Cinema Memory and the Digital Archive is delighted to announce that registration for ‘From Cinema Culture to Cinema Memory’ is now open.

The conference will run across 6 – 8 April at Forrest Hills, Lancaster University and can be attended either in person or virtually, via Microsoft Teams.

We welcome non-speaking delegates to register for the opportunity to participate in three days of fascinating papers, plenary sessions, workshops, artistic outputs inspired by the Cinema Culture in 1930s Britain project, and keynotes delivered by Professor Daniela Treveri Gennari and Professor Annette Kuhn.

We would particularly encourage in person attendance, where possible, to take full advantage of: the interactive elements of the conference; our evening social events; the natural beauty of Forrest Hills; a specially commissioned multimedia installation by the award winning theatre company, Imitating the Dog

Registration can be accessed here

The draft schedule for the conference can be viewed below.

Please email cmda@lancaster.ac.uk if you have any questions.

Revisit the 1930s through two classic films shot in Bolton

Two classics of British cinema, both partly shot in Bolton, will be screened at Bolton Little Theatre on Saturday 16 October 2021 at 230pm

The 1934 feature Sing As We Go! Stars Lancashire-born Gracie Fields and includes scenes shot in Bolton and Blackpool. In true Saturday matinee style, the feature film will be preceded by a short, Humphrey Jennings’s Spare Time. Inspired by Mass Observation and its ‘Worktown’ project, Jennings’s 1939 documentary looks at the leisure activities of coal, steel and cotton communities across Britain, with footage from Sheffield, Manchester and Pontypridd as well as Bolton.

The event is hosted by the Cinema Memory and the Digital Archive: 1930s Britain and Beyond (CMDA), a research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and based across Lancaster University, the University of Glasgow University, and Queen Mary University of London. The project’s chief aim is to make the Cinema Culture in 1930s Britain archive easily and freely accessible to members of the public for the very first time, in the form of an online digital archive. A number of interviews, letters, memorabilia and other materials relating to Bolton and its cinemas (along with other areas of Britain) can already be accessed on our website, with more being added frequently – www.lancs.ac.uk/CMDA

Alongside the films, there will be short introductory talks from experts from Bolton and beyond,  and archival materials relating to Bolton and its cinemagoing history–including items from CMDA’s and Live From Worktown’s own collections –will be on display in the theatre’s Forge studio .

Admission will be free of charge, but tickets must be pre-booked through Bolton Little Theatre on: 01204 524469 – or via the web: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/boltonlittletheatre/cinema-memory-and-the-digital-archive-sing-as-we-go/e-qjqqaj