The Magic Screen: A History of Regent Street Cinema

Joost Hunningher is a consultant and film director/producer. He was Principal Lecturer in Film at the University of Westminster and course leader of the BA (Hons) Film for over thirty years. He is proud to have been involved in producing more than 300 student films. From 2002–2006, Joost was Chair of the Digital-Cinema Research Group for CILECT and he organised two conferences at the National Film Theatre on the new digital film technologies. In 2009 he delivered a lecture at the Budapest Cinematography Masterclass (with Vilmos Zsigmond) on the ‘Promise and Problems of Digital Cinema’. He has made films for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the University of Westminster and World Expo City Culture Pavilion, Shanghai. He directed two plays for the Soho Poly. In 1996, he was director of the University’s Lumière Festival and contributed a chapter in the University’s publication Cinema: the Beginnings and the Future (1996).

Rikki Morgan-Tamosunas was Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Westminster from 2008–2014. Her responsibilities included leadership of learning and teaching and the wider student experience. She joined the University in 2003 as Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Humanities & Languages and subsequently held roles as Provost of the Cavendish Campus and Pro Vice Chancellor. Rikki was previously Dean of the School of Languages and Social Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University (1998–2003), and held various roles at Thames Valley University (1983–98). She is a Hispanist with a particular research interest in cinema and cultural studies. Her doctorate focused on the cultural analysis of contemporary Spanish cinema and she has published widely on the representation of history, politics and gender in Spanish cinema.

Guy is Professor of Law in Westminster Law School. He holds degrees in Philosophy (BA, Leeds) and Law (LLM, Leicester; PhD, MMU), is a Barrister (Middle Temple) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Guy is a founding editor of the Entertainment and Sports Law Journal and Co-Editor of the Routledge Series Studies in Law, Society and Popular Culture. He is a Director of the Centre for Law, Society and Popular Culture at the University and his current research interests include work around the legitimacy and scope of law relating to mega events and work on the juridification of urban parks. Guy was a co-author of Film and the Law, The Cinema of Justice (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2010), curated the public exhibition Classified (2012) and contributed to the book celebrating the centenary of the BBFC in 2012.

Ro Spankie is Course Leader for Interior Architecture BA Honours at the University of Westminster. She is currently enrolled part-time on the PhD by Architectural Design at UCL; her thesis, ‘Thinking through Drawing’, is focused on the role of drawing in the design process. Recent publications include: Basics Interiors 03: Drawing Out the Interior (London: AVA Academia, 2009); ‘Drawing Out the Censors Room’, in IDEA Journal, 2012: Writing/Drawing: Negotiating the Perils and Pleasures of Interiority (2012), 72–87; ‘The Art of Borrowing’, in The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013) and An Anecdotal Guide to Sigmund Freud’s Desk (London: Freud Museum, 2014).