WANDA presents

Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive have commissioned WANDA to cast a critical eye over the archive. We are delighted to present their new online collection and hope the ideas they highlight encourage you to use the archive as your own tool to unpick how stories are told.

Laura O'Connor and Rose Baker of WANDA, said “The archive represents the rich social, political and broadcasting history of Northern Ireland and is a trove of hidden gems. As feminist film programmers, a large part of our mission is to explore archive film in order to unearth 'lost' films by women and find a new audience for them. We also strive to show films that present women's history, which so often suffers from erasure. This project has allowed us to delve into the archive, extract films we feel are meaningful and present them with our critical response, including two new video compositions 'Work' and 'Girls', and accompanying essays. We hope you enjoy the result and continue to investigate the archive!”

More collections will be rolled out over the next year, each guest curator will bring their own style and vision to our screen heritage. This project grew out of a WANDA and Strand Arts Centre archive event with support from Film Hub NI in November 2019. Strand Arts Centre will host a new event when they reopen their venue.  

Click here to see the videos and essays by Laura O'Connor and Rose Baker of WANDA, accompanied by Fiona McDonnell’s illustrations. 

Click here to see their selection from the archive.