Henry Bacon

George Henry Aslak Bacon
Born December 4, 1957, Helsinki

BA and Phil.lic. 1990 (Theatre Studies), PhD 1994 (Theatre Studies) University of Helsinki

Professor of Film and Television Studies, University of Helsinki (2004-)
Head of Projects, Finnish Film Archives 2003-04
Finnish Film Archives, researcher (1999-2003)
Theatre Studies docent, University of Helsinki (1995-)
Film and Television Studies programme, Study Co-ordinator (1996-), acting Senior Assistant (1994) and acting Adjunct Professor, University of Oulu’s Arts and Anthropology Department (1995-98).

Bacon has also been a University teacher in the University of Helsinki and the Sibelius Academy, as well as a freelance journalist.

Publications, research projects and other academic activity

Research areas: Audiovisual narratology, film’s relation to other art forms, transnational film history, the appeal of filmic violence, the actor in film, and the history of opera.

Awards and achievements
The State Award for Public Information 2006 for Seitsemäs taide – elokuva ja muut taiteet (’The seventh art. Film and other art forms’)
Knight, First Class, Order of the Lion of Finland (6.12.2007)

Photo: Mika Federley
Authors: Henry Bacon and Riitta-Ilona Hurmerinta (ed.).
Translated by John Calton, Mira Apell, Anna-Maria Jukarainen and Henry Bacon. Revised by John Calton.

My dream for the future development of my discipline

My fervent but professional wish is that film research would free itself of the kind of factionalism which needlessly holds back the development of our understanding by blindly sticking to research paradigms that happen to have been de rigueur at some time or another, and as a consequence looks down on all other approaches.

In order to understand any human field of activity, we have to explore it in all its complexity, in other words it cannot be comprehensively studied within the confines of any single research paradigm. In the field of film and television studies this means treating culturalist and cognitive studies as complementary approaches rather than contending ones.

I have developed these ideas in my articles:

“Synthesizing Approaches in Film Theory” The Journal of Moving Image Studies, June 2005.

“Kohti järjestelmällistä synteesiä – kognitiivisen elokuvatutkimuksen rajanvedot, rajariidat ja toivottavat rajojen ylitykset” (’Towards an orderly synthesis – the delimitations, border skirmishes and transcending opportunities offered by cognitive film studies’) Lähikuva 1/2007.

By Authors: Henry Bacon. Translated by John Calton, Mira Apell, Anna-Maria Jukarainen and Henry Bacon. Revised by John Calton.