Film and Education

Abstract

Film and Education traces the key concepts in film and education from the Report of the Commission on Educational and Cultural Films that led to the establishment of the British Film Institute in 1933, exploring the historical context of the Ministry of Education's film education experiment. Issues of organisational responsibility are discussed alongside developments in production, distribution and access to the medium. Film and Education also discusses the evolution of a range of different, sometimes conflicting, approaches to film and education, from 1930s `visual education' and `instructional' films, through to the BFI's `film appreciation' of the 1950s. Southern asserts that this period saw the development of a sub-genre of non-fiction film that existed on the margins of production and exhibition.