Ian Christie

Ian Christie is a media historian and teacher, a curator and broadcaster. Among his passions are early cinema and its origins; and the cinema cultures of Britain, Russia and France. He has written and edited books on Powell and Pressburger, on Sergei Eisenstein, Martin Scorsese and Terry Gilliam. Among major exhibitions he has contributed to are Eisenstein: Life and Work (Hayward Gallery, 1988); Spellbound: Art and Film (Hayward Gallery, 1996), Modernism: Designing a New World (V&A London, 2006...See more

Ian Christie is a media historian and teacher, a curator and broadcaster. Among his passions are early cinema and its origins; and the cinema cultures of Britain, Russia and France. He has written and edited books on Powell and Pressburger, on Sergei Eisenstein, Martin Scorsese and Terry Gilliam. Among major exhibitions he has contributed to are Eisenstein: Life and Work (Hayward Gallery, 1988); Spellbound: Art and Film (Hayward Gallery, 1996), Modernism: Designing a New World (V&A London, 2006) and Revolution: Russian Art 1917-32 (Royal Academy, 2017). Most recently, he was consultant on Martin Scorsese's film about Powell and Pressburger, Made in England (2024). Currently Professor of Film and Media History at Birkbeck, University of London and a Fellow of the British Academy, he has been Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge University, and a visiting professor at universities in Oxford, Paris, Stockholm, Canberra, and Olomouc, as well as Gresham College London 2017-21. His most recent books are Robert Paul and the Origins of British Cinema (2020), The Eisenstein Universe (2021), and Spaces (2024). See less