Northern Ireland Screen's Digital Film Archive is a free public access resource for teachers, students, historians and anyone who has an interest in moving images. Spanning from 1897 to the present day, the films in the Digital Film Archive cover all aspects of life in Northern Ireland and includes everything from dramas to documentaries, newsreels and features, animation to amateur footage.
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Children's Games
Delight in the mischievous imagination of Archie Reid with this trilogy of battles performed by and for his pupils in Larne.
From the collection of:

Overview
This film by teacher Archie Reid and the Greenland Secondary Intermediate School camera club tells three tales of conflict. It opens with a playful battle of schoolyard pranks, then Larne is transformed into Nottingham for the swashbuckling costume drama Robin Hood and The Queen. The final instalment brings us back to the playground for The Children's Game, a Cold War fable in which two rival gangs embroil the schoolyard in an escalating arms race.
Archie Reid was a History teacher and prolific film maker, you can find several of his gems on the Britain on Film map. This material is courtesy of Elizabeth Reid.
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