David Meeker obituary: film archivist who played a pivotal role in growing the BFI National Archive

Throughout the late 1950s and 60s, seat E9 at the National Film Theatre was occupied most nights of the week by David Meeker, his choice of pew based on the recommendation of the Cahiers du cinéma crowd. After leaving the RAF in 1957 as a trained airframe fitter, Meeker concentrated on cultivating his love of film. European and world art cinema was burgeoning and in the ticket queue at the NFT he met a group of like-minded enthusiasts, including Stanley Kubrick, Walter Lassally and writer Peter Barnes.

Meeker set his heart on getting a job at the BFI and in October 1961 was taken on as assistant to the NFT’s film booker. He proved to be an expert sleuth and built an unrivalled knowledge of where prints existed around the world, which proved invaluable to the organisation, and he was eventually promoted to head up the team.

He worked in this area for many years before his talent was poached by the BFI’s National Film Archive, where he was initially taken on as print and copyright officer before moving into acquisitions. In this role, he helped to streamline the archive’s processes and developed methods of shaping the national collection that are still broadly adhered to today.

Meeker built relationships with producers and studios, leading to regular offers of post-first-run features of which he would acquire two prints, one for preservation and one for screening, in line with Ernest Lindgren’s archival policy. His personal connections with cinephiles and collectors has made the BFI National Archive a valuable source of rare film elements, such as the negatives of works by Filipino director Lino Brocka donated by Pierre Rissient. 

Meeker originated some key projects during his time at the BFI, most notably the list of 360 classic feature films, or ‘Treasures from the NFTVA’. Another successful idea was Missing Believed Lost, a search for British films that had disappeared from view. The call-out resulted in many gaps in the national collection being filled and inspired many similar schemes. Published in 1992 in the form of a book, Meeker’s list of 75 titles contained several of Michael Powell’s 1930s quota quickies and he used to recall how horrified the director was when he heard that another one of his early films had been unearthed. 

Meeker became a close friend of Michael Powell and was a pallbearer at his funeral in 1990. His passion and knowledge endeared him to many people in the industry and beyond, and was of immense value to the BFI, most importantly his friendship with John Paul Getty Jr, who funded the construction of the Conservation Centre in Berkhamsted and purchased the office building in Stephen Street. Meeker and his colleague Markku Salmi were both key to Getty’s support for the organisation and were regular visitors to his country estate at Wormsley, Buckinghamshire. 

Alongside his love of film, Meeker’s other obsession was jazz; the beard he wore throughout his life testifying to his enthusiasm for the genre. In 1981 he published the book Jazz in the Movies, an encyclopaedia of jazz music and musicians on screen, and he continued compiling the list, eventually turning it into a database. It is now hosted by the Library of Congress and constitutes an incredibly detailed record of the contributions of jazz proponents to film and television.

These original and important projects are one element of Meeker’s legacy to the world of film; another is the support and encouragement he gave to others following in his footsteps during his later years at the BFI. He co-managed the first Heritage Lottery Fund project, which began in 1998, spending time with the teams brought in to clear acquisition backlogs. Some of those staff are still working at the organisation, myself included, and the time I spent working with David was a real education. His generosity in giving opportunities and sharing contacts and the trust he placed in colleagues made him a terrific mentor to those starting out in the archiving world.

However, it’s impossible to paint an accurate picture of David Meeker without mentioning that he could be a frustrating character who did not suffer fools gladly, if at all. While he could be funny and charming, those he didn’t respect or took a dislike to soon knew about it. A complex character who had a difficult childhood, he had a strained relationship with his mother, a former actor who had worked as secretary to the famous spiritualist Harry Price. In an interesting coincidence, Price was one of the first donors to the newly formed National Film Library in the mid-1930s, the collection that David went on to manage for so many years. 

When Meeker retired after 39 years of service, the BFI lost an irreplaceable source of experience and expertise. His instigation of a permanent programme of classic titles is still a key element of the BFI Southbank offer, as is the value placed on archive material and lesser-known British cinema. But perhaps his most important contribution is the focused way he developed the BFI National Archive’s holdings, using his wide range of connections in the film world to help make it one of the most important film collections in the world. 

• David Meeker, 22 December 1935 to 24 May 2023. He was awarded an MBE in 1997.