To kick start 2014, the North East Film Archive (NEFA), is delighted to share their whole new look website with you. Easy to use, with an improved search facility and lots of new features, the site provides a window onto the rich film heritage of the North East of England.

NEFA will be be working hard over the coming year to bring you more films from their collections to watch online, and they already have a great selection to share with you, including the launch ceremony of a new lifeboat for Whitley Bay in 1912, the pilgrimage to Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island in 1929, the 1944 film ‘Tyneside Story’ with amazing footage of shipbuilding and heavy engineering jobs during the war, and the 1970s film, ‘River Work’, which brings alive the sights and sounds of the busy River Tees.

NEFA teamed up with web developers and designers at Plump Digital in York to build the new website www.northeastfilmarchive.com which can be viewed across multi platforms including mobile, tablet and PC devices.

Sue Howard, Director of the Yorkshire and the North East Film Archives said: “Since the merger of the two film archives in 2012 we’ve been working really hard to create more opportunities for people to see and enjoy the collections. The new look NEFA website is just the start, but we now have films and information online, and that marks another step in opening up the regions film heritage to more people.”

Archive Manager, Graham Relton added: “On a monthly basis, we will be adding more catalogue records and films to the website so there will be always be something new to keep coming back for. We would love visitors to add any information they might have about the films and to spread the word about the new look NEFA website to family, friends and colleagues using the integrated share facility.”

Additional features to the NEFA website include a regular ‘Guest Pick’ – a chance for a North East personality to select and comment on a film that appeals to them. The first guest is Mark Dobson, Chief Executive of Tyneside Cinema whose top pick is a local topical newsreel of Tynemouth Carnival in 1930, commissioned by cinema pioneer Dixon Scott: the same man who built the Newcastle News Theatre in 1937, which today operates as Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle upon Tyne.

You can also find out what are the favourite films of the NEFA team and keep up to date with the North East Calendar, a weekly curated 60 second clip featuring local events, familiar faces and places of the region which build into a yearly archive calendar of life in the North East – you can even host the North East Calendar on your website!

What are you waiting for? Make it your New Year’s resolution to visit the new look North East Film Archive at www.northeastfilmarchive.com.