Dr Andrew Moor
Reader
My profile
Biography
I mainly teach a range of Film Studies units across the English Programme, including the new 3rd year ‘LGBTQ Screens and Cultures’ unit which runs for the first time in 2022-3. My own PhD was on national identity in the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and I still have an interest in their work and in British cinema more widely. Recently I’ve been researching gay/lesbian/queer history – with particular emphasis on its relationship with cinema, film-going and film criticism. This forms part of a large project exploring how images and narratives of same-sex desire on film interact with established notions of genre .
I’m passionate about the subject and I want that to come across. Our relationship with films is a story about ourselves, so I try to help students develop their own ways to articulate their responses to film. My seminars aim to be friendly spaces where students can bring their own ideas to the table and develop them. We take films seriously, but it should also be fun.
Words of wisdom
Singling just one piece of advice is hard. Worship film? Nurture amazing friendships? Learn when to use an apostrophe? Find your own voice? (all are vital in life!)
I think my best advice would be this: be ready to embrace the entire history of cinema because film-makers have always revered their own cinematic heritage too. There is more to film culture than what’s on this week at the Odeon. Discover it.
Academic and professional qualifications
I was a (mature) student at the University of Newcastle (English Literature with Film Studies), and stayed on there to complete my MA on British Cinema and my PhD on national identity in the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. My PhD was examined by Professor Ian Christie (Birkbeck) and a version of it eventually found its way into my monograph on Powell and Pressburger.
Other academic service (administration and management)
Reader in Cinema History, Room 415, Geoffrey Manton Building
Research Degrees Coordinator, Department of English
External examiner roles
I have recently served as External Examiner at the Universities of Manchester, Dundee and Exeter (St Marks and St John), Sunderland and Liverpool John Moores.
Expert reviewer for external funding bodies
I review regularly for Journal of British Film and Television, Screen and a number of other journals and review book proposals for Routledge, Manchester University Press and Edinburgh University Press.
Practioner roles
- I regularly speak at HOME Manchester, hosting events there, teaching and introducing film screenings.
Government and industry links & Evidence of Esteem
- MMU Staff Awards: Winner (2015): Outstanding Contribution to the University’s Values
Editorial Board membership
Chief General Editor, Open Screens (Open Library of the Humanities)
Membership of professional associations
I was one of the original founders of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (www.baftss.org), served on its Executive Committee since the Association’s inception and was then its Chair until stepping down in 2020.
Teaching
Why do I teach?
People are envious if you say you’re a film lecturer because everyone loves films. While it is important that film students acquire the skills the 21st Century workplace demands, I hope that by exploring cinema history they will become more culturally curious and embark on their own life-long love-affairs with film. I love the idea that university nurtures critically aware, culturally sensitive and articulate citizens. William, an ex-student, once hugged me drunkenly on a dance-floor and thanked me for ‘giving him’ Ingmar Bergman. That’s why I teach.
Why study…
My specific research areas are British Cinema history and LGBT/Queer cinema, though I cover all areas of LGBT/Queer Studies too.
Postgraduate teaching
On the MA English Studies Programme (Contemporary Queer Cultures).
Subject areas
Film Studies
Research outputs
I chiefly research all aspects of LGBTQ cinema history (and LGBTQ Studies more widely), and British cinema history.
My chief area of interest was originally the work of Powell and Pressburger. Emerging from this study, I have an interest in British, transnational and cross-cultural film, with a particular emphasis on the work of exiles. While my interest in British Cinema is still alive and well, my more recent research is into gay (and queer) cinema since Stonewall. I am the author of various chapters and articles looking at gay/queer culture, and I am interested in cross-currents between expressions of exile and of queerness. I have an ongoing interest in modes of queer viewing / reception studies, and am currently writing a monograph on the relationship between genre and sexuality in gay inflected cinema since Stonewall.
I am currently writing an article on what I call ‘New Gay Sincerity’ in the films of Andrew Haigh, Ira Sachs and Travis Mathews.
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Books (authored/edited/special issues)
Moor, A., Christie, I. (2005) The cinema of Michael Powell: international perspectives on an English film-maker.
Moor, A. (2005) Powell and Pressburger: a cinema of magic spaces.
Moor, A., Harper, G. (2005) Signs of life: medicine and cinema.
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Chapters in books
Moor, A. (2019) 'No Place Like Home: Powell, Pressburger Utopia.' The British Cinema Book, 3rd Edition. pp. 240-246.
Moor, A. (2017) 'Émigrés in classic British cinema.' The Routledge Companion to British Cinema History. pp. 151-160.
Moor, A. (2012) 'Kind Hearts and Campery: The Ealing Family Perverts.' In Duguid, M., Freeman, L., Johnston, K., Williams, M. (ed.) London: BFI,
Moor, A. (2009) 'Pastures New: Powell, Pressburger and British Film.' In Murphy, R. (ed.) British Cinema Book. London: BFI,
Moor, A. (2006) 'Beyond the Pale: The Politics of Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game.' In Griffiths, R. (ed.) British Queer Cinema. London: Routledge,
Moor, A. 'Not Just Propaganda: A Canterbury Tale, Colonel Blimp and Wartime.' The Archers: O Cinema de Michael Powell e Emeric Pressburger.
Moor, A. 'Past Imperfect, Future Tense: the Health Services in British cinema of the mid-century.' In Moor, A., Harper, G. (ed.) Signs of Life: Medicine and Cinema. Columbia University Press,
Moor, A. 'Jack Babuscio, Gay News and the Development of Gay Film Criticism.' Film Critics and British Film Culture: New Shots in the Dark. Edinburgh University Press,
Moor, A. (2005) 'Bending the arrow: the queer appeal of the Archers.' In Christie, I., Moor, A. (ed.) Michael Powell: International Perspectives on an English Film-maker. London: BFI,
Moor, A. (2001) 'Anton Walbrook and the Seduction of the English.' In Babington, B. (ed.) British Stars and Stardom: From Alma Taylor to Sean Connery. Manchester University Press,
Moor, A. (2000) 'Spirit and Matter: Romantic Mythologies in the films of Derek Jarman.' In Alderson, D., Anderson, L. (ed.) Territories of Desire in Queer Culture: Refiguring the Contemporary Boundaries. Manchester University Press,
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Journal articles
Moor, A. (2018) 'New Gay Sincerity’ and Andrew Haigh’s Weekend (UK, 2011).' Film Studies, 19(1) pp. 4-19.
Moor, A. (2005) 'Autobiography, the self and Pressburger-Powell's The Golden Years project.' Screen, 46(1) pp. 15-32.
Moor, A. (2005) 'Hein Heckroth at the Archers: art, commerce, sickliness.' Journal of British Cinema and Television, 2(1) pp. 67-81.
Press and media
Media appearances or involvement
BBC4 The Cinema Show (2007): ‘Trust Me I’m a Doctor - Medics in the Movies’: I appeared in this episode and was a consultant: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0082h4c
BBC4 The Cinema Show (2005): appearance to mark 100th Anniversary of the birth of Michael Powell.
I continue to appear regularly on BBC Radio Manchester and Gaydio with presenter Andrew Edwards, discussing aspects of gay culture and film history.