Christian Missions in Global History Seminar in association with Birkbeck Institute of the Moving Image presents a workshop on Missionary Film, Films with a Mission, at Gordon Square Cinema, Birkbeck, 43 Gordon Square WC1H 0PD on Saturday 6th June, 2015 from 13.30 to 18.00.

This half-day workshop will explore some of the key issues and questions in historically assessing missionary film collections and the significance of the ready acceptance and use of film technology by Christian missions for evangelistic purposes. The workshop includes screenings of films made in Africa and India by and about British Protestant missions: The Salvation Army, London Missionary Society and the Methodist Missionary Society, all of which produced a significant amount of film in the first half of the twentieth century. We will also screen a fiction film made by Thomas Gavin Duffy and R.S Prakash at the Pondicherry Catholic mission in South India. The presentations by academic and independent scholars will discuss how we can begin to assess the motivations, reach and impact of the production and screening of these films on local and global audiences, contemporary to their period. The workshop will thus reflect on the importance of film in the history of missionary activities and raise new perspectives for the study of collections of missionary film archive.

Includes a talk by Tony Fletcher, and followed by the launch of Tony’s new book: The Salvation Army and the Cinematograph 1897-1929 – A Religious Tapestry in Britain and India (Local History Publications, 2015).

More information here.

Entrance is free and all are welcome. No booking required. There is disabled access and a café for refreshments.