FAUK Members met face to face on Wednesday 7th September 2022. It was the first time in nearly 3 years –  999 days to be exact, since our last pre Covid meet up on 13th Dec 2019 and, not surprisingly, it turned into quite a day!

As well as us all meeting up again in person after months of Zooming, the day was also to celebrate the recent retirements of 3 longstanding Members, Marion Hewitt, Susan Howard and Luke McKernanCue – The Cinema Museum as host venue, dedicated to keeping alive the spirit of cinema from the days before the multiplex and also housing a unique collection of artefacts, memorabilia and equipment that preserves the history and grandeur of cinema from the 1890s to the present day..

Of course it was business as usual, kicking off with the Quarterly Meeting which included sharing ideas on FAUK’s name, vision and mission. Martin Humphries, Director and Co-Founder of  The Cinema Museum, then gave Members an introduction and an update on the Museum’s remarkable history of survival and perseverance prior to a fascinating tour of the Museum.

With time to network and catch up, Members enjoyed a light buffet lunch before raising glasses and paying tribute to the work of Sue, Marion and Luke. Surprise guests who had also made the journey south to join the celebrations were Marion’s colleagues Geoff Senior and Mark Bodner from North West Film Archive, and Ruth Patman and Meghan McCooley who worked with Sue at YFA

Tributes were made by Frank Gray, Director of SASE who had worked with Luke, Sue and Marion over the years, by Sue Todd, BFI’s Archive Relations Manager who thanked them for all their work and support, by FAUK Chair and Director of MACE Clare Watson and then successors, Nick Gladden from NWFA and Brent Woods from YFA.

Marion talked particularly about the early days paying tribute to her predecessor Maryann Gomes and Seona Robertson who started NWFA in 1977 and the changes she had seen in 40 years of working with archive film:

“It’s a whole different world – from the 70s to now – it was like my grandfather’s days of no aeroplanes, no films and no cars”

Sue Howard explained “For me, it’s always been a big team effort by Janet McBain [founding Curator at the Scottish Film Archive], Seona Robertson and David Cleveland [Founder of EAFA in 1976] It’s not about the film as Frank says, it’s about peoples’ connections with it – summed up recently in Lost Connections which brought us all together to make that fantastic piece”

Luke had joined the British Library as Curator of Moving Image in 2007and then, in 2013 becoming Lead Curator News and Moving Image and had enjoyed representing the British Library at FAUK meetings and events.

Despite winding down from work, their love and passion for archive film will no doubt always be part of their lives and FAUK Members and archive colleagues will always appreciate their valuable work and massive contribution to the industry.

Sue’s parting comment to Marion was

“It’s not thank you and goodbye is it?

and Marion’s reply –

“No, let’s say it’s ‘Au revoir'”

You can read more about Marion’s career over the years here