Search

Barry Keith Grant's book, "100 American Horror Films," explores the enduring presence of the horror genre throughout film history. The book features a selection of one hundred American horror films spanning from the 1910s to 2019, including notable examples such as "Colour out of Space," "Midsommar," and "The Wind." Grant's introduction defines the genre as addressing universal fears while also responding to historically and culturally specific anxieties. Each film entry in the book provides a concise summary of the plot, credits, an image from the film, and insights into its significance within the horror genre and its historical-cultural context. While some readers may disagree with certain omissions, the book offers a comprehensive overview of American horror films. Additionally, Anne Billson's book, "The Thing," provides an authoritative analysis of the film's subversive and uncompromising approach to horror. Both books serve as valuable resources for those interested in exploring the genre further. [Extracted from the article]

Thus each chapter addresses a different aspect of cinema going memories. The intention of this project was to extend knowledge of cinema history with an emphasis on how films were received and the social experience of cinema going. The six chapters clearly set out different aspects of the 1960s cinema going experience- social experiences, sex and cinema going, the experience of watching American films and British films, European films, and postcolonial audiences. [Extracted from the article]

This paper explores the interactions and cooperation between public-sector, business-sector, and civil-society stakeholders in developing British film policy for educational and cultural purposes. In particular, this paper adopts the Advocacy Coalition Framework to explain why and how public authorities, film industry organizations, and educationalists efficiently communicated and cooperated with each other in making the British Film Institute. By doing that, this paper explains (1) how commercial business and social workers, who were initially hostile, could build constructive partnerships; (2) how inactive, noninterventionist governments could be involved in the policymaking for cultural sectors; and (3) how private business could be persuaded into supporting cultural and educational policy for noncommercial purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

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]

Education about the media has been developing in the UK for at least 40 years. Various accounts of that history can be found elsewhere; this paper will just attempt to sketch out key features of the current scene, and to point readers to sources of more substantial information. Given that I work for the British Film Institute, a key player in this field, there is bound to be some bias in this account towards the BFI's perspective: my defence is that, as every media educator knows, no account is ever completely unbiased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]