Ms Laraine Porter

British silent cinema, silent cinema and live music, British Silent Film Festival, the BECTU Oral History Project, Women’s Film History, British cinema history, Cinema and World War I, British silent film comedy.

CATHI – Cinema and Television History Research History

Click here for a full listing of Laraine Porter's publications and outputs.

‘How Shall We Look Again? Revisiting the Archive in British Silent Cinema and the Great War’ in Hammond, M and Williams, M. (eds) British Silent Cinema and the Great War (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

‘From Slapstick  to Satire: British Silent Film Comedy’ in Hunter I.Q and Porter L. (eds) British Comedy Cinema (London: Routledge, 2012).

• British cinema history
• Silent cinema 
• Cinema comedy
• British cinema
• Women and cinema
• The Transition between silent and sound cinema in the UK
• UK cinema exhibition; policy, finance and practice
• Independent cinema in the UK 
• Super 8 Film making in the 1980s

• Film theory Film history
• Film and documentary
• Film genre
• American cinema
• Women and cinema

MA (Distinction) 

• Film 1000 Introduction to Film Studies
• Cinema and Realism
• Women and Cinema
• American Film and Visual Culture

Trustee of Media Archive of Central England (MACE) since 2000-2012

Women’s Film and TV History Network (Steering group member from 2009)

Elizabeth von Arnim, The Princess Priscilla’s Fortnight and The Runaway Princess’ – presentation/paper at the Women’s Film History Network at BFI Southbank - 7 November 2009. Funded by DMU.

‘On the Category of ‘Women’ in Film Exhibition’ – paper give at the International Women’s Film History Network - Columbia University NY, 11-14 March 2010 (funded by AHRC Women’s Film History Project).

‘A Lass and a Lack: Women and British Silent Film Comedy’ paper given at the Women and the Silent Screen Conference, University of Bologna - June 2010. Funded by DMU Research.

‘The History of the Phoenix in Leicester’ – presentation given at the ‘From Silent Screen to Digital Screen’ conference at, Phoenix Square July 2010.

‘Ruritanian Runaways, Vagabond Queens and Cockney Flower Sellers: Class, Comedy and Romance in British Silent Film’ 3 March 2011 as part of ‘RomCom Actually’, DMU Cultural Exchanges Festival’.

Other forms of public presentation

‘Archive Film and Sport’ presentation for Screen East/Cultural Olympiad as part of the Cambridge Film Festival, June 2008.

‘Rats, Ruffians and Rascals; The Globalisation of Crime in British Silent Cinema’, British Silent Film Festival April 2008, Broadway, Nottingham (Festival Director and presenter).

‘Music, Sound and the British Silent Film’ British Silent Film Festival June 2009, Barbican, London (Festival Director and presenter).

‘Hindle Wakes’  introduction to film and presentations on Archive Film at the Blackpool Festival, 19 -21 February 2010, in conjunction with National Fairground Archive at Sheffield University.

 ‘The World Before You, Exploration, Science and Nature in the British Silent Film’ Festival April 2010, Phoenix Square, Leicester (Festival Director).

‘Going to the Movies; Music Sound and the British Silent Film’ British Silent Film Festival April 2011 at Barbican in London (Festival Director and presenter).

BBC World Talking Movies – interview with Al Moloney – April 2011.

The 15th British Silent Film Festival – April 2012 at the Arts Picturehouse in Cambridge (Festival Director and presenter).

BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour interview Friday 3 Feb (reprised Sat 4 Feb) on the effects of the transition to sound cinema on film stars in the 1920s.

See Hear feature on BBC 2 TV - interview on the use of deaf actors in silent cinema, broadcast on 7 March 2012.

I was the Director of Broadway Media Centre in Nottingham between 1998 and 2008 and have expertise in all aspects of cinema and media exhibition, programming, policy, finance and practice and in venue management. 

• Vivienne Chadder PhD, 1st Supervisor 
• Sandra Frost PhD 2nd Supervisor

• Tol’able David (1921) with Damian Coldwell, November 2009 Arts Council England c£4,500 for new music commission for silent film and performances in December 2009 at the Barbican and April 2010 at Phoenix Square.
• British Silent Film Festival December 2009 EM Media/National Lottery £15,595.
• British Silent Film Festival – January 2012 – Creative England - £7,500.

• RIF funds for The British Silent Film Festival 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. The Festival is organised in collaboration with the British Film Institute.

1. British Silent Film Festival editorial and reviews in national, regional media. 

The Independent on Sunday 11 April 2010

BBC Radio Leicester live interview 9 April 2010

Guardian Guide 30 May – 5 June 2009, 10-16 April 2010

Guardian (Matthew Sweet) 8 April 2011

Guardian Guide 2-8 April 2011

The Sunday Times: Critics’ Choice 20 March 2011

Time Out: Critics’ Choice x 2 4 April 2011

BBC Radio 4:  The Culture Show– interview with Bryony Dixon/BFI April 2011

BBC World TV (8 minute feature presented by Al Moloney Broadcast worldwide 12 April 2011

BBC Radio Cambridge interview with Neil Brand 18 April 8.00pm, 2012

BBC Radio 4 ‘The Culture Show’ interview with Bryony Dixon on Thurs 19 April, 2012

The Guardian online Festival review posted on 22 April, 2012

British Silent Film Festival attendance figures

2009, Barbican and BFI Southbank, London 3000 attendees 

2011 Barbican 3200 attendees

Public responses for the 2010 Festival  – examples quoted below

‘...An absolutely 5 star event..it completely surpassed all my expectations as a member of the public attending for the first time..It was also excellent that members of the public, like myself could mix over lunch and the evening meal. In addition....very best wishes for the future of the Festival’. John Moloney, Leicester

‘Thanks ..…I did see the very good piece on East Midlands today.  Well done to every body involved in the very successful festival.  I loved “The Sheik”!!  Best regards Ted Cassidy