Christophe Dupin
Christophe Dupin, Post-doctoral Research Assistant at Queen Mary, University of London - on a decade spent researching the BFI:
"I have been researching the history of the British Film Institute for nearly 10 years. I initially looked into the origins and early development of the Institute (for an MA dissertation), before examining the history of the BFI Production Board (for my PhD). I am now involved in a 4 1/2-year Research Project funded by the AHRC and hosted by the Department of History at Queen Mary, University of London.
"Although the BFI is one of the oldest and most distinguished government-supported cultural institutions (not only in the UK but also in the world) and has been a focal point of debate about the national film culture since its inception in the early 1930s, little attention has been paid to its history. The AHRC History of the BFI Research Project aims to remedy this gap in historical knowledge. To achieve this, we have been interviewing major participants in this history, many of which have been recorded on video. A substantial audio-visual archive is being assembled, combining these new interviews with existing recordings and other film, television and video materials.
"We have also been sorting and examining the BFI's extensive paper archive at the BFI National Library, and looking at relevant papers in various other archives (in particular the National Archives). The digitisation of key documents and photographs has been another of our priorities. A website is being constructed through which to present this selected material, together with a detailed chronicle of major events in the BFI's history. We have already published accounts of our research-in-progress in a number of articles, and we are currently working on a book that will tell the story of the BFI from its foundation until 2000. Publication is expected in September 2008, in time for the BFI's 75th anniversary."
Christophe works on the AHRC History of the British Film Institute Research Project at Queen Mary, University of London as a Post-doctoral Research Assistant with Professor Geoffrey Nowell-Smith.
His recent publications based on this research include:
- 'The Postwar Transformation of the British Film Institute and its Impact on the Development of a National Film Culture in Britain', Screen, 47:4 (2006)
- 'The Origins and Early Development of the National Film Library: 1929-1936', Journal of Media Practice, 7:3, (2007).
Christophe has curated a number of events around the Free Cinema movement and produced the DVD box set Free Cinema: The definitive film collection.
Christophe has a degree in Politics (Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Grenoble), an MA in Film Studies (Birkbeck College/BFI) and completed his PhD on the history of the BFI's film production activity (a copy of which is held at the BFI National Library whilst also employed at the BFI. He currently teaches early French cinema at Birkbeck.
