About

Burnt Retina is the never-ending work in progress of an inconsumate consumer of films, that happens to be me, Peter Walsh. By profession I’m trained as a researcher of film history, specializing in early cinema, but definitely with an interest in the immediacy of the moving image throughout history.

My specialism has been Edwardian cinema in and around Yorkshire, and in my research I have covered some unheralded names like Sydney Carter’s New Century Pictures, Frank Mottershaw’s Sheffield Photo Company, and the brilliantly unique Jasper Redfern Esq. All this has been towards a doctoral thesis at the University of Sheffield, and a trail of my papers and my publications can be found on academia.edu

The thesis does however not leave much scope for all the brilliant cinema that came from beyond the Yorkshire region after 1911. Which is where this blog comes in.

Broadly the focus is on the films that linger, the ones that you can’t forget, the ones you can’t un-see. Sometimes that’s because it’s just a brilliant film. Othertimes it’s because it shows you something you shouldn’t see, possibly because it’s a little sacred. On occasion it might even be because the film is just too terrible to forget. On other occasions I even review stuff I’m invited to see for free. Anyone with free stuff to send and in want of an opinion feel free to get in touch.

So come along on a journey through the highs and the lows of the ever-shifting brows of taste. Just don’t ask me where we’re going.