City in Film: Liverpool's urban landscape and the moving image

Project start date: 2006-05

Project end date: 2008-05

While the relationship between film and cities has been widely explored in research on architecture, urban space and the moving image, there have been no sustained place-based studies in which representations drawn from a range of filmic genres and practices are historically situated within their social, spatial and architectural context. The principal objective of the City in Film project is the compilation of database catalogue of films made in and about Liverpool, with a particular emphasis on the city's historical urban landscape. The research draws together information on archival material from a wide number of different sources, including local, regional and national archives, as well as private collections and local independent film, arts and media organisations. Accessible on-line via the project website, the catalogue provides a research tool for scholars, filmmakers, and anyone interested in the social, architectural and filmic history of Liverpool. Consisting of, amongst other genres, actualities, newsreel footage, local amateur films, documentaries, travelogues, and municipal films, the films compiled as part of the research constitute a comprehensive survey of a city on film from 1897 to the 1980s. This mapping of Liverpool’s filmic spaces of memory provides a spatial reading of landscapes and locations depicted in each film, enabling researchers to analyse not only the shifting topographical and architectural specificities of the city over time (and across filmic genres), but also the different forms of social engagement with the city’s spaces. Through the instigation of symposia as well as public events and screenings the project seeks to foster interdisciplinary dialogue on film and urban landscapes and to open up research on Liverpool’s filmic and architectural heritage to wider public access and engagement. While geographically-specific, the project also aims to present a case study for the development of a new methodological and analytical approach to the study of film, history and the urban landscape that may be applied in other urban settings, both nationally and internationally.