Roy and Noel Spence are twin brothers and independent filmmakers from Comber, County Down. They have been making DIY sci-fi, horror and folk-life documentary films for over 50 years.

From our perspective as film makers, we value highly the aims and work of Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive, for a variety of reasons and on a number of levels. Personally, once the creative fulfilment of completing a film project has started to fade, or initial public interest has been exhausted, it is very gratifying to know that the body of work is secured for anyone who wishes to see one or more of the films. If asked, we simply refer them to the Archive. We could never hope to attain the reach that it allows.

Many of our films by their nature and subject are relatively specialised, and aimed at a particular viewing audience, but their popularity has been increased by this availability. That is particularly true of some of the material which has preserved social and cultural activities that would otherwise be unseen and forgotten.

The series we produced entitled Folkcraft Films, focused on the heritage of dead or dying local crafts, is a case in point. These short pieces have aspects of an Ulster that for most people is only a memory, or probably not even that. What we got from producing these films was more than just an awareness of the skills and crafts themselves, it was an appreciation of the lives and values of the exponents, and a very real affection for and understanding of these individuals as real people.

In the film The Open Hearth Baker, when old Joe Kane proudly presented us with the bread he had baked in the traditional method of a bygone age, this was surely the kind of caring moment that all who profess an interest in our rural heritage would see as central. Thankfully the power of the moving image to stir, to enthral, to energise, is a challenge taken up and successfully met by the Digital Film Archive.

We see the Archive as serving a valuable educational purpose, especially for subjects like our two instructional DIY films, Low-Budget Special Effects and Low-Budget Special Effects Make-up. We would encourage anyone who has old film, of any gauge or content, to pass it to the Archive where it will be handled with care and interest.