BFI season explores cinema’s portrayal of the British Empire

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by

Staff

"Zulu is just of the films being screened as part of the season. Image courtesy of the BFI
A new season of films at the BFI Southbank will explore cinema’s portrayal of the British Empire – used by successive filmmakers as an exotic background against which to tell their tales.

The season will include screenings of classic movies and special events.
 
Highlights include well known features such as 1963‘s Zulu and lesser-known films as such Windom’s Way.

There’ll also be a screening of the BFI National Archive’s new print of The Planter’s Wife (1952). 

Each screening will be accompanied by short films that illustrate the fraught political climate of the Empire during  its final moments. 

Special events include a Q&A with Man Of Africa director Cyril Frankel and an appearance by actor Earl Cameron who starred with Dirk Bogarde and Virginia McKenna in Simba (1955).
 
The season coincides with the release of two books published by BFI/Palgrave entitled Empire & Film and Film and the End of Empire