With more than 59,000 historic clips and 7 million stills for immediate download, CriticalPast is your source for imagery of worldwide events, people, and B-roll spanning the 20th century.

Fully digitized and searchable, the CriticalPast collection is one of the largest royalty-free archival footage collections in the world. Search and view thousands of historic video clips and millions of still images, with all clips available for immediate download in HD, in your choice of frame rate. Clips and stills are licensed royalty-free, worldwide, in perpetuity, for all media including unlimited theatrical. Digital-only licensing is also available. CriticalPast offers immediate downloads of full-resolution HD masters and full-resolution time-coded screeners, 24 hours a day, to serve the needs of broadcast news, TV, film, and publishing professionals worldwide.

Specialties:

Drawn largely from U.S. government sources, CriticalPast contains a vast collection of vintage military and war footage, as well as 20th century propaganda and educational films from many countries. The CriticalPast war collection is second to none, and includes footage from World War I, World War II, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, and The Cold War. Other specialties include worldwide Political Figures, Industrialization, the Great Depression, Culture, Civil Rights, Transportation, Aviation, and Space.

Clients:

Our clients include the world's leading production companies, broadcasters, filmmakers, advertisers, publishers, museums, and online education companies.

About the Founders

Jim Erickson
Co-Founder, CriticalPast.com

As co-founder of CriticalPast.com, Jim Erickson-Nepomuceno merges his extensive background as a video technician, motion picture film professional and network engineer with his interest in transferring historic motion picture films into modern archival formats. Jim's belief in archival preservation and enhancement through public involvement is one of the driving factors behind CriticalPast.com.

Established by Jim in 2007, with his brother, Andy, CriticalPast.com is one of the largest online collections of historic, royalty-free film footage and still images in the world. Drawn largely from U.S. government agency archives, CriticalPast's collection spans thousands of hours of video and millions of still images. Jim developed CriticalPast's unique image processing algorithms, which were used in creating the millions of still images seen within the collection. He also created the site's editing and content management systems that enable the production of clips and the enhancement of metadata within clips.

Before co-founding CriticalPast.com, Jim was a partner in Stock Footage Clips where he worked as a videographer and archives researcher, gathering stock shots of significant places and historic events. He also owned and operated Erickson Archival Telecine, where he designed and built the entire telecine transfer facility under strict federal government film laboratory standards.

Prior to founding Erickson Archival Telecine, Jim was a colorist at several motion picture post production facilities, including Modern VideoFilm, Anderson Video, and Colorlab, where he worked on numerous archival, documentary, television, and feature projects including "National Geographic Explorer," "Homicide," "Power Rangers," "Silk Stalkings," "Renegade," "Waiting for Guffman," and "The Blair Witch Project." In 1998, Jim won an International Monitor Award for "Best Color Correction - Documentaries" for the series "Into the Rising Sun."

Jim began his career as a video dubber and telecine assistant for Capitol Video where he ran the company's commercial dubbing operations.

Jim earned a BS in Telecommunications and English from James Madison University.

Andy Erickson
Co-Founder, CriticalPast.com

Andy Erickson is an accomplished product manager and entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in Web product deployment, consumer technology, and information services.

Andy and his brother, Jim, an award-winning film colorist, launched CriticalPast LLC in 2007 to simplify the often-arduous process of obtaining historic stock footage. CriticalPast.com hosts one of the world's largest online collections of royalty-free archival footage, and revolutionized the way that buyers discover and purchase historic multimedia content.

Before co-founding CriticalPast.com, Andy spent a decade directing multiple products and programs at AOL for the company's flagship AOL online service. Prior to AOL, Andy was the lead product manager for Platinum Technology’s metadata management products, serving a variety of government and Fortune 500 clients.

Andy earned an MBA from Rice University and a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia.

Partial List of CriticalPast Clients:

• 17 Juin Média
• 1895 Films
• 3 Roads Communications
• 360 Production
• 3DD Productions
• 43Films
• 5 Bis Productions
• 72 Films
• 90th Parallel Productions Ltd.
• a&o buero filmproduktion GmbH
• A+E Networks
• A+E Networks Asia
• A. Smith & Co. Productions
• ABC Lincoln Square Productions
• Agat Films
• Agora Productions
• Alegria productions
• Aljazeera Media Network
• Amblin Entertainment
• Aperture Films, Ltd
• April Film
• Ardennes Group
• Ark Media
• Arrow Media International
• Arrowhead Films
• Atlas Media Corp
• Atomic Television
• BBC (Worldwide, Studios, News)
• Big Red One Museum
• Blakeway Productions Ltd
• Blink Films
• Bosch and Company
• Boston Productions
• Boundless Freemantle Media
• Bow and Arrow
• Brandatmosphere GmbH
• Broadview TV GmbH
• Broadway TV
• C-SPAN
• Canadian Museum of History
• CBC - Radio Canada
• CBS News
• Centre Screen
• Česká televize
• Channel 5 (UK)
• Chicago History Museum
• Cineflix Inc.
• CINÉTÉVÉ
• Clarke Costelle & Co
• Clearstory Ltd
• CMJ Productions
• CNN
• Colonial Pictures
• Cortina Productions
• CounterPoint Films
• Cuarzo Producciones S.L.
• Darlow Smithson Productions
• Deutsches Museum
• DiGa Vision LLC
• Digital Outpost
• Discovery Communications
• Disney+
• DocArt s.r.l.
• Doclights GmbH
• Docutainment Films
• Dog Green Productions
• Donna Lawrence Productions
• Eagle Rock Entertainment Ltd
• ECO Media TV-Produktion
• Electric Pictures
• Et la Suite Productions
• Every Hill Films
• Februar Film GmbH
• Film House, Inc
• Film Posse, Inc.
• Finestripe Productions
• Firecracker Films
• Firelight Films
• Flight 33 Productions
• Flimmer Film AS
• Florentine Films
• FourPoints Multimedia Corporation
• Fox 2000 Pictures
• Fox News
• Fox Television Animation
• France Télévisions
• Freemantle Media Group Ltd
• French Connection Films
• Fresh One Productions
• Frith Street Films Ltd
• GA&A productions srl
• Gaijin Entertainment
• Genepool Productions
• Georgia Public Broadcasting
• Ghost Light Films
• Gibson Group
• Great Western Entertainment
• GSD&M
• Guangdong Zhujiang Film & TV
• Half Yard Productions
• Hazel May Ltd
• Hoferichter & Jacobs GmbH
• Hoggard Films
• Holocaust Museum Houston
• Home Box Office, Inc.
• Icebox Films Ltd
• Icon Films
• IFA Media
• Illégitime Défense
• Illinois Holocaust Museum
• Impossible Factual Ltd
• Impossible Pictures Ltd
• Indigo Films
• Infocus Asia Pte Ltd
• Insignia Films
• International Spy Museum
• Interspot Film
• Interspot GmbH
• Intrepid Museum Foundation
• Istituto Luce Cinecittà
• ITN Productions
• ITV Studios Ltd
• Jigsaw Productions
• Jupiter Entertainment
• JWM Productions
• K2 Pictures
• Karga Seven Pictures
• Katahdin Productions
• Korean Broadcasting System
• Kvorning Design & Kommunikation
• Laya Producciones
• Left/Right
• Leftfield Entertainment
• Leroy & Morton Productions LLC
• Light Source and Imagery
• Like a Shot Entertainment
• Lincoln Square Productions, LLC
• Lion Television
• Lionsgate
• Local Projects
• Lone Star Productions
• Lone Wolf Documentary Group
• LOOKS Film & TV GmbH
• Lou Reda Productions
• Lousiana Public Broadcasting
• Lumiere Media Inc
• Magilla Entertainment
• Maryland Public Television
• Maverick TV
• Maya Vision International
• MC4 Productions
• Mediacorp TV Singapore PTE LTD
• Metafilm GmbH
• Michael Hoff Productions
• Middlechild TV
• Mississippi Armed Forces Museum
• Moxie Films
• Museum of the City of New York
• Museumsstiftung Post und Telekom
• Nat'l Veterans Memorial & Museum
• National Film Board of Canada
• National Geographic Studios
• National Park Service
• National WWII Museum
• NBC Universal
• Netflix Productions LLC
• Newseum
• NHK Japan
• Nilaya Productions
• Northern Light Productions
• NorthSouth Productions
• Nutopia Ltd
• October Films
• Omnifilm Entertainment
• Optomen Productions
• Oregon Public Broadcasting
• Original Productions
• Outpost Entertainment LLC
• Oxford Scientific Films
• Passion Pictures
• Patriots Point Naval Museum
• Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum
• Pernel Media
• Phares et Balises
• Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Pipeline39 Entertainment
• Pixcom Productions Inc.
• Plan B Productions
• Plate of Peas Productions
• Prometheus Entertainment
• Quindrop Prod Audiovisuales S.L.
• Radical Media
• Rai Radiotelevisione Italiana
• Ralph Appelbaum Associates
• Raw TV
• RDF Television
• Red House DOX
• Red Rock Films
• Redseven Entertainment GmbH
• Renegade Pictures UK Ltd
• Revelations Entertainment
• Rick Steves Europe
• Riddle Films
• RIVR Media LLC
• RMC Media Partnership
• Roche Productions
• Rockaway Films
• Rondo Media
• Ross Greenburg Productions
• RTÉ Ireland
• Saloon Media
• Scholastic Inc
• Shed Media
• Shine Australia
• Simon Wiesenthal Center
• Smithsonian Institution
• Smithsonian Networks
• Snake Oil Productions
• Sony Music
• Sony Pictures Studio
• Sports on Fire Productions Ltd
• Steeplechase Films
• Story House Productions
• Story Syndicate
• Storyville Films
• STV Productions
• Süddeutsche TV GmbH
• Syfy
• TAG/TRAUM GmbH&CoKG
• taglicht media FFP GmbH
• Tellux Film GmbH
• Testimony Films
• The Biscuit Factory
• Top Cat Productions, LLC
• Towers Productions
• Town and Country Media
• True Aim Productions
• TVN Poland
• TVT Production
• Twenty Twenty Production
• TwoFour Broadcast
• U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Umbifilm
• United States National Park Service
• Uppercut Films
• Upright Pictures
• Upside Télévision
• Verissima Productions Incorporated
• ViacomCBS
• Vice Media Inc
• Victoria and Albert Museum
• Voice of America
• VRT
• Waddell Media
• WAG TV
• Walker George Films Ltd
• Wall To Wall Media
• War Story Productions
• War Torn Productions Inc.
• Wargaming Group Limited
• Werner Kubny Filmproduktion
• WGBH
• WhistleStop Productions
• Wide-Eyed entertainment
• Wildbear Entertainment
• Windfall Films
• Wishcraft Productions, Inc.
• WNET
• Wonder TV
• Woodcut Media Ltd
• Workaholic Productions
• World Media Rights
• WWII Foundation
• Yap Films Inc.
• Yu+Co
• ZDF German Televsion
• ZED
• Zero Point Zero Production, Inc
• Zhujiang Film & TV