Video Tales

The obsolescence of the videotape format means they are an urgent priority for archives, and in some cases these tapes contain voices that you wouldn’t have heard anywhere else.

The community video movement which exploded during the 70s and 80s offered an expressive outlet for groups that were often marginalised by mainstream broadcasters. The Media Archive for Central England (MACE) are cataloguing and digitising a range of videotape collections from across the Midlands and today’s event is a chance to see rarely-screened material and hear the inspiring stories behind it. Curators from MACE will also be hosting a roadshow and will be on hand to give advice on storing, looking after or depositing your own video (and film) collections in the archive.

11am: Oriental Star Agencies
In 2017 Oriental Star’s shop in Balsall Heath closed, marking the end of nearly fifty decades of trading. As well as a record shop OSA acted as a booking agency, bringing some of Asia’s biggest stars to the UK including qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, whose first performance outside Pakistan was at the Luxor in Balsall Heath forty years ago. True Form Projects have recently taken on a sizeable portion of the OSA archive, from concert videos to camcorders. Today Izzy Mohammed (Future Seed) will be exploring the story this collection tells us about diasporic culture, and interviewing Oriental Star's founding director Muhammad Ayub.

Midday: Trade Union Resource Centre + Kamara Productions
From the early 1980s TURC acted as a production company and print studio for the trade unions, supported by the local council to train budding filmmakers and make campaigning work about employment rights, identity and immigration which still resonates today. Marian Hall, a vital cog in Birmingham’s film scene for many years, will talk about her work at TURC and share some highlights. Also joining us will be Sue Brown and Tina Hamilton, who ran Kamara Productions in Handsworth during the 1990s and made a range of work on cultural and political subjects.

2pm: Jubilee Arts
Jubilee Arts was a pioneering community arts organisation which worked across the Black Country from the 1970s to the 1990s. MACE have been busily cataloguing and digitising a wealth of material which Jubilee gathered during this period, and today there's a first opportunity to watch a selection and hear from guests including Beverley Harvey (once of Jubilee Arts, and recently involved in an project exploring the Jubilee archive) and Phil Leach and Sue Winn (MACE).

BRING OUT YOUR TAPES!
Tape Bake will be in residence at MAC throughout the day, converting old home movies from video to digital files. Bring along your VHS, Hi8 or MiniDV tapes and a USB stick so you can take away the files.

See also: while you're at MAC make sure you check out Handsworth Self-Portrait: 40 Years On, including unseen images from this pioneering pop-up photography project.

Video Tales is supported by the BFI’s Film Hub Midlands and Film Hub North and MACE’s Rewind Play-back cataloguing project is funded by The National Archives and the Pilgrim Trust.