The group aiming to keep the showmanship of cinema alive

"You can hold up a piece of film to the light and you can actually see the pictures on it.

"Young people really enjoy that," Bill Lawrence explains.

He's talking to me ahead of a special event which will see decades of cinema history on show to the public.

The movie buff is vice-chair of the Projected Picture Trust (PPT), which aims to preserve the magic of cinema and showcase the technology and techniques behind the silver screen.

On Saturday 12 September the group is hosting a special event at the imposing Dean Clough Mills in Halifax.

Dozens of projectors and other devices, some dating back about a century, will be shown off to visitors.

But, while some may revel in the history, the technology's golden age is not yet consigned to the past.

Modern productions, Bill says, are keen to use the older items.

On display are items that have appeared in Oscar-winner The King's Speech, ITV detective drama Grantchester - and one that called the Odeon Leicester Square in London home and was used for Royal premieres.

One of the devices was even used by Christopher Nolan in the creation of his latest epic, The Odyssey.

Bill says for him and the Halifax-based group the history is hugely important as it "tells is a story of British and technical expertise".

Much of the collection, made under the brand name Kalee by the Leeds-based Kershaw Projection Company, have been rescued from picture houses as they closed down.

At the end of World War Two, about 4,700 were open to the public in British towns and cities, according to Historic England.

By 2025, that number had shrunk by more than 75%, to about 1,100, according to the Film Distributors' Association.

Bill believes that as cinema has been "going digital" the projection trade is becoming a lost art.

"Cinema has just lost that idea of showmanship," he rues.

But, Bill says that in recent years analogue media has made a comeback, from vinyl to Polaroid cameras with people are seeking out more "meaningful" media and rejecting the digital age.

"[People have] a certain tiredness that everything is just on a small screen and everything is mediated through a computer and a keyboard and the reality of a big physical piece of equipment is quite exciting."

"The new generations of young people are getting a little bit tired of watching films on their phone or on their desktop computer and they really like the experience of going into the auditorium again and re-engaging," he adds.

West Yorkshire has played a notable role in the birth of moving pictures.

French inventor Louis Le Prince shot traffic on Leeds Bridge in 1888, capturing the first-ever sequence of moving pictures on a single lens camera.

Bill is clear about the import of the PPT's collection - and hopes the latest show could see a permanent home to put the items on display.

"This is really meaningful, being able to keep this history," he adds.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.