Audiovisual collections

Documentary cinema has accompanied the cultural project of the Bpi since the 1970s. This original and innovative choice has made it possible to permanently establish cinema in the library, by integrating it into the collections, in addition to the books, while enhancing its artistic singularity.

This selection has given rise to a collection of more than 3,000 titles which is enriched each year by 200 new titles, resulting from both digital publishing and audiovisual rights acquisitions of the National Catalog of Documentary Films. In parallel with the video consultation offer, a vast annual program of 350 public screenings is organized by the Bpi in the rooms of the Centre Pompidou under the label of La cinémathèque du documentaire.

Documentary cinema: between encyclopedism, current affairs, creation

The documentary collection, which reflects the curiosities and research of the library’s public, provides a complement to the printed collections. It is encyclopedic and rather oriented towards production news, with a predominance of films devoted to social issues.

A significant part is made up of so-called “creative” documentaries, which involve an author’s point of view and gaze, respect for the people filmed, a sufficiently long time for preparation and editing.

On the sidelines of documentary cinema

The collection has been completed with films and recordings of live performances and concerts which allow a historical perspective of the performing arts and promote the discovery of contemporary creation. Their choice is dictated by the desire to give particular visibility to works that explore the fusion between live performance and cinematographic art.

The Bpi also offers adult and adolescent viewers an original collection of animated films: 500 short and feature films, representing the different techniques and a reasoned choice of artists.
emblematic of this art. The collection allows you to become familiar with a universe of pure poetry, where puppets, plasticine or 3D characters rub shoulders with traditional cartoons.

A fully digitized consultation system

You can view all the digitized films on the multimedia stations distributed in the library.
These, as well as the many films that are only available on physical media, can also be consulted in the Cinema area, located on level 3 of the Bpi, opposite the Arts information office, with ten consultation stations by reservation, for two-hour sessions: five stations allow viewing of the collection on all media, five other stations broadcast the offer in video on demand.

And also… Video on Demand

The latest in systems for individual access to films, video on demand (VOD) allows the public to watch from a technical platform that presents a catalog and distributes files stored on a server.

The Bpi offers in the Cinema area of ​​level 3 its platform of documentary films “Les yeux doc“, as well as the generalist platform “La médiathèque numérique” published by Arte and Universciné: