Rachael Low (1923-2014) is a film historian best known for her colossal, seven-volume The History of the British Film series. In 1948 the first volume of The History of the British Film was published, written by Rachael Low and Roger Manvell: a further six volumes by Low would follow. Despite being the first major historian of British Cinema, she is now largely forgotten in established film histories.
Daughter of the New Zealand-born political cartoonist and caricaturist Sir David Low, she gained a BSc in Sociology and Economics from the London School of Economics in 1944, followed five years later by a doctorate from the University of London based on research for what would become the first volume.
When Rachael Low died in December 2014, her death went relatively unnoticed in the film world. Four years later on 10 December 2018, WFTHN organised a event in collaboration with the BFI Reuben Library, titled, “Why Rachael Low Matters”. It discussed her contribution to the writing of British film history as well as her legacy.
Watch part of this conversation with Ian Christie (Birkbeck, University of London) and Sarah Street (University of Bristol), chaired by Elaine Burrows (formerly National Film and Television Archive). This discussion was concluded with a BFI collections presentation by Nathalie Morris (BFI Senior Curator).
WFTHN member, Elaine Burrows, Janet McCabe and Christine Gledhill, also wrote an article for the BFI, where we argued for why Low deserves to be better recognised as a trail-blazing historian of British cinema.
Following the event, Danielle Capretti, a student from the MA Film Programming and Curating at Birkbeck, wrote a blog post for the event.
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