Lost Connections is a new short film that offers a poetic response to the experience of the Coronavirus pandemic. Made possible through a unique UK-wide collaboration of national and regional publicly-funded film archives, Lost Connections draws on a century of archive footage that and invites reflections on loss, loneliness, isolation, and expressions of desire, optimism, hope, and renewal. The past 18 months have given everyone pause to stop and reflect, to question and re-assess what is most important to us. The film creates multiple associations with histories and memories, our common experiences of loss, loneliness and isolation, and the need for the human touch. It is not a film about the pandemic, it is a film about recovery, hope and renewal, the human character, sadness and joy, what we really value, and our gradual reconnection with each other, our communities, and the world around us.

The creation of Lost Connections offered the first opportunity for moving image archives across the UK to come together in a unique collaboration to explore their collections with one specific purpose; to produce a new piece of work using archive footage to reflect our own contemporary experiences.

From the collections of East Anglian Film Archive; London’s Screen Archives; Media Archive for Central England at University of Lincoln; National Library of Scotland; National Library of Wales Screen and Sound Archive; North East Film Archive; Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive; North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University; Screen Archive South East; SWFTA Collection, The Box Plymouth; Wessex Film & Sound Archive; and Yorkshire Film Archive.

Produced by Yorkshire Film Archive

Written and Edited by Andy Burns

Written and Narrated by Hussina Raja

Executive Producers Graham Relton, Sue Howard, Frank Gray

Commissioned by Film Hub North on behalf of the BFI Film Audience Network

• SWFTA Collection, The Box Plymouth
• Yorkshire Film Archive
• National Library of Wales Screen and Sound Archive
• East Anglian Film Archive
• Lost Connections on You Tube
• London Screen Archives
• Media Archive for Central England at Lincoln University
• National Library of Scotland
• North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University
• Wessex Film & Sound Archive
• Film Hub North