Our new partnership with ERA (the Educational Recording Agency)

We are very excited to be partnering with ERA (the Educational Recording Agency) to offer a curated selection of TV recordings to educational institutions holding an ERA Licence through our free* streaming service, Into Film+. Excerpts or whole recordings of up to a hundred documentaries, dramas and short films are scheduled for this year, including a number of titles from the BBC archives.

This agreement allows us to broaden the range of streamable content that teachers are able to easily access and use for educational purposes. ERA Recordings embrace a wide array of powerful stories, storytellers and life experiences on screen, which will resonate with young people, broaden their horizons and enrich teaching and learning across the curriculum.

Paul Reeve, CEO, Into Film, said: "We're delighted to be working with ERA and its members to enhance the range of fantastic content we're able to make available on Into Film+ to support classroom teaching and learning across a broad range of curriculum subjects and important topics such as online safety. ERA Recordings will also enable us to increase the content we're able to make available in languages such as Welsh and Scottish Gaelic".

Helena Djurkovic, CEO, Educational Recording Agency, added: "ERA has a long-established commitment to providing educators and students access to the highest-quality broadcast materials for teaching and learning and we could not be more delighted to be working with Into Film to enable ERA-licensed schools to easily access some of the best content TV has to offer through its excellent streaming service". 

Each month, new content will be added, aligning to the academic calendar and curriculum. The content can only be used by ERA licensees under the terms of the ERA Licence. ERA brings together creative parties who own rights in broadcasts and the included material within broadcasts and offers a simple and efficient way for schools, colleges, and universities to make educational use of recordings of TV and Radio broadcasts.

The new ERA content complements the hundreds of new and classic films, shorts and documentary titles currently available to schools on Into Film+, which also features a wealth of curriculum-linked film guides, teaching resources and exclusive wrap-around content.

The first selection of new ERA Recordings were curated for schools ahead of Black History Month and were included in our Black History and Experiences programme on Into Film+. These included Steve McQueen's award-winning Small Axe series; Rogan Productions' Stephen: The Murder That Changed a Nation; Raoul Peck's documentary I Am Not Your Negro based on James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript; and three BBC Arts Inside Cinema: Black History Month documentaries featuring Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay and Jordan Peele respectively. All of these offered teachers exploring October's Black History Month and the topic throughout the year as part of Black History 365 access to invaluable teaching tools. 

A number of titles supporting mental health and wellbeing will be added to our streaming service including Nadiya: Anxiety and Me; Stabbed: Britain's Knife Crime Crisis; Our Borough: Love & Hustle; and both David Harewood's Psychosis and Me and Killed By My Debt. These will also be made part of our Mental and Emotional Wellbeing programme on Into Film+.

Finally, three documentary titles will be be made available ahead of February's LGBTQ+ History Month including Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, Olly Alexander: Growing Up Gay and Transitioning Teens. These will once again be made part our LGBTQ+ History Month programme on Into Film+.

* Screenings for an entertainment or extra-curricular purpose require a PVS (Public Video Screening) Licence from Filmbankmedia. State-funded schools in England are covered by the PVS Licence.

Into Film and the Into Film+ streaming service is supported by the UK film industry through Cinema First and the BFI through National Lottery Funding, thanks to National Lottery players.