GP Archives is a department of Gaumont, and one of the largest

film archives An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organi ...

in France. It is now the leading French image bank illustrating the history of the 20th and 21st centuries. It was founded as Gaumont Pathé Archives in 2003 following the merger of the archive departments of the world's two oldest film studios, Gaumont and

Pathé Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...

. It was renamed GP Archives in 2019.

Film library

The archive contains nearly 12,000 hours of footage including Gaumont, Pathé and Éclair newsreels from 1908 to 1979, Sygma archives and the recently acquired Soviet archives from the Arkeion catalog, and numerous documentaries. GP Archives also conserves and showcases silent movies from the combined catalogues of Gaumont and Pathé which contains over 2,000 titles. These include films by the founding fathers of French cinema, from Leonce Perret and

Albert Capellani Albert Capellani (23 August 1874 – 26 September 1931) was a French film director and screenwriter of the silent film, silent era. He directed films between 1905 and 1922. One of his brothers was the actor-sculptor Paul Capellani, and anoth ...

Ferdinand Zecca Ferdinand Zecca (19 February 1864 – 23 March 1947) was a pioneer French film director, film producer, actor and screenwriter. He worked primarily for the Pathé company, first in artistic endeavors then in administration of the internationall ...

and

Louis Feuillade Louis Feuillade (; 19 February 1873 – 25 February 1925) was a French filmmaker of the silent film, silent era. Between 1906 and 1924, he directed over 630 films. He is primarily known for the crime serial film, serials ''Fantômas (1913 ser ...

Corporate structure

GP Archives was formed on November 18, 2003 as Gaumont Pathé Archives with the merger of Cinémathèque Gaumont and Pathé Archives film libraries. The company, chaired by Martine Offroy, was 57.5%-owned by Gaumont and 42.5% by Pathé. On June 29, 2019, Gaumont repurchased from Pathé all of its shares in the joint venture for €136,000. Following this transaction, Gaumont Pathé Archives was renamed GP Archives.

References

External links

* Film archives in France Gaumont (company) {{film-org-stub