Filmstrip Events across the UK

20 March 2024

As part of Tom Rice's ongoing RSE network grant, "The Lost World of Filmstrips" (2022-2024), Rice has run a series of events, partnering with major UK institutions.

Most recently in January 2024, he collaborated with The National Archives, London on a one-day workshop, entitled "Still, Unseen: Relocating Filmstrips of the British Empire." The event brought together researchers, archivists, educationalists and artists to examine often-overlooked and disparate collections from across the UK. The first part of the workshop connected rarely seen Colonial Office filmstrips from the National Library of Scotland (1948-1957), production materials and artworks from the Museum of English Rural Life, audience surveys and government reports from the National Archives, and related posters and booklets stretching across the British Empire. The second part explored the possibilities and ethics of engaging with this media form, through digital humanities techniques and through creative practice in ways that sensitively addressed the ethics and political legacies of the material.

This event, held at the National Archives in London, followed another workshop in September 2023 held at the NLS, Edinburgh, specifically for PhD students. Entitled "Lost and In-between: Locating and revisiting 'obsolete' media", the workshop showcased the possibilities and challenges of utilising these historical materials in education and research. A final event for this initial RSE network grant is scheduled for May 2024 in St Andrews.