INTERVIEW ARCHIVES
Background and User Guide
- 120 in-depth filmed interviews
- 200 hours of high-quality filmed interviews about the HIV and AIDS Pandemic
- Full transcriptions
- Fully searchable with extensive use of metadata across the entire collection
- Explanation of medical terms and proper names
- Free to use at The London Archives
- Fully subtitled
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ARCHIVE BACKGROUND
The NHST archive has been created over the last 10 years and was filmed in and around London. However, the interviews we’ve captured reflect the wide breadth of individual experiences that make up the story of HIV and AIDS, including from many who were living abroad during the 1980s and 1990s.
Our archive consists of 125 in-depth filmed interviews of a diverse group of people whose lives have been impacted by the AIDS Pandemic of the 1980s and 1990s. This amounts to around 200 hours of HD & 4K video material all of which is fully transcribed, timecoded and subtitled. The interviews are raw rushes and are not colour graded.
Most of the interviews begin by looking at the participants’ early years and the opportunities that arrived with adulthood and entering into careers. Of course, most attention is paid to their experience of the arrival of HIV and AIDS, how it impacted their lives and the often unbelievable challenges they navigated. Where important, the interviews subsequently explore the later effects of living with HIV.
We continue to capture individuals’ stories that add new depth and insights to ensure the archive captures as full a story as possible.
While the core of the archive features gay men, we have included an equally diverse range of individuals: gay men and women, straight and trans, from many ethnicities who live with the virus. We also include doctors, nurses, friends, lovers, politicians, mothers and fathers whose lives have all been affected in some significant way by either working in the field of HIV, or caring for those whose lives were lost to AIDS. This also includes those who contracted HIV through receiving “tainted” blood transfusions.
The collection is the largest film archive of HIV and AIDS testimony in the UK. It is in constant use by a variety of academics and students and has been used by others for research and inspiration for theatre, books, films, documentaries and written articles.
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ACCESSING THE FULL ARCHIVE
To access the full NHST archive and watch the interviews you can visit The London Archives in person, where they are fully catalogued and searchable across the entire collection. They are digitally housed in the Mediatheque section of the building as part of the Positive History Collection, which is open to the public during the week. This facility is free to use and no prior booking is necessary.
Full details on how to access The London Archives Positive History Collection are HERE.
Highlights from a selection of 45 of these interviews are also able to be viewed online through our HIVstory Project HERE.
For more information on the full collection please email: [email protected]
For press enquiries and external use of the digital archive please email [email protected]
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About the London Metropolitan Archives
The London Metropolitan Archives hold a huge and diverse collection of archives, images, records, maps and films which help researchers in all aspects of London’s history to develop their knowledge.
LMA’s collections are designated as being of national and international importance.
The LMA is the principal local government repository for the Greater London area and the largest county record office in the UK.
GRAHAM PACKHAM, chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Culture, Heritage and Libraries Committee has said of the collection of interviews:
“These deeply personal stories will inform, inspire and influence, providing a powerful and empowering discourse. It is very important work, and London Metropolitan Archives’ involvement will ensure that these voices are preserved for the future and can be shared for the benefit of many others.”
The 100 interviews chart not only a key and tragic part of LGBTQ+ history, but of our society’s shared history. The HIV crisis cut into every kind of life, and the aftershocks reverberate on to this day.”
For details of how to access the collection please click here.
