StoryTrails: 10 archive films that shaped our immersive storytelling project

Commissioned for UNBOXED, StoryTrails marries the possibilities of cutting-edge immersive technologies with the power of archival moving image and oral history to tell the untold stories of 15 towns across the UK. 

StoryTrails creatives had unprecedented access to the BFI digital archives to bring the past back to life across AR trails, VR and spatial maps. Through close collaboration with BFI curators and StoryTrails archivists, we came together and shared thousands of hours of footage, leading to a fantastic visual representation of the past and places once forgotten. Behind the scenes, the creative process of exploring one of the world’s greatest collections of moving images ignited conversations that widened the research and deepened our understanding of the cities and people of Britain as they re-emerged on our screens. 

Here is a taster of our top 10 BFI titles used across the project, in AR trails, VR and spatial maps. Some you’ll recognise and others give you a sneak peek into the creative process. Take a step back in time and have a rose-tinted road trip through 1920s Britain courtesy of Claude Friese-Greene’s stunning travelogue The Open Road (1926). Or take the time to introduce yourself to Bradford’s greatest film director that you’ve never met before in the inspirational The Bradford Godfather (1976).

Edwardian textile workers are captured by Mitchell and Kenyon’s camera leaving a Dundee mill.

Startling colour photography of 1920s Britain brings Claude Friese-Greene’s epic road trip to life. 

I scream, you scream, we all scream for Kinema Kups, thanks to this delightful cartoon ad.

Injured British Rail workers are put on the railroad to health at Swindon Works.

The delights of 1950s Blackpool are vibrantly captured in sunny Kodachrome in this fondly remembered travelogue from British Transport Films.

50s fashion meets carpet kitsch in a futuristic fantasy of domestic bliss – courtesy of versatile, magical Bri-Nylon.

A Ghanaian fashion student and a Nigerian squash player are among the Africans making a life in 1970s Britain in this edition of the magazine show .

Persecution and strife turn thousands into refugees: how will Britain respond?

The story of 1970s Sheffield: how a polluted industrial city became the cleanest in Europe.

Meet Mohammed Faizal Hussein, elder statesman of Bradford’s Muslim community – and movie mogul in the making. 

• Lambeth, Brixton Library (10 to 11 September)
• Lewisham, Catford Library (17 to 18 September)

StoryTrails, part of Unboxed2022, is led by StoryFutures Academy and delivered in partnership with the BFI, broadcaster and filmmaker David Olusoga, the BBC, Uplands Television and leading immersive specialists ISO Design and Nexus Studios. It will use cutting edge technology from Niantic, makers of Pokémon Go, and it will be brought to life in The Reading Agency’s national network of libraries and by event-making specialists ProduceUK.