Shooting the Past delves into a world quite separate from modern life, and demonstrates that the preservation of the past, in order to tell the extraordinary stories of the lives of ordinary people, can be astonishingly powerful and revealing. An American company buys the building in which the Falham Photo Library is kept, planning a complete remodeling and modernisation to turn it into a business school. The company president, Christopher Anderson, had informed one of the members of staff, Oswald, but Oswald fails to pass on the news. On their arrival, having expected the library of ten million photographs to have been disposed off and the building evacuated, Anderson tell the staff that the majority of the collection must be destroyed if they cannot sell it. However, the staff members believe that the collection must be kept in its entirety, not broken up or sold to different buyers. As such, there is little interest. Marilyn manages to make a successful pitch to an advertising company, but as most of the collection is in black and white the potential sale falls through. To prove the value of their library, the group presents Anderson with intriguing stories put together by researching photos from all over the collection, including finally the colourful history of his own grandmother. The research was conducted largely by Oswald, who is recovering from an attempted suicide. Finally convinced that the collection should be saved and kept whole, Anderson eventually finds a buyer in America who will accept all ten million pictures.
Genre: Drama
Imdb: click here
