New Towns for Old

Visionary filmmaker Penny Woolcock explores half a century of British urban life using films digitised for Britain on Film, the archive project from BFI and its partner archives.

The tattered wallpaper of part demolished housing contrasts with gleaming new tower blocks. Ladywood in Birmingham may be on the up but what about the forgotten people?

Coventry prepares to rise from the ashes of WWII in this docu-drama written by Dylan Thomas.

An absorbing picture of council services at the beginning of the 1960s, with babies getting polio jabs and girls having braces fitted, while Roots is playing at the Civic Theatre.

A bright and breezy promotional tour of Brum's original mega-mall.

Residents of Barnet and Stockton-on-Tees are the lucky beneficiaries of a government scheme to remedy Britain’s housing problem.

Sheffield gives the capital a run for its money with an impressive parade celebrating the monarch, a month before the Diamond Jubilee.

Sheffield professional sportsmen train determined disabled adults to compete at the Special Olympics in this heart-warming short film. (

Highly-skilled women defy 1940s gender prejudices and produce munitions in one of Sheffield’s many wartime factories.

Military men and women from Sheffield put on a show from 1942-1947 in this patriotic compilation film.

A Sheffield bus strike causes traffic congestion in this film that shows the significant local impact that a workplace dispute can have.

As the rise of fascism casts a shadow over Europe, the people of Sheffield take to the streets to deliver a powerful message.

Cynthia Rothrock, Richard Norton and Keith Cooke reunite three decades on from the groundbreaking martial arts classic.

Action Xtreme - the UK's leading action film studio - hosts this panel discussion with four leading women in action cinema - Soo Cole, Jo Rolison, Jadey Duffield and Ioanna Karavela.

Daniel Kokotajlo talks to Nia Childs about Starve Acre, his folk horror about a couple digging deep into grief in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.

Sky Peals director Moin Hussain and lead actor Faraz Ayub talk to Tomisin Adepeju about their magic realist drama.

Documentary exploring the BFI National Archive’s role in rediscovering and remastering the early films of Michael Powell.

Bryony Dixon, curator of silent film at the BFI national archive, explores the origins of a series of comic travelogues, and Michael Powell's involvement in making them.