Dr Matthew Jones
Senior Lecturer in Film Studies
Overview
Dr Matthew Jones is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, Director of Postgraduate Taught Programmes in the Department of Communication, Drama and Film, and the Course Leader for MA International Film Business.
He is a specialist in film audiences, community cinema and film archives. He co-ordinates the History of Moviegoing, Exhibition and Reception international research network and is the author of Cinema Memories: A People's History of 1960s Cinemagoing ( BFI, 2022) with Professor Melvyn Stokes (UCL) and Dr Emma Pett (University of York), and Science Fiction Cinema and 1950s Britain: Recontextualising Cultural Anxiety (Bloomsbury, 2019).
Dr Jones' current research explores contemporary and historical community cinema practices in the UK. He is collaborating with Cinema for All (formerly the British Federation of Film Societies) on a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust-funded project to catalogue and open the archive of the Federation for the first time since its establishment in the 1940s. As non-commercial, volunteer-led film exhibition prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary in Britain, Dr Jones' important work is shedding new light on this underexplored aspect of the history of film consumption in the UK and the vital role played by the Federation in this largely untold story.
Research
- Film audiences
- Film archives
- Community cinema
- Non-commercial film exhibition
- Cinema memories
- Science fiction cinema
Research collaborations
I am currently involved in an extensive and rewarding collaboration with Cinema for All, formerly the British Federation of Film Societies. On our shared grant-funded project, I am cataloguing the Federation's archive, which dates back to the 1930s, and am writing the first institutional histories of this organisation. This fruitful partnership is likely to underpin my research agenda across the coming years, but I am always open to exploring new opprtunities to expand my commerical partnerships and research collaborations. Previous collaborations have involved the BBC and a range of other current media and cultural organisations, while I also once worked as the Curator of the Hammer Scripts Archive.
Supervision
I am keen to discuss potential research projects with students working in any area relating to my expertise. This could include the following, but this list is not intended to be exhaustive and I would encourage any potential student to get in touch to discuss your ideas.
- Film audiences
- Cinema memories
- Film archives and archival practices
- Community cinema
- Non-commercial film exhibition
- Non-traditional film-exhibition practices
- Science fiction cinema
- Film and television genres
- Mid-century British and/or US cinema and television
If you would like to discuss a potential project, please send me a brief outline of your ideas and a copy of your CV. I will look forward to hearing from you!
Publications
Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.
| 2022 | 2019 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 |
2022
- Stokes M, Jones M, Pett E. (2022) Cinema Memories A People's History of Cinema-going in 1960s Britain, Bloomsbury Publishing.
2019
- Jones M. (2019) Science Fiction Cinema and 1950s Britain Recontextualizing Cultural Anxiety, Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
2017
- Stokes M, Jones M. (2017) Windows on the world: Memories of European cinema in 1960s Britain, MEMORY STUDIES, volume 10, no. 1, pages 78-90, DOI:10.1177/1750698016670794. [PDF]
2016
- Jones M. (2016) The Cool and the Crazy: Pop Fifties Cinema, JOURNAL OF AMERICAN STUDIES, volume 50, no. 2, pages 486-487, DOI:10.1017/S0021875816000116. [PDF]
2015
- Jones M, Ormrod J. (2015) Time Travel in Popular Media Essays on Film, Television, Literature and Video Games, McFarland.
2014
- Jones M. (2014) 1950s science fiction cinema's depersonalisation narratives in Britain, Science Fiction Film & Television, volume 7, no. 1, pages 31-54, DOI:10.3828/sfftv.2014.2. [PDF]
2013
- Jones M. (2013) Censorship and sexuality in Bombay cinema, JOURNAL OF GENDER STUDIES, volume 22, no. 1, pages 111-112, DOI:10.1080/09589236.2013.766508. [PDF]
External impact and engagement
I have an extensive history of public engagement including the following:
- Nearly a decade as a film reviewer for BBC Leicester and a regular commentator on BBC Devon
- Director of a large-scale immersive cinema event, 'A Night at the Cinema in the 1960s', performed at Picturehouse Central in London and Phoenix Arts Centre in Leicester. This event, which recreated a cinemagoing experience during the swinging sixties based on my research into the public's memories of their own cinema visits in this decade, involved over 30 actors, two theatre directors and a partnership with Hammer Film Productions.
- Curator of two museum exhibitions at the Heritage Centre in Leicester, one on local cinema-going cultures in the city and the other on the history of monsters and villains in Hammer horror films.
