The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum collections
The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum has a collection of over 80,000 items on the history of the moving image from the seventeenth century to the present day. The collection includes a number of items relevant to studies in Black history, including extensive collections on Paul Robeson and the representation of Black people on screen. There are also items that highlight the history of racism and imperialism and how this has been perpetuated through visual culture. These items are used extensively in anti-racist teaching at the University.
We also hold the full production archive for the 1980 film Babylon in the archive of its producer Gavrik Losey. Babylon was one of the first films to look at the realities of life for young Black Britons and is today regarded as a prescient and seminal text. The image above is a still from the film.
Since 2022, the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum features a permanent exhibition on Black Screen History, which you can find in the upper gallery of the museum, situated in the Old Library. The exhibition was curated by intern Chloé Jarrett-Bell. You can find out more about the exhibition and its curation in this blog post.
Find out more about the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum collections
Still from the film 'Babylon' from the Gavrik Losey Papers [BDC 6]
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