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First coined in the UK in the early 1990s as a new label for an ostensibly new, post-1979 kind and cycle of period cinema, the 'heritage film' is now firmly established as a widely used term and category in academic film studies. Although the heritage film's defining features, ideological character and ontological coherence would remain debated, its status as a 'new' category hinges, self-evidently, on the presumption that the films of post-1979 culturally English heritage cinema marked a new departure and were clearly distinct from their pre-Thatcher-era precursors. Yet, paradoxically, the British period/costume films of the preceding decade, the 1970s, have attracted almost no scholarly attention, and none which connects them with the post-1979 British heritage film, nor the 1980s cultural and industry conditions said to have fostered these productions with those of the 1970s. This article pursues these questions through the prism of Britain's largest film production and distribution entity throughout 1970–86, EMI, and EMI's place as a significant and sustained, but little-acknowledged, force in British period film production throughout that time. In so doing, the article establishes the case for studying 'pre-heritage' period cinema. EMI's period film output included early proto-heritage films but also ventured notably wider. This field of production is examined within the broader terrain of 1970s British and American period cinema and within wider 1970s UK cinema box-office patterns and cultural trends, attending to commercial logics as well as to genre and the films' positioning in relation to the later heritage film debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a market dominated by Hollywood, it is easy to overlook that the number of films (and televised productions) which are not in English is actually by far greater than those in English. However, although some non-English language film industries are vast, only a comparatively small number of productions are screened outside of their country of origin. Therefore, before being translated and brought to screens for us to watch, already a filter applies, as the films are chosen by curators of film festivals or the industry. For that reason, films that are perhaps less representative but more interesting, or by a well-known director may be chosen over others that may have been more successful in their country of origin, but are made by a less-well know director or perceived to be less interesting for 'foreign audiences'. The choice of what we watch is thus never entirely ours. Using Japan, Germany and the UK as example, I will offer some thoughts on what impact such a filter might have on the consumption, and therefore the perception, of a film outside of its country of origin and what challenges this poses for audiences and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary British social realism has rapidly gained critical adherents in mainstream film critique, with the 2009 film Fish Tank hailed as a triumphant demonstration of British political cinema. The 2013 film The Selfish Giant followed this trend, and both have been aggrandized as a concrete critique of social inequality and, in a similar vein to the films of Ken Loach, offer an insight into the destabilizing effects of living with marginalized social categories. However, this article contends that the representation of working-class characters in Fish Tank and The Selfish Giant can also be interpreted as a depoliticized form of British social realism that fails to effectively depict the scope of social inequality or critique current policies and problems. This article interrogates the critical responses that annex Fish Tank and the Selfish Giant with Loach's body of films and suggests that the texts form part of a broader trend of decontextualization in contemporary British social realism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at film education and training in Great Britain during the 2000s. It charts the development and implementation of major policy initiatives, reflects on the ideological basis and influence of the creative industries agenda on such initiatives, and assesses the impact on individual film schools and the higher education sector. It notes that the industry is in transition following the abolition of the UK Film Council (UKFC) and the initiation of a major review of film policy.

Film and media education in the UK has long been characterised by a fundamental polarisation between theory and practice. This is most clearly manifest in the widespread separation between academic study and hands-on production training within University and College departments and programmes. The situation has arguably been exacerbated over the past few years by the training agenda devised and promoted by Skillset and the UK Film Council in the creation of networks of Screen and Media Academies to ensure an appropriate focus on industry approved vocational skills. The Skillset Screen Academy network includes two long established traditional film schools - the National Film and Television School and the London Film School - and in this paper, I will examine the history and development of these two institutions in order to consider the conception and operation of theory and practice within a sphere of education and training that has a longstanding relationship to industry. Such a consideration can not only help us to understand the obstacles to a more productive integration of theory/practice, but it can also indicate potential opportunities for achieving such an integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Film studies inspired by the theories of British psychoanalyst Donald W. Winnicott are scanty. Although this may be partly explained by Winnicott's own somewhat unenthusiastic attitude toward cinema, it should be fruitful to approach film, in both its form and content, by taking into consideration the relevance of some of his ideas. These include in particular the concepts of mirroring and transitional space, especially in relation to the idea of a bridge space connecting external reality to its filmed representation, as well as the latter to reality as perceived by the viewer's gaze. Winnicott's developmental model of mental processes could prove useful for an understanding of the structural and functional characteristics of cinema, as well as for providing original interpretations of individual films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author explains the place of the journal "Screen Education" in film studies, its importance to the development of film as an academic discipline, and its establishment within higher and further education in Great Britain. The journal was established in 1959 and was known as one of the more ardent proponents of cine-psychoanalysis in the 1970s. Various British films and television programs influenced by British politics were the journal's focus during the 1980s. The journal has also explored topics such as the constitution of national culture.

This paper traces key features of the BFI's evolving strategies for film education in UK schools during the final 25 years of the analogue era. Historically, the BFI did much to establish the characteristics of film study, but it also embodied tensions which have continued to preoccupy educators, such as the relationship between the instrumental use of film to support the curriculum, and learning about its intrinsic and distinctive qualities as a medium, or about its ideological function in society. The paper also addresses the question of whether «film» on its own constitutes a valid area of study, or whether it is more properly studied alongside television as part of «moving image media». The BFI has played a key role in exploring these issues and in exemplifying how film, or moving image media, can be taught to younger learners, but the internal vicissitudes it has constantly experienced have always pulled its educational activities in different directions. The central argument of this paper is that film education -and indeed media education in general- should be an entitlement for every learner, not something offered only to a minority or provided as an optional extra. The key projects described in this paper indicate some of the ways in which a publicly funded cultural institution can intervene in educational policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author examines the emergence of the British film studies as an essential field of enquiry and traces how the British cinema came to be considered as worthy of study. He explores the factors that hindered the legitimisation of both British cinema in general and particular genres and styles. He cites some situations in which the periodical "Screen" has moved towards an intellectual position that discouraged public interest in British films. He also discusses the influence of gender politics on British cinema.

This article posits the theoretical framework of the ‘haptic urban ethnoscape’. Haptic urban ethnoscapes invite us to think about the body of film and media and the bodies of audiences as meeting and interacting in multi-sensory ways, in metropolitan locales. These are developed out of a critical theorizing about the concept of representation as a way of extending text-based analyses beyond the materiality of film and media to consider their articulations in and through urban cultural geographies. Examples of diasporic film and media representations of British multicultural high streets, namely in Birmingham and West London, are considered through select illustrations in Gurinder Chadha's Bhaji on the Beach (1993) and Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and also outlined through new media postings on YouTube. These are set alongside and contemplated in relation to actual socio-cultural observations of the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consecration of cultural products occurs both contemporaneously and retrospectively. This paper examines the influence of contemporaneous consecration on retrospective consecration in the UK film industry. We first examine the impact of professional and popular consecration on retrospective consecration using the list of “best films” compiled by the British Film Institute to gauge retrospective consecration. We then examine the impact of international film festivals on retrospective consecration. We show that experts and peers will have a differential effect on the process of retrospective consecration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the origins and status of the British Film Institute (BFI) in London, England, which initially focused on publishing and education. The article examines how the BFI has furthered the knowledge and preservation of film in Great Britain through the National Film and Television Archive, the National Library, and the "Sight & Sound" periodical. The institutes's budget, its management, and its impact on public culture are discussed. Also discussed is a concern, published by the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association, regarding the notion put forth by the BFI that universities take over the functions of the National Library.

The article discusses film publishing in Great Britain. It tackles the uniqueness of Great Britain's film industry compared to the rest of Europe and America, the changes in the quantity of titles in British film publishing, volume in specialization in film publishing, and other factors that secure a constant supply of film titles.

In Britain, film studies came on the agenda in the 1970s, when it served as a terrain for the formulation of a critical understanding of how cinema functioned within the broader context of industrial capitalism and the nexus between that and the reshaping of people's habits and lives. However, during that decade, a different agenda was also at work, which, from the early 1980s, began to receive support from neo-liberal ‘free-market’ ideologues. Over a period of 30 years, the overall direction of the inquiry into cinema, now firmly sealed into institutional networks, has become such that the critical language of ‘film theory’ has been hollowed out and the industrial agenda of British national television and cinema wrapped around it. Today, with the opening of film studies departments across Asia, the question is not whether outside Britain the language of film studies will became available for instrumentalization by the forces of an expanding Euro-American capital, but how it will do so. This paper argues that the recovery of film from the bureaucratization of its study and its rediscovery as one of the modalities of modernization require both a framework of analysis that is fully conscious of its own historicity and critical role, and a new topography of cinema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the Extra-Mural Certificate/Diploma Courses in Film Study. It places the Courses in the general context of film studies teaching and raises issues on the use of the courses in relation to adult education and the development of British film culture. A breakdown of the structure of the Certificate/Diploma Courses in 1985/6 is presented. Each year course is comprised of 24 two-hourly evening meetings and the provision of these courses characterizes a pyramid with a range of first year classes held at the British Film Institute and at out-centres but has only one fourth year class.

The article focuses on the cinematic film spectators in relation to British feminist film theory. It notes that the presence of female spectator in feminist film theory has a symptomatic importance beyond the intrinsic interest of the said topic. It mentions that female spectator has bored witness to research into the said topic's historical and social being which directed toward women.

The article presents the areas that cover a complete picture of the political film setting in Britain. Areas of disparity existing within the political film structure without alienating the different groups and persuasions involved are also presented in the article. It is stated that during the 1969-70 different conferences and meetings were held to discuss the possibility of an alternative film network. It resulted to the emergence of the idea of "the third circuit." The rationale behind the third circuit was geared to the politics of the film industry. It was a direct reaction against the established commercial apparatus.

In this article, the author discusses a proposal to include film in a A-level modern language course in Great Britain. The author believes that it would be unfortunate if the current move away from literary studies were to eliminate the arts from modern language study. She also notes that film is capable of high artistic quality and by-passes the language barrier. In addition, the author looks at the possible effects of the move on the framework of the course. She considers four main areas of impact: language, literature, civilization, position of the teacher, and relations with other subjects.

This section presents a letter of resignation from Paddy Whannel, education officer of the British Film Institute (BFI) Education Department, to Dennis Forman, chairman of the BFI, about the position of the BFI towards film education. Whannel notes that his resignation from the BFI Education Department was precipitated by the continuing crisis at the institute. He cites that the management failed to defend its departments from attacks. He also comments on the position of the BFI towards film education.

In this article, the author looks at the state of art history and film studies in art colleges in Great Britain in 1971. According to the author, art history and film studies will continue to occupy a position uncomfortable to the teachers, the student body and members of staff of other departments, unless there is an ideological change on the part of the art colleges and the Department of Education and Science. He also believes that the conflict of interest, arising out of the anti-intellectualism of art students and art school ideology, affects art history and film studies.

In this article, the author attempts to pose some questions about the North East Educational Film Project in Great Britain. The author begins by giving an overview of the origin of the educational project. He notes the involvement of public money, cooperation between schools and local authorities, large numbers of pupils and the British Film Institute in the project. In addition, the author explains the advantages of the project, including its ability to make economic sense to show films to large rather than to small numbers.

This section presents a letter from Paddy Whannel, education officer of the British Film Institute (BFI) Education Department, to Jim Cook, chairman of the Society for Education in Film and Television (SEFT), about the position of the BFI towards film education. Whannel deals with two issues on film education: services to the practicing teacher and the role of intellectual work in film study. Whannel also addresses the agreement worked out between the SEFT and the department about their respective functions.

The article offers information on an experiment by the Society for Education in Film and Television (SEFT) and the Aural and Visual Aids Inspectorate of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). The study aimed to examine ways of introducing film teaching into schools in Great Britain that were both practicable and educationally valuable. The features chosen included "The Bravados," "The Brides of Dracula" and "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" as representative of Western, horror and comedy genres. It is noted that each film was introduced briefly, but discussion was left to the individual teacher to undertake.

Discusses film study in universities in Great Britain in 1956. Background on university education in Great Britain; Availability of departments and course of film study; Film education provided by the extra-mural department of British universities.

John King’s introduction to this section surveys the development of Latin American film studies in the UK over the past 25 years. All three papers explore the interplay between local and global factors in the development of Mexican cinema. Andrea Noble introduces the work of Carlos Monsiváis and discusses the role that early and Golden Age cinema played in the processes of modernisation in Mexico. Carlos Monsiváis pays particular attention to the image of the city in recent Mexican cinema, exploring the use of language and the depiction of sex. Geoffrey Kantaris offers a number of theoretical pathways into an exploration of contemporary cinema in Mexico, analysing how ideas of place and identity are disrupted by the crisis of the nation state in a globalised, postmodern world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Film Studies in Maidstone Prison program. The author went to Jim Cook of the British Film Institute's Education Department to seek support in setting up a film studies course at the prison for the autumn. Attendance in the class was consistently 100% of the room's capacity. As the course progressed the atmosphere and relationship among attendees became similar to a workshop wherein a single idea would trigger a train of others with an accumulation of contributions. The studies focused on British films and among the initial topics was the treatment of social problems.

The article discusses the severe curtailment of the work of the Slade Film Unit. A course in film study was started in Slade School of Fine Arts at the University College in London, England by Thorold Dickinson in 1960. The unit has a two-year full-time postgraduate diploma course in film studies and an MPhil course open for full-time and part-time students. It also provides teaching and facilities for the rest of the Slade and University College, has made a series of documentary films, and began the Slade Film History Register. As the only full-time course in film studies in Great Britain, it has been a significant example and precedent for starting other courses in film in higher education.