Navigations and Negotiations: Examining the (Post)Colonial Landscape of The Assam Garden

The purpose of this article is to foreground the idea of the garden as a cinematic space predicated on its ability to accommodate movement, both in a literal and metaphorical sense. Fuelled by Doreen Massey and Karen Lury's exchange in the 1999 Space/Place/City themed issue of Screen, especially Massey's assertion that investigations of the cinematic city should not be at the expense of other sites of interest, I use The Assam Garden (1985), directed by Mary McMurray, as a British case study to explore the garden's inherent mobility. Importantly, I consider this spatial quality in both aesthetic and ideological terms. Drawing inspiration from a variety of scholarship, including Martin Lefebvre's investigation of the cinematic landscape (2006) and Edward Said's theories of Orientalist discourse (1978), I thus question the Assam garden's function as setting, spectacle and social space and, in particular, whether it can transcend the initial meanings ascribed to it by the fixed male gaze of a colonial official. By connecting the garden specifically to the large-scale movements of colonial and postcolonial journeys I ultimately seek to persuade that this space is fundamentally cinematic and deserves further examination. </jats:p

Book Review: Screen Dynamics: Mapping the Borders of Cinema ed. by Gertrud Koch, Volker Pantenburg, Simon Rothöhler

As the title of Gertrud Koch, Volker Pantenburg, and Simon Rothöhler’s edited collection SCREEN DYNAMICS: MAPPING THE BORDER OF CINEMA (Vienna: Austrian Film Museum, 2012) suggests, this volume provides an energetic, enthusiastic, and engaging journey through the particularities (and peculiarities) of cinema. Due attention is given to questions of cinematic spectatorship, the issue of cinema’s specificity, the relationship between the cinematic image and other screen images, as well as the impact that new technologies have on these images. Appropriate to the ‘volatile situation’ (p. 6) under discussion is the lively approach adopted by each of the 12 contributors. Indeed, it comes as no surprise that this collection is largely based on talks given at a conference in 2010, with the vigour and value of that initial debate nicely evidenced through shared beliefs, overlapping concerns, and recurring points of reference (for example, the concept of cinema as a utopian or heterotopian space appears several times)

Audience Engagement and Development at a Town and Gown Cinema

This paper presents the initial findings of a research project investigating the audience engagement and development strategies of UK ‘town and gown’ cinemas. These are independent cinemas located on a university campus or strongly affiliated with a local university that cater to both the academic community and the general population. While there is growing scholarship on audience formation and regional cinema culture in the UK, there is little understanding of the particular challenges such cinemas face as they seek to offer a wide range of films while simultaneously serving a wide range of audiences. The paper takes as a case study the Gulbenkian cinema, situated on the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data about the cinema, as well as interviews with its programming and marketing team, it examines the Gulbenkian’s current programming strategies, the relative success of different types of film screened in 2019-20 and the different types of audience that attend the cinema. It then outlines strategies that have been developed to tap into the various demographics that the cinema serves, including a number of student-focussed initiatives. In doing so, the paper offers an overview of some of the negotiations that must be made by a cinema that seeks to appeal to diverse and distinct audiences

The English Village in Emma: An Empirical Study of Heritage Dramas, Location Filming and Host Communities

This article considers location filming for heritage dramas in rural England, focusing on the experiences of the communities that “host” television crews during production. The article specifically examines the filming of the 2009 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, for which the historic Kent village, Chilham, doubled as the fictional Highbury. In doing so, it interrogates two central aspects. First, it illuminates some of the practical issues and economic and cultural impact of location filming for heritage dramas within rural areas. Second, it reflects upon how a community experiences and responds to its status as the host of such a series, considering the impact this has upon questions of identity and heritage. The article draws upon original empirical research, oral history interviews and community archive building conducted within the Chilham community and with Kent Film Office. It explores the memories and experiences of the local population involved in the television location filming process, as both spectators and participants. We thus consider the significance of location from the point of view of those who solicit, resist, profit from, and are caused problems by the temporary transformation of their local space into a television drama shooting space, forging new connections between production practices, location shooting and heritage series and national television/cinema

'Our Pier': Leisure activities and local communities at the British seaside

The seaside resort has long held a distinctive position within the history of British leisure. Its peculiar physicality whereby the natural landscape of sea and sand combines with distinctive architectural elements, such as pavilions and piers, has accommodated many and varied leisure activities across the years. However, to date, the majority of research on British coastal resorts considers these activities solely in connection with tourism. Using a combination of contextual archival research, participant observations, semi-structured interviews and oral history narratives, this article attempts a deliberate shift in focus where the leisure activities of a young local population are brought to the fore in the history of British seaside entertainment and, in particular, their experiences of pleasure piers in the post-war era. The article also explores the potential for the concept of the ‘community pier’ in terms of nurturing seaside leisure cultures in the present and future