Dr Tom Rice
Lecturer in Film Studies
Research profile
With a focus on film history, my research examines the complex relationship between political and cultural movements and cinema. My initial research centred on early American cinema, looking at the interconnection between cinema, modernity and conservative forces in the US in the 1920s. More recently, I have worked extensively on British colonial, world and transnational cinemas, as the senior postdoctoral researcher on a major 3 year AHRC funded project, entitled Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire. I have written extensive historical essays on over 200 films and production companies, which can be found at www.colonialfilm.org.uk. These essays cover a broad range of geographical areas, periods and genres including, for example, British sponsored documentaries, war propaganda, amateur films, African health films, Indian newsreels, and early travelogues. I have spoken on aspects of this research in America, India and Hong Kong, and have helped organise film seasons, conferences and educational programmes utilising the colonial film materials.
I am also Co-Director (with Dr Joshua Yumibe) of Cinema St Andrews, an archival research project established in 2011. For more information go to http://cinemastandrews.org.uk.
See also the PURE research profile.
Research students
I would welcome approaches from research students working on projects related to aspects of film history, colonial cinema, British documentary, early American cinema, world cinemas (especially pre-1960), non-theatrical film practices, and educational and government film. I would be particularly interested in supervising projects that engage with primary research materials or that work with film archives.
Selected publications
Selected Publications
‘From the Inside: The Colonial Film Unit and the Beginning of the End', in Lee Grieveson and Colin Maccabe (eds), Film and the End of Empire (London: BFI, 2011), 135-154.
‘Exhibiting Africa: British Instructional Films and The Empire Series, 1925-1928', in Lee Grieveson and Colin Maccabe (eds), Empire and Film, (London: BFI, 2011), 115-134.
‘Protecting Protestantism: The Ku Klux Klan vs. The Motion Picture Industry', Film History, Volume 20:3 (2008), pp. 367-380.
‘"The True Story of the Ku Klux Klan": Defining the Klan through Film', Journal of American Studies, 42 (2008), 3, pp. 471-488.
My research has been widely published on the Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire website at www.colonialfilm.org.uk. I have also written for other publications (including Sight and Sound, Screenonline and BFI DVD releases).
Recent Papers
January 2012: ‘Voices of Malaya at the End of Empire‘, Documentary Film/ Hong Kong/Grierson Conference, Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University.
October 2011: ‘Watching Audiences: The Colonial Film Unit and the (Mobile) Exhibition of Empire‘, Film Cultures: Historical Perspectives Conference, EFL University Hyderabad.
October 2011: ‘Early Cinema‘, one-day workshop organised and run with Dr Lee Grieveson at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad.
September 2011: 'Watching Audiences in the British Empire‘, Cultures of Surveillance Conference, UCL.
September 2010: ‘Africans in England: The Colonial Film Unit and the Beginning of the End', Colonial Film Conference, University of Pittsburgh.
July 2010: ‘From the Colonies to Britain (and back again): British Instructional and the Empire Series, 1925-1928', Colonial Film Conference, Birbkeck, University of London.
Current research
I am currently working on two book projects.
‘Life After Birth: The Ku Klux Klan and Cinema' examines the role of cinema in the formation, development and demise of the Klan between 1915 and 1939. Developed from my doctoral research, my work considers the ways in which the Klan used, produced and protested against film in order to recruit members, generate publicity and define itself as a traditional, Protestant American organisation.
‘Governing Empire: The Colonial Film Units, 1940-1960' extends my interest in didactic and non-theatrical film practices, exploring the establishment and growth of the Colonial Film Units (in England, Africa, Malaya and the Caribbean) during the 1940s and 50s. My work here examines the varied ways in which film was used in projects of colonial governance while also exploring the emergence of cinema cultures in colonised and post-colonial territories.
Teaching
I currently teach the following modules:
Postgraduate modules
FM5104 Colonial Cinema (Convener)
FM5001 Theory and Practice of Research in Film Studies
Undergraduate
FM4109 Film and the Archive (Co-Convener with Dr Joshua Yumibe)
FM1002 Film History and Historiography (Convener)
FM1001 Key Concepts in Film Studies
FM2001 Modern World Cinemas
FM2002 Film Theory, Culture and Entertainment
FM3001 Contemporary Film Theory