History@Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth's History Blog

Tag Archives | cinema

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‘An hour or two of welcome relaxation’: The cinema business in wartime Britain

By on March 29, 2022 in Research in Focus

On 12 January 2022 our own Dr Rob James, Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Social History, presented at the first History research seminar of the new year (Happy New Year everyone!) with a thought-provoking paper on the effect of world war on the cinema trade in Britain. If you missed the paper, the recording is available here (you will need to the password Q64&W$?2). In the seminar, Rob discussed how, during both the First and Second World War, the film industry was faced with a wide range of challenges that, in the worst-case scenario, threatened its continued existence. Rob explained that cinema trade personnel responded to the challenging wartime circumstances by […]

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History Film Club – having a conversation about history and film

By on April 19, 2021 in Events, Public History

Our level 5 students have taken over running the UoP history film club, which launched in January.  Below Emily, Kieran, Harry and Ben tell you about their exciting plans.  Hi there – hopefully if you’re reading this blog piece you are interested in our student-run History Film Club (and for good reason)! Four of us who are studying History have started a film club that is run through our Discord server (more on that later), for which we have so-far received positive feedback. We would like to extend our invitation to any student who is interested in attending – you don’t have to come to every screening, just when you’d […]

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A Festival of Dark Delights: Portsmouth DarkFest 2018

By on October 16, 2018 in Events, News

Dr Karl Bell, Reader in Cultural and Social History, discusses the launch of this year’s Portsmouth DarkFest. Karl researches ‘everything spooky’, and his second book was on the Victorian legend of Spring-Heeled Jack. He’s now working on a book on proto-science fiction ideas in British culture between c.1750-1900. This weekend sees the return of Portsmouth DarkFest, an annual creative and cultural festival that explores the supernatural, the spooky and urban noir. Now in its third year, the festival originally grew from my historical research into nineteenth-century ghost stories in Portsmouth. I was particularly interested in the power of folkloric stories and the way haunted locations can change our understanding of both […]

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Going to the cinema? The changing uses of Portsmouth’s cinema buildings

By on August 24, 2018 in Learning in Focus, Public History

In this blog, the second in a series of posts looking at sites of historical interest in Portsmouth, Dr Rob James, Senior Lecturer in History, discusses the changing uses of the city’s cinema buildings. Rob specialises in researching society’s leisure activities and teaches a number of units on film and the cinema, including, as part of the Problems and Perspectives unit, ‘History at the Movies’ in the first year, ‘The Way to the Stars: Film and cinema-going in Britain, c. 1900-c. 2000’ option in the second year, and a Special Subject on ‘Cinema-going in Wartime Britain, 1939-1945’ in the third year. Going to the cinema was an important leisure pastime […]

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Odeon cinema, North End

‘Make your public curious’: The highs and lows of being a cinema manager

By on March 30, 2018 in Research in Focus

In this blog Dr Rob James, Senior Lecturer in History, discusses the challenges of being a cinema manager in Britain in the first half of the 20th century. Rob specialises in researching society’s leisure activities and teaches a number of units on film and the cinema, including, as part of the Problems and Perspectives unit, ‘History at the Movies’ in the first year, ‘The Way to the Stars: Film and cinema-going in Britain, c. 1900-c. 2000’ option in the second year, and a Special Subject on ‘Cinema-going in Wartime Britain, 1939-1945’ in the third year. Going to the cinema is the result of a series of choices. A number of […]

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Intersecting port cities: PTUC members collaborate with the Port Cities Research Centre, Kobe, Japan

By on August 21, 2017 in Events

In June, four members of the history team at Portsmouth participated in a series of field trips, presentations, and workshops with academics from Kobe University in Japan. In this blog, one of the founding members of the Port Towns and Urban Cultures research group, Dr Rob James, who is a senior lecturer in history, discusses the visit and what potential future opportunities the collaboration promises. As part of our goal to extend links with other institutions worldwide, four members of the University’s Port Towns and Urban Cultures (PTUC) project, Dr Mel Bassett, Professor Brad Beaven, Dr Karl Bell and Dr Rob James, travelled to Kobe, Japan in late-June to meet scholars […]

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