Livingstone supports new BFI South Bank centre

  Ken Livingstone has supported the British Film Institute’s plans for a new film centre on the South Bank   At the launch of the Mayor’s arts and culture manifesto this week, Livingstone said he wanted to have a permanent screen outside the new BFI film centre, so there could be “endless free screenings of films as people wander up and down the South Bank.”   The Mayor said that the London Development Agency was funding a study with the film industry in London to look at where the film centre could go.   The National Film Theatre and the BFI have shortlisted the Hungerford Bridge car site between Jubilee Gardens and the current South Bank Centre arts complex under Waterloo Bridge, SE1 as the most suitable location   The project team, led by Drivers Jonas, wants to develop the centre underground to overcome viewing corridor restrictions.   The centre is likely to include film theatres, a library, studios, access to the BFI archive, flexible exhibition space, seminar and education facilities, BFI offices and shops.   In February, culture secretary Andy Burnham published a green paper which said that central government support for the film centre to replace BFI Southbank depended on the BFI demonstrating the viability of the scheme.   helen.roxburgh@egi.co.uk