The Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) was a museum of the history of cinema technology and media sited below Waterloo Bridge in London. It was opened on 15 September 1988 by

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

and at the time, was the world's largest museum devoted entirely to cinema and television. The museum formed part of the cultural complex on the

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial district in central London, next to the River Thames opposite the City of Westminster. It forms a narrow strip of riverside land within the London Borough of Lambeth (where it adjoins Alber ...

of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

. MOMI was mainly funded by private subscription and operated by the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

. MOMI was closed in 1999, initially on a supposedly temporary basis, and with the intention of its being relocated to Jubilee Gardens nearby. Its permanent closure was announced in 2002.

Development

MOMI was the brainchild of National Film Theatre Controller Leslie Hardcastle. Hardcastle's vision was realised by significant fundraising by then Director of the BFI, Anthony Smith and a development team including David Francis, David Robinson, Charles Beddow (1929-2012), Chief Technical Officer of the National Film Theatre, and the designer

Neal Potter Neal Potter (March 22, 1915 – May 27, 2008) was an American Democratic politician from Maryland. He served as fourth executive of Montgomery County, Maryland, from 1990 to 1994. Early life and education Alfred Neal Potter grew up in Mont ...

. Smith raised the museum's £15m project costs entirely from private sources.

Museum interpretation

Interpretation was done through graphics, interactive exhibits, recreated environments, models, six 35 mm film projections using endless loop platters, two 16 mm film projections, two 70 mm projectors, and over 70 LaserDisc players for video playback. There was also a group of six actors dressed in period costume (e.g. a Victorian magic lanternist and a Hollywood director). A few months before MOMI opened in 1988, the animator

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He wrote, produ ...

was invited to create a chase sequence directly onto the high walls of the museum. Jones spent several days working on high scaffolding to create the work. At the lowest level on a door was a smaller drawing (not part of the chase) which Jones used to try out the pens. Animation played an important role in MOMI.

Channel Four Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service i ...

funded the

Channel Four/MOMI animator in residence The Channel Four/MOMI animator in residence scheme was housed in the MOMI on the South Bank. Starting in 1990. It ran for thirteen years commissioning over forty films which were transmitted throughout the World. The scheme was the brainchild of C ...

scheme. Winners of the competition developed a short film in the 'goldfish bowl', a three-meter (10') square glass box; this allowed the public to see the animator's every move. Over forty films were produced and they won many awards worldwide. Prior to opening, the museum bought

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...

's black dress from the 1959 film ''

Some Like It Hot ''Some Like It Hot'' is a 1959 American crime comedy film directed, produced and co-written by Billy Wilder. It stars Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, with George Raft, Pat O'Brien, Joe E. Brown, Joan Shawlee, Grace Lee Whitney and N ...

'', for £19,800. The event featured on the front pages of many UK newspapers. There was a busy education department with two education rooms and a small cinema for special events. The museum was available for private hire for corporate events or parties.

List of galleries

Galleries in the museum included Tricking the Eye,

Shadow puppets ''Shadow Puppets'' is a science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card, published in 2002. It is the sequel to ''Shadow of the Hegemon'' and the third book in the Ender's Shadow series (often called the Bean Quartet). It was originall ...

, Early optical device, The Phantasmagoria, Optical toys,

Photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

Magic lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a sin ...

Projection Projection, projections or projective may refer to: Physics * Projection (physics), the action/process of light, heat, or sound reflecting from a surface to another in a different direction * The display of images by a projector Optics, graphic ...

, Persistence of vision, The arrival of Cinema ( Lumiere Brothers), Early Technical advances, British Pioneers including Birt Acres, Méliès, The early cinemas

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, The formation of Hollywood, The Temple to the Gods of the

Silent Cinema A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, whe ...

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...

, The Russian

Agit prop Agitprop (; from rus, агитпроп, r=agitpróp, portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in Soviet Russia where it referred to ...

Train,

Experimental Film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

German Expressionism German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...

, The coming of

sound film A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

Censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

, Newsreel, The Documentary Movement,

Cinema of France French cinema consists of the film industry and its film productions, whether made within the nation of France or by French film production companies abroad. It is the oldest and largest precursor of national cinemas in Europe; with primary infl ...

Animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

, The Hollywood Studio System, The Great Days of Cinema Going in Britain including Odeon Cinemas, British film,

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Cinema architecture, The arrival of

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

, Expansion of television, Cinema fights television, World Cinema, Television heritage, Television today, a

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

exhibit that was used in several documentaries about the early years of the show, plus a temporary exhibition area. A series of temporary exhibitions were held in the final room at the end of the museum tour: *The World of Jim Henson *Magical Lanterns *

's Centenary *Catching the Action:

Muybridge Eadweard Muybridge (; 9 April 1830 – 8 May 1904, born Edward James Muggeridge) was an English photographer known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection. He adopted the first ...

and the Chronophotographers * Ray Harryhausen: Creatures of Fantasy *Behind the Sofa:

at MoMI * Irn-Bru

Pop Video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

*The Western: West of the Mississippi and North of the Rio Grande *

Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...

Georges Méliès Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was well known for the use of ...

*Special Effects in the Cinema *Imagine (the next 100 years of the moving image)

Museum building

MOMI was housed in a glass-sided steel framed metal-clad building (designed by

Bryan Avery Bryan Robert Avery MBE RIBA (2 January 1944 – 4 July 2017) was an English architect, born in Wallingford, Berkshire. After his childhood years spent in Lymington in the New Forest, Hampshire, he studied architecture at Leicester College o ...

of Avery Associates Architects), with red roofs running along each side of Waterloo Bridge.

Legacy

An exhibition called ''Moving Pictures'' ran at the Sheffield

Millennium Galleries The Millennium Gallery is an art gallery and museum in the centre of Sheffield, England. Opened in April 2001 as part of Sheffield's Heart of the City project, it is located in the city centre close to the mainline station, the Central Library ...

14 February – 19 May 2002. The exhibition offered a scaled down version of MOMI using actors and items from the museum collection to tell the history of the moving image. It was planned as the first location of a touring exhibition but was not well received and the tour was cancelled. Later in October 2002 the BFI announced it no longer planned to recreate MOMI. The MOMI programme was discontinued and its site reopened as BFI Southbank on 14 March 2007, providing a new entrance to the National Film Theatre complex. A programme of commissioned artists' moving image work was seen as a better fit for the BFI's remit to promote the moving image in all its forms than that of MOMI: an Exhibitions Department was established and a contemporary art gallery dedicated to the moving image opened, the

BFI Gallery The BFI Gallery was the BFI's contemporary art gallery dedicated to artists' moving image housed within BFI Southbank, the British Film Institute's flagship venue in London (previously known as the National Film Theatre). The space was funded by th ...

, which itself was replaced in 2012 by the BFI Reuben Library. The remaining site incorporated the existing three cinemas showcasing the best historical and contemporary film from around the world, a mediatheque of British film and television, and a bookshop within an active programme that includes the annual

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

. Although there was talk that

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

's National Media Museum planned to open a London venue, London still has no publicly funded film museum. In April 2018 one of the lead members of the original MOMI team, David Francis, with his wife Jocelyn Marsh (daughter of award-winning production designer

Terence Marsh Terence Marsh (14 November 1931 – 9 January 2018) was a British production designer. He won two Academy Awards and was nominated for another two in the category of Best Art Direction. Production designer * ''Rush Hour 2'' (2001) * '' The Gr ...

), opened the

Kent Museum of the Moving Image The Kent Museum of the Moving Image opened in Deal, Kent in April 2018. The museum was created by David Francis, with his wife Jocelyn Marsh (daughter of award-winning production designer Terence Marsh). Francis was one of the lead members who ...

Deal A deal, or deals may refer to: Places United States * Deal, New Jersey, a borough * Deal, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * Deal Lake, New Jersey Elsewhere * Deal Island (Tasmania), Australia * Deal, Kent, a town in England * Deal, ...

, Kent.

References

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Animation At The Museum Of The Moving Image

Promotional film from 1997

Dismay at film museum 'tragedy'
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

'', 7 October 2002 {{DEFAULTSORT:Moving Image Museums established in 1988

Museum of the Moving Image The Museum of the Moving Image is a media museum located in a former building of the historic Astoria Studios (now Kaufman Astoria Studios), in the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, New York City. The museum originally opened in 1988 as the Amer ...

Cinema museums in London Defunct museums in London Mass media museums in the United Kingdom Museums on the River Thames

1988 establishments in England 1999 disestablishments in England