John Coffin Memorial Lecture: "The Queen in Australia": rebranding the British Commonwealth in the Pacific

John Coffin Memorial Lecture


Friday 23 November 2012

Jane Landman (Victoria University): '"The Queen in Australia": rebranding the British Commonwealth in the Pacific'

6.00pm: The Beveridge Hall, Senate House, University of London

Introduced by Brian Winston (University of Lincoln)

Moving images of British monarchs traverse the history of film and television, from documentary footage of Queen Victoria dating from 1897, to the Commonwealth Film Unit’s extensive archive of royal visits to far flung colonies, to Madonna’s recently released W.E. on the Wallis Simpson-Edward VIII romance. This Jubilee year seems the appropriate time to consider the historic past and current effusion of film and television representations of the British monarchy.

To mark this occasion, Jane Landman will consider a classic of colonial cinema, the Commonwealth Film Unit’s documentary of the Royal Tour of 1953-4, "The Queen in Australia". Extravagantly praised at the time for its contribution to ‘world affairs’, this tribute to the Crown stages each floral genuflection as the act of a unified free world, marshalling Fijians, Tongans and New Zealanders as well as Australians into a Cold War homage to both Elizabeth II and the king of the British Documentary Movement, John Grierson. Dr Landman will bring to this presentation her acuity and expertise in the iconic repertoire of national narrative in postwar Australian film and television.

This lecture will be hosted by the Institute of English Studies in collaboration with the University of London Screen Studies Group, and in association with the IES conference "The British Monarchy on Screen" (23-24 November 2012), which will further debate the starring role of royalty in our viewing lives, with presentations from international film and television experts on topics ranging from the broadcasting of royal weddings to the cinematic casting of the sovereign.

Jane Landman is Senior Lecturer at the School of Communication and the Arts, Victoria University. She is the author of The Tread of a White Man’s Foot: Australian Pacific Colonialism and the Cinema (Pandanus Books, Canberra, 2006), and (with Chris Ballard) ‘New Guinea Patrol’: Documenting Australian Colonialism, forthcoming in 2013. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the monograph series on Australian film, Moving Image, and guest editor of the Journal of Australasian Studies. Dr Landman's current research concerns the role of the cinema in the process and cultures of colonialism and decolonization, with current focus on the series of government documentary films made in the Territories of Papua New Guinea in the 1950s and 1960s. These are films that visually report on those policies and practices of development that were part of Australia’s trust responsibilities, and Dr Landman’s research traces the political, institutional and administrative negotiations that determined the semantics and rhetoric of the visual and aural modes deployed to represent the Australian work of development of the Territories and its peoples. Broader research addresses a comparative understanding of imperial mass communications in the colonised - then decolonising - western Pacific, with specific focus on Australia and various British-derived colonial administrations.

Free and open to all, and followed by a wine reception. If you would like to attend please notify IESEvents@sas.ac.uk

Enquiries: Jon Millington, Events Officer, Institute of English Studies, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU; tel +44 (0) 207 664 4859; Email: IESEvents@sas.ac.uk

Commonwealth Research Seminar Series

Commonwealth Research Seminar Series


All seminars are on Wednesdays and begin at 1730

TERM 1

14 November 2012
Ben Muda, Commonwealth Business Council, London: Malaysia at Fifty: The Commonwealth in Malaysia's Foreign Policy
Filippo Menozzi, University of Canterbury, Kent, The Boundaries of Politics: Arundhati Roy's Transversal Activism

12 December 2012
Lanver Mak, Visiting Fellow ICwS, Unveiling the Veiled Protectorate: The Untold Stories of British Labourers and Criminals in Egypt, 1882-1922
Maria Mut Bosque, Visiting Fellow and PhD student, ICwS, Gibraltar: National Identity and Language Issues

TERM 2

16 January 2013
Peter Fraser, Visiting Fellow ICwS: An exemplary life: Arnold Hamilton Maloney and Trinidadian intellectual history
Giorgios Charalambous, Visiting Fellow ICwS: The Cypriot Left in Government: A Preliminary Assessment

13 February 2013

Bill Clarance, Visitng Fellow ICwS: Understanding Leonard Woolf : his role in decolonization
Paulo Rigueira, Doctoral Student ICwS: Globalisation & Human Rights: A Conceptual Approach


13 March 2013

Mandy Banton. Senior Fellow ICwS: Title TBA
Yiannos Katsourides, Visiting Fellow ICwS: Political conflicts in Cyprus in the 1940s and 1950s


TERM 3

17 April 2013
Abess Taqi, Doctoral student, ICwS: Arab perspectives on Western efforts to promote democratic reform in the Arab world
Sue Onslow, Senior Fellow ICwS, The Commonwealth & election monitoring: the Zimbabwe success story?

15 May 2013
Shihan de Silva, Senior Fellow ICwS: Connecting the Portuguese Burghers to the Commonwealth and Beyond: Language Matters
John Cowley, Fellow ICwS: Numberless Are The Sands On The Seashore : 'The Real Bahamas' and the field recording experience (1935-1965)

12 June 2013
Susan Williams, Senior Fellow ICwS, and Dr Luke McKernan, Lead Curator, Moving Image, The British Library: The screening of decolonisation: from book to film

Convenors: Susan Williams (susan.williams@sas.ac.uk) and Shihan de Silva (shihan.desilva@sas.ac.uk )

London Metropolitan Archives Film Club - Caribbean Liberation

Caribbean Liberation


Wednesday 22 August,  6pm-7.30pm

FREE DROP-IN EVENT FEATURING FILMS FROM THE ARCHIVES
London Metropolitan Archives, 40, Northampton Road, London, EC1R 0HB www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma
August’s Film Club focuses on Caribbean Liberation, drawing upon the LMA’s records of the Huntley’s, revolutionary black publishers. The LMA will be showing two short documentaries:

• ‘In the Sky’s Wild Noise’ (1983) focuses on Walter Rodney, the Guyanese historian and political activist; made 3 years after his murder, the film features Rodney speaking on the workers struggle in Guyana, inter-cut with footage of Guyana and Rodney’s funeral.
• ‘Grenada - Is Freedom We Making’ (1983) focuses on the island and what has happened to it since its 1979 revolution. The documentary examines the economic developments of the nation, the growth of women’s rights and discusses President Reagan’s antipathy toward the nation. The film features interviews with members of farming cooperatives and Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, broadcast just months before he was deposed and executed.

Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire

Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire is a website holding detailed information on over 6000 films showing images of life in the British colonies. Over 150 of these films are available for viewing online.
You can search or browse for films by country, date, topic, or keyword.

Topics include: Administration, Development, Education, Health, Independence, Industry, Leisure, Religion, Travel, War, Empire in Revolt, and Empire on Display

Films were produced by a range of organisations including: Bekefilm, British Armed Forces Film Units, British Instructional Films, Central African Film Unit, Colonial Film Unit, Empire Marketing Board, Gaumont British Instructional, Gold Coast Film Unit, Indian News Parade, Information Films of India, Jamaica Film Unit, Malayan Film Unit , Ministry of Information /Central Office of Information, Missionary Societies, and the Nigerian Film Unit.

Over 350 of the most important films in the catalogue are presented with extensive critical notes written by the projects academic research team.


The Colonial Film project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and  united universities (Birkbeck and University College London) and archives (British Film Institute, Imperial War Museum and the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum) to create a new catalogue of films relating to the British Empire with an ambition "to allow both colonizers and colonized to understand better the truths of Empire".

Film Africa 2011: Celebrating African Cinema

Film Africa 2011: Celebrating African Cinema


November 3rd – 13th

The Royal African Society are organizing a Film Festival screening over 50 African films at 5 cinemas across London. You will find the details and the programme of films at: http://www.filmafrica.org.uk/

South Africa on Film

Southern Africa: History, Culture and Society Seminar Series

Centre for African Studies, University of London

SOUTH AFRICA ON FILM

BRIAN WILLAN, ‘Cinematographic calamity’ or ‘Soul-stirring appeal to every Briton’: reactions to Birth of a Nation in England and South Africa, 1915-1931

EMMA SANDON, (Birkbeck College, London): ‘The African Mirror Newsreel and African Film Productions Documentaries: Non-Fiction Film Production in South Africa, 1910 – 1950’

JACQUELINE MAINGARD, (University of Bristol) ‘Assignment Africa’: Colonial Imaginaries and Donald Swanson’s African Jim (1949) and The Magic Garden (1951) in South African Film History’

NEIL PARSONS, ‘Early Southern African Movies and the Lingering Ambiguities of South African Union, 1910 – 1923’

Discussant: Carli Coetzee (SOAS)

10 June, 2011
13.00 – 17.00
Birkbeck College
CLO GO2 Clore Management Centre

For directions see: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/maps/centrallondon.pdf

Seminar Convenors: Wayne Dooling (wd2@soas.ac.uk); Hilary Sapire (h.sapire@bbk.ac.uk); Rebekah Lee (r.lee@gold.ac.uk)

Film as a powerful tool for social change in Africa

SCOLMA Lunchtime Seminars



Film as a powerful tool for social change in Africa - Dr Dominique Chadwick, Cambridge-based practitioner in film and development.


Monday 9th May, 1pm
Friends House
173 Euston Road
London NW1 2BJ


This discussion-based seminar will explore different applications of film in social development: as a campaigning tool; as a documentation tool; and as an empowering tool through the participative processes of film-making.


It will draw on a variety of short clips of films set in Africa, taken from the work of Dr Chadwick. The clips will be used to stimulate discussion on a range of themes such as development process, power relations, and the role of the external filmmaker.


Please note that as this event is being held in the Library at Friends House, food and drink are not permitted.


Contact Marilyn Glanfield if you would like to attend: meg23@cam.ac.uk or 01223 334398

Australian Film Festival - Barbican

The second of our Australian themed posts is to highlight the 17th London Australian Film Festival taking place from Thursday 5th to Thursday 12th of May, at the Barbican
The Festival showcases both the latest Australian feature films and documentaries, providing UK audiences with a unique overview of Australian cinema today.

With our history/social sciences hats on - here are a couple of our highlights of this year's festival:

Oranges & Sunshine Emily Watson, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham star in the true story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham who uncovered one of the most significant social scandals of recent times - the deportation of thousands of children from the UK to Australia which continued into the 1970s.
UK/Australia 2010 Dir. Jim Loach 104 min.
6 May 8.20pm
Strange Birds in Paradise Australian writer, cartoonist and comedian Charlie Hill-Smith explores the rich culture and recent history of West Papua. Having made strong connections there as a student on an exchange year, he returns investigating the people's resistance to Indonesian rule, exploring the music and the stories of two political exiles from West Papua.
2009 Australia Dir. Charlie Hill-Smith 75 min
9 May 6.00pm

Canadas rich documentary filmmaking heritage

The Hot Docs Doc Library celebrates Canadas rich documentary filmmaking heritage

and is supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage. It provides free access to a large growing collection of documentary films from Canadian film makers. These include materials from the National Film Board of Canada.

Materials can be searched or browsed by topic. There are also playlists for films by young film makers and a section designed for school and college use. A wide range of topics relating to social, political, economic and world events are covered. They include an emphasis on the history, culture and society of Canada, the anthropology of Canadian ethnic groups and Canadian perspectives on world events. Information on copyright and technical requirements is given on the website.

Human Rights Watch International Film Festival 19-25 March London

We're pleased to publicise the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, featuring films at the Ritzy, ICA, Curzon Soho and Curzon Mayfair, and encourage you to look at the full programme on their website.

Of Commonwealth interest include the following:

Good Fortune - questioning the benefits of international efforts to alleviate poverty, Good Fortune, presents a unique perspective on human rights abuses and environmental destruction carried out in the name of progress in Kenya. Screening Sunday 21st March at 6.30pm (ICA), the screening includes a question and answer session with the film's director.

Nero's Guests - documentary about the thousands of Indian farmers who commit suicide each year due to poverty and the inability to repay debts. Screening Monday 22nd March at 6.30pm (ICA).

War Don Don - tells the story of the sensational trial of Issa Sesay, a senior commander of the rebel Revolutionary United Front, Siera Leone. Screening Thursday 25th March at 6.30pm (ICA), the screening includes a question and answer session with the film's director.