charlie Bit My Finger – Again! (Howard Davies‑Carr, 2007). There’s also Adjani Salmon and Natasha Jatania’s web series, Dreaming Whilst Black (2018) and Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling’s comedy horror puppet web series Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared (2011-2016), as well as Charity Shop Sue (Dead Sweet TV, 2019), Mandem On The Wall (Wall of Entertainment, 2011) and comedian Mawaan Rizwan’s music videos Mango (2019).
There is a whole world of ‘very online’ sub-genres with the make-up tutorials of blind creator Lucy Edwards (How Does A Blind Girl Do Her Own Makeup? 2021), the ASMR videos of WhispersRed and Machinima, making narrative film from video game footage, from Scotland’s own Strange Company founded by Hugh Hancock. The collection also includes cooking videos from Bake Off finalist Chetna Makan, Food With Chetna (2023), Vlogs, ‘Slow Television’ videos of canal boats and trains, and surviving footage of the world’s first web-cam in the 1990s.
The BFI says “preserving online moving image throws up its own special challenges, not least the almost incomprehensible scale of content to choose from. It’s impossible to calculate, but the number of works created in the 30 years of online video is exponentially greater than the entire moving image output of the preceding century.”
No comments yet