Film, In Theory

Film, in Theory tells the story of Paddy Whannel and Peter Wollen's revolutionary work at the BFI’s Education Department and how this led to the establishment of film studies, theory and education in Britain during the 1960s and 1970s.

Colm McAuliffe explores how Whannel and Wollen worked together to re-fashion the BFI as a modern and progressive laboratory of ideas, hosting experimental seminars, revamping BFI Summer Schools, and launching the Cinema One series (co-edited by Whannel and Penelope Houston, editor of Sight & Sound magazine). Through extensive archival research and interviews with key figures, McAuliffe explores how the department became "a crucible for the future of film theory."

He recounts how they transformed Screen from a teachers' journal into a theoretical publication, where a form of feminist film critique, led by Claire Johnston and Laura Mulvey, emerged. Johnston, Mulvey, and other feminist theorists were integral to the formation of a women's counter-cinema and, alongside Whannel and Wollen, sparked not just the birth of film studies, but an intellectual revolution. This book traces contemporary critiques of normativity—regarding race, gender, and sexuality—back to the heated debates that marked the opening up of film studies during the intellectually vibrant Sixties.