Suman Hanif’s Tell Me About It was a fitting end to our The Future Is Northern strand—a true indie film that tells an original story of identity, diversity and embracing differences. Shot partly in Bradford, the film tells the story of rebellious British Pakistani teenagers Amara and Halima, who plan a secret escape from Bradford to London, away from their dominating parents. But everything goes horribly wrong when Amara is suddenly kidnapped in a case of mistaken identity. Following the film’s first screen outing in our Pictureville cinema, Suman, lead actors Ariya Larker and Asad Shan, and S ..read more

In 2021, we launched Communities & Crowds, an exciting research project that explores the use of ‘citizen science’ methods to develop more collaborative approaches to working with volunteers from local communities. As part of this project, a small team of local volunteers have been selecting and digitising images related to African Caribbean history from the Daily Herald Photographic Archive. Alongside their digitisation work, the volunteers have taken the opportunity to lead on events occurring at the museum. For example, in October 2022, the volunteers were able to organise an event for ..read more

It’s little wonder that the events of 1970’s Apollo 13 were made into a movie. Illness and last-minute changes of crew, an exploded oxygen tank, dwindling electrical power, limited water supplies, a potentially damaged heat shield, the lives of three astronauts at stake, and a scramble to get them back to Earth safely—all ingredients for a great film. Although the mission’s original objective of landing on the moon had to be abandoned, the (spoiler alert) successful recovery of the crew is still one of NASA’s greatest achievements and a true testament to what teamwork and outside-the-box think ..read more

The Unholy Trinity The term ‘folk horror’ was first used in relation to film in 1970, when reviewer Rod Cooper used it to describe Piers Haggard’s Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971). While many of the themes of folk horror can be compared to supernatural horror, there are a few key differences. The landscape of folk horror almost becomes a character in itself—isolated villages, barren fields and claustrophobic woods all play host to folkloric creatures, sacrifices, rituals and superstition. Folk horror often focuses on the darker side of human behaviour, with outsiders entering cults and close-knit ..read more

Since the 1950s, when space exploration was only just shifting from idea to reality, there has been anxiety among nations over the geopolitical implications of sending humans to the moon. Ironically, the business of leaving Earth can’t escape this planet’s politics. The 1967 treaty by the United Nations was the first attempt to foster global peace in outer space. The treaty was essentially an agreement to preserve this new frontier for solely peaceful endeavours. Among other things, it prohibited the placing of weapons of mass destruction in orbit, and bound nations to assist other astronauts ..read more

I have watched a lot of video game films in my time. While the majority are fun, inoffensive popcorn features, most aren’t going to win many awards and they generally don’t make enough money to get a sequel. Whether a film is good or bad is quite subjective, but in the case of video game movies we can objectively say that they fail to match the successes of the franchises they adapt. Even mega-famous series like Mario, Tomb Raider and Assassin’s Creed have failed to produce film franchises that have matched the successes (and hundreds of millions of sales) that their game counterparts did, yet ..read more

Suman Hanif is a film writer, producer and founder of Pageful Productions. A special screening of her latest feature film, Tell Me About It, is taking place at the National Science and Media Museum on Tuesday 31 January 2023, followed by a Q&A with the cast and creative team. For details and tickets, please visit our cinema pages. Here, Suman discusses her route into the industry, and the importance of seeing authentic Northern stories on screen. Tell Me About It was partly shot in Bradford, and some of the cast and crew are from here, was that important for the film? Bradford is home to t ..read more

A series of 10-minute lightning talks and discussion panels proved particularly popular on the night, all packed with advice and encouragement for anyone embarking on a screen career. You can re-watch all of the talks below—be sure to have a pen handy! Lightning talks Louisa Rose Mackleston, freelance filmmaker Filmmaker and founder of Northern Fortress Films, Louisa Rose Mackleston championed diversity and representation in the screen industries and the importance of loving what you do.   Olivia Thomas, Film Office Co-Ordinator, Screen Yorkshire Olivia is the first point of call for Scr ..read more

It’s been five months since our first community consultation for the Sound and Vision project. This summer, we invited Bradford community leaders and representatives to share their perspective on plans to redevelop two new permanent galleries—you can read more about the launch of community consultations here. Community members taking part in discussions. These initial consultation sessions were remarkably successful, generating great ideas, thoughtful conversations and new perspectives to consider. We have since carefully catalogued and discussed every comment and suggestion, working them into ..read more

“A major innovation in filmmaking will come to cinemas by the end of this summer,” promised the news anchor. “It requires gigantic screens and superb sound,” and its creator Douglas Trumbull he added, says it’ll have “a heightened sense of reality, that’s something like Cinerama; only better”. The bold claim was made in the introduction to an NBC news report from 1984 about Showscan, Trumbull’s new process using 70mm film photographed and projected at two and a half times the standard speed of cinema film, for an immersive experience. He told NBC News: “We did some experiments and we ended up ..read more