Events
The Colonial Reels project organises, hosts, cultivates and participates in a variety of events related to colonial history, film theory and practice, and the international cinema industry. See below our upcoming events and related events
Searching the Film Archives
The Empire Christmas Pudding and other Christmas Colonial Reels
Birkbeck Institute of the Moving Image, 43 Gordon Square London, WC1H 0BE
12th December 2025
6.00pm– 9.00pm
Colonial Reels: Histories and Afterlives of Colonial Film Collections presents:
In the wake of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley 1924-1925, and on the cusp of the founding of the British Film Institute in 1933, the Empire Marketing Board releases its film One Family (1930) to damning critical reception. Re-visiting this colonial archive, what was the British Government and its Empire Marketing Board doing in sponsoring and releasing this film and is Christmas being mobilised to feed a fantasy of a family of empire in the past or in the future?
Extracts screened include:
One Family (Walter Creighton, Empire Marketing Board, 1930)
Troops Home for Christmas (Pathé,1934)
Christmas under Fire (Crown Film Unit, Harry Watt, 1941)
Christmas at Peace (Pathé,1945)
and other extracts ….
Emma Sandon will be joined by a panel of discussants:
Patrick Russell (Senior Curator, Non-Fiction, BFI National Archive)
Sam Iwowo (Colonial Reels, University of Bournemouth)
Jacqueline Maingard (Colonial Reels, University of Bristol)
Grazia Ingravalle (Queen Mary University of London)
and will invite an audience Q & A.
The screenings and discussion will be followed by drinks and nibbles in the cinema foyer (no Christmas pudding!)
Dylan Thomas in Iran: Reframing colonial oil industry archive imagery
Sat 15 Nov 2025 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
The Colonial Reels project is colaborating with Afrika Eye with project member Dr Samantha Iwowo giving a talk after the screening of The Man Died (Nigeria 2024), and project lead Professor Jacqueline Maingard as part of a panel after the screening of Come Back Africa (South Africa, 1959)
Saturday 15th November -The Man Died - Arnolfini
Q&A w/ Dr Samantha Iwowo, Principal Academic, screenwriter, director and researcher - 3:40pm
Sunday 16th November - Come Back Africa - Arnolfini
Q&A with Film Curator Mosa Mpeta, Professor Jacqueline Maingard & musician Sisanda Myataza- 5:50pm
Community Cinema: Soundtrack to a Coup d’État (+ Director Q&A)
19 November 2025, 6:30 pm–10:00 pm
Searching the Film Archives: Activating Memories, Reflections and Histories - Birkbeck Institute of the Moving Image
21 November 5.00pm - 9.00pm