Archive films not seen before are part of a free online festival being staged until Wednesday by South West rural media charity Windrose.

Four shows are available until Wednesday, June 30, thanks to support from Dorset Council.

Windrose director Trevor Bailey said: "One of our greatest joys is to take film shows to live audiences in village halls, theatres, cinemas, art centres and museums. It is amazing how many people are drawn by these moving images of their county. The atmosphere is often electric.

"Because of the pandemic, outreach shows have been impossible for a year. That's been very sad. So, we thought that, as restrictions begin to lift, we would remind Dorset people of just what a wonderful resource these films of truly local life really are.

"When you have a film archive like ours, you are really custodian of the nearest thing to living history that exists. The last thing you want is to let it gather dust. It needs to be seen by local communities. It is their story."

James Harrison, who has been putting the online shows together for Windrose, said the film festival was some completely different from Windrose's usual shows.

He said: "Just for one week, anyone who is on the internet can sit at home and enjoy a whole range of wonderful films. Just go to our website and all the information will be there.

"We wanted to give Dorset communities a special present to help clear the gloom a bit. We've enjoyed ourselves hugely putting these online shows together. We've tried to relate them to specific areas of the county to make the most of local relevance but they will all be fascinating for anyone who is interested in Dorset.

"People will find some old favourites from our shows but all the work we've been doing recently to digitise the archive means that we have been able to give an outing to a number of films that have not been seen before."

Windrose is famous for its film archive of local life. Over the past 36 years, with the help of local communities, Windrose has saved a very large number of films dating from the 1910s onwards and enabled them to be seen again.

Over the last three and a half years, the charity - which also works in Somerset and Wiltshire collecting archive film and running community projects - has been working to digitise much of the archive and to prepare more of it for public viewing.

Mr Bailey added: "We have selected films from certain areas of the county to make them as relevant as possible to local communities, but anyone who loves Dorset will find delight in all of them.

"There is a mixture of old favourites from our shows and new sequences, specially prepared for the festival. Some full Windrose productions have been included, which combine old films with the memories and knowledge of local people and are also available to buy on DVD."

To see the film shows, visit windroseruralmedia.org

The films are:

The coast - Weymouth to Swanage

Filming birds at Winfrith in 1960s, travels through Dorset in 1940s, Sein fishing at Chesil Beach, the last train to Portland 1960s, paddle steamer at Lulworth 1960s, Purbeck farming 1950s, Weymouth promotional film 1950s. Plus Swanage seaside holidays in 1930s, which is also available on DVD.