Annex
Letter to Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP, Secretary
of State for Culture, Media and Sport from Mo Heard
CLOSURE OF THE MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE
(MoMI)
The British Film Institute (bfi) stated
in 1999 that after consultation with the Government, MoMI—recipient
of 18 national and international awards—would temporarily
close in order for a "bigger and better museum" to be
developed. Now three years later the bfi has announced
that there will be no museum, and that the bfi library
will be installed in the museum building; a totally inappropriate
decision.
As MoMI was built with £14.5 million of
private funding, many of the benefactors would be understandably
aggrieved to find that their contributions are being misused.
The bfi Imax cinema at Waterloo was opened
in 1999, just before MoMI closed. The bfi received £15
million of Lottery funding through the Arts Council to create
an attraction supporting the museum. The bfi has not fulfilled
two aspects so prominently stressed in their submission bid to
the Arts Council, that National Film Archive films would be printed
up on Imax-70mm for spectacular large-screen presentations, and
that the Imax would support MoMI.
"The Imax is central to the expansion of
MoMI" (May 1996 submission to ACE, A Bigger Vision
p55)
We the undersigned therefore urge you to look
at the bfi's reasons for not reinstating MoMI in its original
building. It is hugely important for those who wish to celebrate
Britain's film and television heritage, as well as to study the
wider history of the moving image, that the museum is brought
back, reconceptualised for the twenty-first century. It should
stand once again as a beacon of excellence: "the best film
museum in the world".
9 October 2003
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