Adam Matthew to publish film collection on socialist propaganda

Adam Matthew today announced a new agreement with the BFI National Archive (British Film Institute) to publish the Educational and Television Films (ETV) archive of producer and distributor Stanley Forman (1921-2013).

Forman, a leading figure in the Communist Party of Great Britain and well-known for collecting and distributing rare footage from behind the ‘Iron Curtain’, established ETV Films Ltd in 1950. He donated the collection to the BFI after his retirement in 2002.

Forman’s considerable legacy encompasses –

• Over thirteen thousand reels of film equalling in excess of 750 hours of footage

• An estimated 7000 titles containing documentaries, feature films and newsreel footage

• The largest collection of film footage from the Eastern Bloc, Chile, Cuba, Communist China and the former Soviet Union to survive in Western Europe 

• Materials on the 1917 Russian Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, Nazi Germany, the Vietnam War, Chile, Afghanistan and Arab Nations. In addition, there is significant coverage of the Czech Republic, Vietnam, Korea and Castro’s Revolution in Cuba.
  

The majority of the collection includes previously unseen footage.

Heather Stewart, Creative Director, BFI said, “The BFI National Archive is delighted to be working with Adam Matthew to enable this astonishing collection to be seen and enjoyed by students and researchers around the world. The Stanley Forman collection offers a unique perspective on 20th century world history and illustrates the power of the moving image to inform our knowledge of the past.”

The archive is currently being catalogued by Adam Matthew for release as a three-module collection on Socialist Propaganda Films in 2017. When released, this new collection will provide an essential repository of primary source research material for the study of key political and social events of the 20th century.