The Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese has thrown his weight behind a campaign to raise £250,000 for a new archive of historic Scottish films.
The director of classic movies such as Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver and The Departed is backing the scheme to transfer the National Library of Scotland's (NLS) moving image archive of 46,000 films to the revamped Kelvin Hall in Glasgow later this year.
The library has launched a fundraising campaign to secure the final £250,000 for what it says will be state-of-the-art facilities for viewing and studying the "unique national collection."
In a new promotional video to promote the cause, Scorsese is joined by Scottish film producer Iain Smith, who made the latest Mad Max film, actors Brian Cox, Alan Cumming and Bill Paterson, writer Ian Rankin and broadcaster Kirsty Wark.
Scorsese says: "Moving image archives hold our common memory.
"For that reason, we need to care for them, and treasure them. That is our obligation. We owe it to future generations."
The director, who established his own Film Foundation in 1990 to save and preserve films, added: "Films shouldn’t be locked away and neglected in a vault somewhere.
"They need to be protected and preserved, but they also need to be seen, studied, and enjoyed.
"I enthusiastically support the efforts to develop the Scottish Moving Image Archive, and I urge you all to support this vitally important initiative."
Ms Wark adds: “The Moving Image Archive is culturally hugely important, historically immediate, but most importantly for me it’s an emotional connection with the past and I think we should all feel that and if the archive helps us feel that that’ll be a wonderful thing.”
Cox says: "It is so vital, and especially for us, because we have such a rich and fecund history."
Paterson adds: "I cannot imagine a better use of the Kelvinhall."
Scotland’s Moving Image Archive is the national collection of amateur and professional films.
They document Scottish life, society, industry and culture from the 1890s to the present day.
More than 1000 items in the collection have been digitised and are available online.
The archive is currently held in a property on an industrial estate at Hillington, outside Glasgow.
The new central location in Glasgow will make it easier for the public to visit and explore the archive.
The fundraising campaign will, the NLS says, "help to create improved viewing and learning areas including video walls to showcase films, a public drop-in area, a curated content area, research space, viewing booths and manuscript consultation space."
There will also be a small cinema.
Visitors to the Kelvin Hall will also be able to access digital content from across the Library’s 24m items.
Dr John Scally, the National Librarian, said: "The move to the Kelvin Hall will provide the perfect showcase for our Moving Image Archive and for our wider digital collections.
"It is important to have such high profile endorsements for the developments we are planning. We will be working hard to raise the funds needed to make this into a memorable destination for visitors."
The NLS holds collection holds items from the last 1000 years.
This includes over four million books, eight million manuscripts, two million maps and over 45,000 films and videos.
Every week it collects around 4,000 new items.
Around 80 per cent of these are received free of charge in terms of Legal Deposit legislation.
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