Forgotten Fragments of the South Asian Film Collection

While processing the South Asian cinema collections, archivists have been finding hundreds of fragments of unidentified materials among the palettes, boxes, film cans, and other storage containers in which the collections arrived. These fragments, ranging in size from a single frame to several minutes of film, represent rare pieces of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and other South Asian nation’s cinematic history throughout the 20th century. As they are found, archivists have been painstakingly inventorying and photographing them in an attempt to identify and re-unite them with the prints to which they belong. Yet, as archivists continue to delve more deeply into the contents of the collections many more remain unidentified. 

In order to assist with the identification process, archivists have begun uploading images of the unidentified fragments on this page and are asking the public to review them. Examples of useful information that might lead to an identification include names of actors, locations, time periods, clothing, hairstyles, make and model of vehicles, and many other details. If you recognize a title or have any other information about any of the unidentified materials below, please contact the archivists at [email protected]. Please make sure you include the unique reference number (ex: BFI_UNID 0001) underneath the images in your message so that the archivists can match your comments with the correct item.