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
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Big Picture, Small Screen: Channel 4 and British Filmmaking
John Hill
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Missed, Lost and Forgotten Opportunities: Ping Pong and Soursweet
Felicia Chan; Andy Willis
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Forgotten Histories? Film on Four and British Retro and Heritage Films of the 1980s
Claire Monk
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Babel and the Dragon’s Tongue: S4C and its Bilingual and Multilingual Films
Kate Woodward
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S4C, Channel 4 and Film
Elain Price
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The Birmingham Film and TV Workshop and UK Film Culture
Yasmeen Baig-Clifford; Paul Long; Roger Shannon
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Vertigo Magazine –Tracking the Independent Voices of C4 in UK Film Culture
Holly Aylett
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Linking Archival and Academic Practice: The Digitisation of Channel 4’s Press Information Packs
Linda Kaye; Rachael Keene
2 November 2012
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Channel 4 and the Rediscovery of Old Movies on Television
Sheldon Hall
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Who Called the Shots? Making Film Programmes for Channel 4 in the Nineties and Noughties
Paul Kerr
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In and out of the FilmFour Lab: Digital Experiments
Hannah Andrews
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Challenging Times at Channel 4 – The Lloyds Bank Film Challenge
Kate Iles
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Productive Relationships: Film on Four and the New Creative Culture of the 1990s
Laura Mayne
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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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Activism on the Airwaves: Radical Documentary on Channel 4 in the 1990s
Steve Presence
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Channel Four and the Emergence of Independent Black British Filmmaking
Clive Nwonka