Screen Archive South East is a public sector moving image archive serving the South East of England

Established in 1992 at the University of Brighton as the South East Film and Video Archive, the function of this regional screen archive is to locate, collect, preserve, provide access to and promote screen material related to the South East and of general relevance to screen history.

The screen material in the collection consists of magic lantern slides, film, videotape, digital formats and associated hardware and documentation. There are now over 7000 films and some 10,000 lantern slides from the nineteenth century as well as a significant collection of apparatus and related artefacts. The film material has come to us from record offices, museums, businesses, local authorities and private collections across the region. It includes corporate documentaries, promotional material produced for seaside resorts and the military and work made by cine clubs, independent film-makers and families. These records capture many varied aspects of life, work and creativity from across the 20th century and therefore serve as a rich and invaluable historical resource.

The archive is part of the University of Brighton and its primary partner is the West Sussex Record Office at Chichester. Our Conservation Centre and collection are housed within the Record Office and our office is located at the University.

University of Brighton Faculty of Arts courses including BA(Hons) Film and Screen Studies and the MA in Histories and Cultures make use of the archive, as do researchers and research students from a number of academic disciplines.