蜜芽传媒

In 1924 Iris Barry wrote the infamous words: 鈥淕oing to the pictures is nothing to be ashamed of.鈥�

We think of cinema as being the defining artform of the 20th century, but at its inception film was considered anything but art. It was a cheap form of mass entertainment circulating through flea pit cinemas and music halls. Yet one woman dedicated her life to changing that perception.

Silent film historian Pamela Hutchinson explores the extraordinary life of Iris Barry 鈥� the pioneering 1920s critic, curator and film preservationist who made the case for cinema to be taken seriously.

Through sheer force of will, a razor-sharp wit and the magnetism of her writing, Iris Barry managed to catapult herself from provincial obscurity into the upper echelons of high society 鈥� on both sides of the Atlantic 鈥� and in the process forever changed the course of cinematic history, while leading a life worthy of the most improbable of film plots.

Featuring Richard Brody of the New Yorker, Bryony Dixon curator for silent film for the British Film Institute, Arts Editor for The Spectator Igor Toronyi-Lalic, journalist and academic Henry K. Miller, and Iris Barry biographer Robert Sitton.

Presented by Pamela Hutchinson
Produced by James King and Ashley Pollak
Consultant: Igor Toronyi-Lalic
Sound Mix by Tom O鈥橲ullivan
Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar
A TellTale Industries production for 蜜芽传媒 Radio 4