BFI Southbank

Using the BFI Mediatheque is easy - turn up on the day or book a viewing session in advance. Check in at the desk inside the mediatheque and then log on to a viewing station. Proof of age may be required, as only age-appropriate material is made available to younger users.

The launch of a new collection highlighting life in East London. Among the earliest films is a portrait of Petticoat Lane from 1903 and footage of the old Limehouse Chinatown in 'Cosmopolitan London' (1924). There's the hugely nostalgic 'Bow Bells' (1955) featuring the 'old' East End and in 'Vanishing Street' (1962) we witness the lives of the Jewish community in Whitechapel.The collection also features a large number of feature films including 'East is East' (1919), the rags-to-riches tale of a cockney girl; 'Pool of London' (1950), a Docklands drama starring Earl Cameron and 'Sparrows Can't Sing' (1962), featuring a pre-'Carry On' Barbara Windsor. Part of East Festival 2008.

Coen brothers masterpiece in which a debt-ridden salesman plots the kidnapping of his own wife with the help of two thugs. Planning to obtain ransom money from his father-in-law, the scheme collapses when the thugs kill a state trooper and two innocent bystanders.