The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Jorvik: The Vikings Return
A historic museum in more than one sense, here unearthed, rising upon the site where its own artefacts are dug up, and recreating the people, smells and sounds of the Viking age.
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Overview
This is an excellent presentation of all that went into making the world famous Jorvik Museum in York just as it neared its completion in 1984. Pioneering a new way of experiencing the exhibits in a museum, the film allows those who dreamt up the idea of immersing the visitor into the past, and those who brought it to life, to reveal just how it was done; with Magnus Magnusson providing added enthusiasm and intellectual weight.
In his 2014 book on the development of the Jorvik Museum, On My Way to Jorvik, the centre’s Project Designer, John Sunderland, recounts how the idea of making the experience of visiting the Museum like watching a film, presenting it as a story, was a very novel approach; the whole enterprise was a tremendous learning experience for all involved. Since its opening the Museum has had over 17 million visitors and two major refurbishments, bringing it up to date with the findings of the latest archaeological research. The faces of the Viking figures have also been updated by forensic software to reflect better how the Viking inhabitants of York would have looked.
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