Become a Screen Heritage Ambassador

London’s Screen Archives and The New Black Film Collective’s Undocumented project seeks to address the lack of Black home movies within film archives. The project aims to create a space where we can discuss the importance of celebrating and preserving the Black experience in London and highlight the crucial role screen archives play in preserving stories from the past.

For our second year, we have announced the Screen Heritage Ambassador programme which will consist of a series of workshops for Black Londoners to learn about digitisation, non-western archiving, cataloguing and programming. We aim to create a cohort of skilled community ambassadors, who we will keep in touch with and support beyond this year. 

Participants will have the opportunity to have their own home movies digitised, preserved and acquisitioned into an LSA member or community archive with contextualisation written by the cohort themselves. 

There is also an honorarium of £30 per session for each participant to support their attendance of the workshops where they will hear from a range of experts in archiving, storytelling and curation. 

Participants will gain skills and knowledge in:

• Community archiving
• Non-western archival techniques
• Digitisation of video and film formats
• Cataloguing
• Archiving personal collections
• Film formats
• Programming with heritage material

The workshops

You will receive the full schedule upon confirmation of your space. You will attend a session on either one of these dates. All participants will attend the first session as a collective, this date is confirmed.

W/C refers to week commencing, starting on a Monday 

• An Introduction: Thursday 10th July 2025 
• Caring for your personal collection: W/C 14th & W/C 21st July 
• Community on camera, viewing your own home movies: 5th, 7th, 12th & 14th August 
• Correcting our Collecting – Thinking beyond the ‘traditional’ archive: 21st August & 11th September
• Visiting R3store Studios: participants to choose from available slots 
• Identifying what is missing in the archives: Thursday 18th September & Thursday 25th September 
• Non-western cataloguing: W/C 6th October 
• Cataloguing your archive: W/C 20th October 
• Programming your event: 4th & 6th November 
• Exploring legacy: 18th & 20th November 

Eligibility Criteria

Who you are! 

This is an opportunity for Black people aged 18 and above

Location 

You should be based in London and be able to travel for regular in-person workshops. Depending on your group, workshops will take place at Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Brixton House and The Africa Centre. 

Experience 

No previous experience in archiving is required.

Interest and Approach 

We are looking for people who:

• Are enthusiastic and curious about expanding their archive knowledge 
• Are interested in research 
• May have home movies they would like to digitise 
• Are willing to act as ambassadors and share information gained throughout this project with their communities

Availability 

You must be able to commit to the majority of the programme which includes

• Ten 2-hour workshops between July and November, taking place on a weekday from 6-8pm
• A celebration event in either January or February 2026 that the Ambassadors will curate 
• Optional: A showcase of the project at The New Black Film Collective’s XPO in March 2026 

As mentioned, the programme involves a commitment of 10 two-hour workshops. We plan to host our first event on Thursday 10th July, 6-8pm so please bookmark this in your calendars! You will be placed into a workshop on one of the below dates,  final dates to be confirmed upon final Ambassador selection. Please raise if there are dates you are definitely not available for. 

How to apply

Please fill out this form to register your interest by Monday 16th June 2025, 11:59pm  

There will be a drop in session on Thursday 5th June from 1-2.30pm, please use this Zoom link to join . We will start with a short introduction to the project and then open up for any questions. The call is scheduled for an hour and a half to allow people to drop in where they can but you won’t be required to attend the full session.

Responses will be sent out the week of 24th June 2025 

Please note there are limited spaces and spots will be allocated on the basis of interest, availability and suitability.

Visit page 2 for FAQs