Like father? : Failing parents and angelic children in contemporary British social realist cinema

This chapter, published in an anthology relating to notions of masculinity in European and Hollywood cinema, explores the representation of parental relationships and representation of children in contemporary British realist film. This developed out of research undertaken for a PhD thesis, which was concerned with the enunciation of gendered space in British social realist film-making. Leggott is currently developing his research interests through a commissioned book on contemporary British cinema; this will interrogate notions of national cinema through a consideration of issues of genre, realism and representation. His concern with the representation of children has been developed in his work on British cinema of the 1970s. He has contributed a chapter on British realist cinema of the 1970s to a forthcoming anthology (edited by Robert Shail), and will be expanding a conference paper on the “realist youth films” of Barney Platts-Mills into an article/chapter Leggott’s interest in British realist film culture has led to an engagement with the work of the Amber Film Collective (which is discussed briefly in the chapter). He has co-written a book chapter (forthcoming, edited by Hilary Fawcett) on Amber, and this is envisaged as the beginnings of a substantial research project (in collaboration with Tobias Hochscherf) on Amber and the regional film workshop movement. An article on Amber’s documentary practice has been submitted to a journal, and a conference paper/chapter on their use of digital technology is planned.