The British Silent Film Festival Symposium will offer a day of new research papers on film culture in Britain and its empire before 1930. Papers range from considerations of the earliest experiments in film technology during the 1890s to studies of the developed academic film culture of 1929. There will be discussions of film-makers in the UK and London, and also film-makers operating across the globe, as far afield as Ireland, Africa, Antarctica. Fiction feature films, travelogues, scientific films and amateur films will be discussed. Many presenters have responded to encouragement in the call for papers to respond to films available through the BFI Player and in the digital platforms of the UK Regional Film Archives. A list of paper titles and presenters will be posted in due course. 

Tea and coffee will be provided. Delegates are expected to find their own lunch (there are many cafes and catering outlets in King’s College London, and nearby along the Strand).