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Un Carnat de Bal plus Thomas McGoran plus Q & A GFT

Friday 7 October, 2022 – 2.15 p.m.

Free Event

Screening followed by reception and exhibition

at Reid Building Glasgow School of Art

A special free event revisiting memories of cinema-going in the 1930s. This matinee screening features Un Carnet de Bal (1937, dir. Julian Duvivier), a film which served as the main attraction for the Cosmo (now Glasgow Film Theatre) when it first opened its doors in May 1939. A popular French film of the period, Un Carnet de Bal stars Marie Bell as a recent widow who, nostalgic for the parties of her youth, sets out to reconnect with long lost suitors.

The feature will be preceded by a short film by Marissa Keating about Thomas McGoran, a Glasgow projectionist who began working as a spool boy in the 1930s.

Followed by a post-screening discussion with Thomas McGoran, Professor Annette Kuhn (from Queen Mary University of London) and Professor Sarah Neely (from University of Glasgow).

Glasgow Film Theatre, 12 Rose Street, G3 6RB

Exhibition Tom McGoran’s Drawings, Glasgow School Art

The matinee screening is being held to coincide with an exhibition featuring Tom McGoran’s drawings at the Reid Ground Floor Corridor at The Glasgow School of Art, 164 Renfrew Street Glasgow G3 6RQ which runs from 1-11 October.
Glasgow, Cinema City: ‘here and there in a dear green place…’ Thomas McGoran

1 October to 11 October 2022

Mon – Sat, 10:00-16:30

Reception: Friday 7 October, 17:00-18:00

Reid Ground Floor Corridor, The Reid Building, The Glasgow School of Art

This exhibition brings together drawings by Thomas McGoran, a talented Glasgow artist now in his nineties who, although has had few chances to exhibit his work, has been working diligently throughout his lifetime to create an exceptional body of work.

The work exhibited includes architectural illustrations of Glasgow, originally conceived of as part of as an illustrated guide to Glasgow, created with accompanying commentary by handwritten by McGoran, as well as a collection of drawings of Glasgow cinemas which were commissioned by Cinema Memory and the Digital Archive (CMDA), a three-year research project looking at memories of cinema-going in 1930s Britain. By the end of the 1930s, Glasgow was a true ‘Cinema City’ and boasted more cinema seats per head than any other city in the world.

The CMDA builds on an earlier project conducted by Annette Kuhn in the 1990s which looked at memories of cinema-going in the 1930s Britain. Thomas McGoran, who was interviewed as part of Kuhn’s original project, is the only known participant from the original project who is still living. He was interviewed at his home on 30 November 1994 and 22 February 1995. Both interviews are available, along with 170 hours of additional interview material, on the CMDA website.

The exhibition will also include other works commissioned for the CMDA project, including a cinema memory box – a new digital installation created by the theatre company, imitating the dog, and a new film about Thomas McGoran by Marissa Keating.

Thomas McGoran

One of nine children, Thomas McGoran was born in Ayr in 1927 and the family moved to Glasgow in 1930. His father was a labourer, his mother a housewife. He left school at the age of fourteen, and his first job was as a spoolboy (rewinding films after they had been projected) and eventually he went on to work as a film projectionist. He then worked for British Railways for thirty-three years, before retiring after being made redundant at the age of sixty. It was at this time that Mr McGoran began developing his talent as an artist. His work has been exhibited in Glasgow and a selection of his paintings can be viewed at the artuk.org website as well as the Cinema Memory and the Digital Archive website.

Immediately following the screening on 7 October there will be a reception at the Reid Ground Floor Corridor, GSA to celebrate the exhibition.

Free Event – Tickets at Eventbrite

The event is hosted by Cinema Memory and the Digital Archive, a three-year project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and led by Professor Richard Rushton (University of Lancaster), Professor Annette Kuhn (Queen Mary University of London) and Professor Sarah Neely (University of Glasgow).

This section: Art, Photography, Exhibitions what's on-glasgow, Cinema