British Universities Film & Video Council

moving image and sound, knowledge and access

Conference 2012

The conference brought together media historians and key personnel from the film and television industries to review Channel 4′s contribution to British film culture over three decades, and to debate the future of public service broadcasters’ support for UK film.

On the evening of the 1st November, Sir Jeremy Isaacs, Channel 4’s first Chief Executive, led a reunion of the team behind Stephen Frears’ landmark ‘Film on Four’ My Beautiful Laundrette at a gala screening of the film at London’s Charlotte Street Hotel. Author Hanif Kureishi and Senior Commissioning Editor David Rose recalled the genesis of the 1985 hit which established Channel 4 as a serious sponsor of feature film for cinema, made a star of Daniel Day-Lewis, launched the career of Hanif Kureishi, and set Working Title Films on course to become the most successful British producers of all time.

The screening marked the highpoint of a two-day conference held at BFI Southbank, organised by The University of Portsmouth, and timed to coincide with Channel 4’s 30th birthday on 2nd November (www.c4film.co.uk). The conference brought together media historians and key personnel from the film and television industries to review Channel 4′s contribution to British film culture over three decades, and to debate the future of public service broadcasters’ support for UK film.

Read Ieuan Franklin’s full conference report

Conference Abstracts and papers

1 November 2012

  1. Big Picture, Small Screen: Channel 4 and British Filmmaking

    John Hill

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  2. Missed, Lost and Forgotten Opportunities: Ping Pong and Soursweet

    Felicia Chan; Andy Willis

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  3. Forgotten Histories? Film on Four and British Retro and Heritage Films of the 1980s

    Claire Monk

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  4. Babel and the Dragon’s Tongue: S4C and its Bilingual and Multilingual Films

    Kate Woodward

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  5. S4C, Channel 4 and Film

    Elain Price

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  6. The Birmingham Film and TV Workshop and UK Film Culture

    Yasmeen Baig-Clifford; Paul Long; Roger Shannon

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  7. Vertigo Magazine –Tracking the Independent Voices of C4 in UK Film Culture

    Holly Aylett

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  8. Linking Archival and Academic Practice: The Digitisation of Channel 4’s Press Information Packs

    Linda Kaye; Rachael Keene

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2 November 2012

  1. Channel 4 and the Rediscovery of Old Movies on Television

    Sheldon Hall

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  2. Who Called the Shots? Making Film Programmes for Channel 4 in the Nineties and Noughties

    Paul Kerr

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  3. In and out of the FilmFour Lab: Digital Experiments

    Hannah Andrews

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  4. Challenging Times at Channel 4 – The Lloyds Bank Film Challenge

    Kate Iles

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  5. Productive Relationships: Film on Four and the New Creative Culture of the 1990s

    Laura Mayne

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  6. The Failure of the Avant-Garde? An Assessment of the Contribution of British Experimental Film to Channel 4's Early Years

    John Wyver

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  7. Activism on the Airwaves: Radical Documentary on Channel 4 in the 1990s

    Steve Presence

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  8. Channel Four and the Emergence of Independent Black British Filmmaking

    Clive Nwonka

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