Talks
Munch and Listen
Enjoy our free monthly lunchtime talks programme - just bring your lunch and listen! All welcome.
Please note: there are no talks in August and December.
Piecing Together the Past: Tracing Lost Films
By Ian Christie, Professor of Film and Media History, Birkbeck College.
- Monday 29 April, 12.15pm
Most of the hundreds of films produced in Muswell Hill by early film pioneer Robert Paul before 1910 have disappeared. But they are gradually being found, often in strange places! In this talk, Ian Christie (external link) will reveal some recent discoveries, and suggests how and where we might look for more long-lost early films.
The talk accompanies the current exhibition at Bruce Castle Museum, 'Animatograph! How cinema was born in Haringey'.
Doors open 12 noon.
Refreshments available.
Kindly supported by the Friends of Bruce Castle.
Hear Here
Our free evening monthly talks programme is on the last Wednesday of each month. All welcome.
Please note: there are no talks in August and December.
Please also note the change in date for May's evening talk, which is now at beginning of June.
The Man Who Invented Cinema – really! Britain's first film studio in Muswell Hill
By Ian Christie, Professor of Film and Media History, Birkbeck College.
- Wednesday 24 April, 7.30pm
How did the early film pioneer Robert Paul of Muswell Hill get dropped from British film history? France, America and Germany have all celebrated their own film pioneers. But Britain has had a complex relationship with the industry that started in London in 1894. Join film historian and specialist Ian Christie (external link) as he unpacks the hidden history of Paul's neglect, arguing that his pioneering example should be recognised today to inspire us in this age of digital media.
The talk accompanies the current exhibition at Bruce Castle Museum, 'Animatograph! How cinema was born in Haringey'.
Doors open 7pm.
Refreshments available.
Kindly supported by Friends of Bruce Castle.
Black Britons in Art, 1780 - 1840
By Dr Jan Marsh, writer, curator, and 19th century portraiture specialist
- Wednesday 5 June, 7.30pm
Please note this change in date - there is no May evening talk, which is now arranged for 5 June.
In the long decades of the Abolitionist campaigns against British and American slavery during the late 1700s and 1800s, citizens of African ancestry were a very visible presence in London, and were depicted by white artists in a variety of visual images from oil paintings to illustrations. This talk by Jan Marsh, the curator of the Black Victorians exhibition, brings their images into view.
Dr Jan Marsh (website - external link) was the curator and author of 'Black Victorians: black people in British Art 1800-1900' (published by Manchester Art Gallery and Lund Humphries, 2005).
The talk accompanies the current exhibition at Bruce Castle Museum, 'Black Georgian Londoners: Portraits, People and Perceptions', which brings together a rare collection of black portraiture and shows the depth of the black presence and communities in this country.
Doors open 7pm.
Refreshments available.
Kindly supported by the Fellowship of St John and the Friends of Bruce Castle.
