Paul Kerr

Paul Kerr is Senior Lecturer in Broadcast Media. He is the author and editor of a number of books and articles on television and film. He started his career at the British Film Institute but for the last twenty years he has been a television producer, making dozens of programmes for the BBC and Channel Four as well as a number of international co-productions. He began his TV career by specialising in major series about the media - Open The Box (C4 1986), The Media Show (C4 1987-90), and the award-winning cinema series, Moving Pictures (BBC2 1990-96) but developed into working in a range of programmes about the arts, history and current affairs. His research interests include documentary, drama documentary, ‘quality’ television, the independent production sector in film and television, the audio-visual media industries and international art cinema.

He is a former member of the Screen editorial board and was a producer-director at October Films from 1999 to 2007.

Contact details
Room LHB28 Ladbroke House
Ext 5157

Email p.kerr@londonmet.ac.uk

Publications

Books

• The Crimean War, Boxtree/C4, 1997 reprinted 1998 & 2000 (editor/co-author). Book to complement with Channel 4 series I produced about the first media war.
• The Hollywood Film Industry, RKP, 1986 (editor)
• MTM: Quality Television, British Film Institute, 1984 (co-editor and co-author)
• Drama-Documentary, BFI Dossier 19, 1982 (co-editor)

Articles

• "A small, effective organization”: The Mirisch Company, the package-unit system and the production of ‘Some Like It Hot’' in McNally, Karen (ed) Billy Wilder book (untitled) 2010 forthcoming, McFarland.
• ‘Reality Television and the Demise of the ‘Real’: A Case Study of How History is Being Evicted from the Television ‘House' ‘ in Reel Politics: Reality Television as a Platform for Political Discourse, Baruh, Lemi (ed), Cambridge Scholars, 2010 forthcoming
• ‘Babel’s Network Narrative: Packaging a Globalized Art Cinema’, in Transnational Cinemas: 1: 1 (2010 forthcoming) Intellect.
• ‘The Last Slave (Channel 4, 2007): The Genealogy of a Television History Programme’ Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 29:3 (Sept 2009)
• Book Review: Critical Studies in Television 4: 1 (Spring 2009) Channel Four: The Early Years and the Jeremy Isaacs Legacy  by Dorothy Hobson and Channel Four: A License to be Different by Maggie Brown.
• Book Review. Issues in Contemporary Documentary (2009/10) No date yet.
• ‘Thinking outside the box’ Channel 4 Dossier. (Screen 49: 3, Autumn 2008)
• Television Programmes about the Cinema: The Making of Moving Pictures, in ‘Big Picture, Small Screen’, eds John Hill & Martin McLoone (1996)
• Opportunity Knocks? (Screen vol 32: 4 - 1991)
• Never Mind the Quality… In The Question of Quality, (G. Mulgan, ed) BFI 1990
• F For Fake: Friction over Faction, in ‘Understanding Television’ (Goodwin & Whannel, eds. Routledge 1990
• Introduction to Postmodern Screen, with P. Hayward, Screen 28: 2 Spring 1987
• Cowboys and Indies, in Edinburgh International TV Festival magazine, 1987
• Guardare I detectives (Watching the Detectives) in Hollywood in Progress, ed Zagarrio, Vito (1984)
• Don’t Open the Box, in Edinburgh International TV Festival magazine, 1986
• My Name is Joseph H. Lewis, Screen 24: 4-5 - 1983 republished in ‘The Studio System’, ed Janet Staiger (1995)
• Classic Serials: to be continued, Screen vol 23: 1 1982
• Gangsters: Conventions and Contraventions, in Popular Television and Film, ed Tony Bennett, Open University/BFI, 1981.
• Stars and Stardom, in ‘Anatomy of the Movies’, edited by David Pirie, 1981
• The Vietnam Subtext, Screen Summer 1980 Volume 21: 2
• A Response to John Caughie, Screen vol 22 no 1, 1980
• Re-inventing the Cinema, Screen vol 21: 4 1980

• Out of What Past? Notes on the B Film Noir, Screen Education 1979/80 republished in Film Noir Reader (1996)

Awards

• 1996 Indie Award for Best British Arts Programme - ‘Moving Pictures’
• Film Festival screening
• The Canyons of His Mind - Florida Film Festival, April 2005
• Working with Dinosaurs - Bologna Film Festival, January 2004
• Marilyn on Marilyn - New York Documentary Festival, May 2003
• Marilyn on Marilyn - Turin Film Festival, April 2002
• Big Shots - Dinard Film Festival, 2002