FIAT/IFTA World Conference 16-10-15 Barber Sian

1. FILM AND TELEVISION:
FRAGMENTS FROM
THE RTÉ ARCHIVE
Dr Sian Barber
Queen’s University Belfast
S.Barber@qub.ac.uk

2. Scope and purpose of research:
• To look at the first years of RTÉ broadcasting
• To examine what archive footage could be accessed and
the RTV television guide which was published weekly to
explore film culture
• To access material from RTÉ archives and from the Irish
National Library, Dublin
Objective
To use this material to explore how television adds to
understanding of cinema and film

3. Method and approach
• Unlike film and cinema, broadcast television creates its own
archive.
• Film research usually begins with the text itself
• Broadcast programmes are retained – in the absence of the
programme –usually some metadata about the broadcast.
• But how can this material be utilised to help the film historian?
• How can we use written sources and fragments of visual
sources - often catalogued for internal use only or for
commercial reuse - as the basis for an academic evaluation?
• Can such an approach be valid?
• What are the challenges?
• How useful is this approach for research within other broadcast
institutions?

4. Initial research questions:
• What were the regular programmes broadcast on RTÉ about
film and cinema?
• What topics were discussed and explored in the programmes?
• What stars and directors are interviewed about their film work
and what does this suggest about the importance of film and
cinema to Ireland.
• Is film and cinema used as a means to discuss other issues –
e.g. censorship of film and the permissive society, violence on
the screen and the behaviour of children?
• How can these programmes be used to better understand the
relationship between television broadcasters and the medium
of film?
FAR TOO BROAD!

5. Focus of analysis:
1. Detailed survey of films being broadcast on channel in period
1962-1965.
2. Launch of regular programme on film, filmmaking and
cinema ‘Kino: World of film’ in 1963.
3. Coverage of the Cork Film festival.
4. Debates around cinema which can be discerned through the
broadcast listings including the weekly column of film reviews
and any retained archival material.
Specifically British new wave cinema and RTÉ and the discourse
around these innovative films which emerges through broadcaster
material

6. • The British new wave was a group of films / filmic
movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
• The films were distinctive for adopting innovative
filmmaking techniques
• Focus on social themes such as infidelity, promiscuity,
youth culture, social mobility, etc
• Focus on youthful protagonists with the notable motif of
the ‘angry young man’ who appears throughout other new
wave cinemas of this period.
• Seen as a radical departure from what had come before.

7. Films included:
Room at the Top (Jack Clayton, 1959)
Look Back in Anger (Tony Richardson, 1959)
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960)
A Taste of Honey (Tony Richardson, 1961)
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Tony Richardson, 1962)
A Kind of Loving (John Schlesinger, 1962)
This Sporting Life (Lindsay Anderson, 1963)
More broadly can also include films like Billy Liar (1963), Alfie (1966),
Darling (1965) etc.

8. The new wave in Ireland
Two conflicting ideas:
1) These films were too extreme for audiences and for the
Irish Film Censorship Board and so did not feature in
cinemas.
2) Although these films were often denied certificates and
were therefore unavailable to audiences, their existence
and the topics they embraced prompted debates around
what kind of material was suitable for adults and
children to view in Ireland. (Rockett, 2004, p.187)

9. RTÉ archive offers a further idea…
The new wave films were triggering serious debates about
social norms and behaviours and these debates were
taking place as part of broadcast television.
The existence of these debates as part of broadcast
material is evidenced by archival material discovered in the
RTÉ archives and retained as extracts from film
programmes broadcast on the channel.
Clip 1: DLX/00031: Cork Film Festival 1963
Clip 2: LX3201: ‘Kino’, Mai Zetterling interview from
Cork Film festival of 1963

10. What we know about this material
• Both clips were discovered through a search on the internal
catalogue and were catalogued as belonging to series ‘Kino:
The World of Film’ which began broadcasting in January 1963.
• Both clips are interviews from the Cork Film festival in 1963.
• Coverage of the Cork Film festival was included as part of the
Kino programme but this comprised only an hour long feature
broadcast on 11th October 1963.
• Raises questions about whether the material was broadcast in
its fullest form or whether the interviews were cut or edited for
broadcast. Or if they were broadcast as part of the film
programme at a later date, or if they were broadcast at all.
• Perhaps not broadcast on the television channel at all, but
rather were used in radio transmissions as part of the weekly
film programme on RTÉ radio?

11. Further discourse and the RTV guide
• The film critic for the RTV guide poet Patrick Kavanagh
actively disliked this kind of cinema. He disliked the
cinema in general and avoided reviewing films whenever
he could
• He found them depressing but also not really worthy of
critique. His review of A Kind of Loving from 4th June
1963 observes ‘[the film] came down from the Black
English Midlands and that [it] was the poor kind of loving.’
• About This Sporting Life he noted: ‘ I wish I could say
something positive about ‘This Sporting Life’ for the star is
from Limerick and well known in Dublin.’

12. A more nuanced picture:
• The RTV guide for Tuesday 27th August, includes a full
page write up of one of the films to be reviewed on KINO,
The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner by Tony
Richardson.
• By contrast, the Patrick Kavanagh column this week
describes his trip to the cinema to see The Punch and
Judy Show, a Tony Hancock Film and a Laurel and Hardy
rerun.

13. Conclusions
• Fascinating range of material which can be used to further
explore film and cinema through the televisual lens.
• Much more nuanced relationship emerges about filmic
movements addressed on the broadcast medium
• Television has a great deal to offer film scholars
• Huge research potential - a place to begin
• Film scholars and historians would benefit from more
detailed exploration of broadcaster archives to further
their knowledge of contemporary filmic discourse.
• Opportunity to work closely with archivists and those
familiar with the material – offers a closeness which often
not possible within traditional film studies approaches.

14. Research outcomes
• This presentation; an overview of what explored so far
• An academic journal article which draws out these
findings
• A more discursive piece or perhaps an AV exhibition using
some of the archival content identified for RTÉ archives
website
• A further conference presentation at a European
conference in 2017
Thank you to RTÉ and to FIAT/IFTA!