In Memory of Elspeth kydd

It is with deep sadness that we announce that our friend and colleague, filmmaker and scholar, Dr Elspeth kydd died in her sleep on April 9^th, 2013 after a protracted battle with pancreatic cancer. She was at home in Edinburgh, with her mother Nora Kydd, sister Angela Moffat and brother Sandy Kydd. Born August 1^st, 1966, she was 46 years old. Elspeth earned her BA degree from the University of Warwick and her MA and PhD degrees from Northwestern University. Her teaching career included 16 years in the Department of Theatre and Film of the University of Toledo, and positions (beginning in 2006) in the School of Cultural Studies at the University of the West of England, and (beginning in 2011) in the Film Programme of the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus, Trinidad and Tobago. Elspeth was a long-time member of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and a frequent participant at the Society’s annual conferences.

Some of us had the pleasure and privilege of working closely with Elspeth, who was not only a loving daughter, sister and friend, but also a talented filmmaker and film and television scholar who made a vital contribution to our field. Her book The Critical Practice of Film (Palgrave, 2011) will be used to teach practice to film studies students and film studies to practical students for years to come. Her numerous articles on questions of race, passing, miscegenation and diaspora in everything from her own experimental film ("Looking for Home in Home Movies" in The Cinema of Me, Wallflower, 2012) to The X-Files and Star Trek ("Differences: The X-Files and the White Norm,"Journal of Film and Video, 2002, and "Star Trek's Allegorical Monomyth,"Jump Cut, 2011) indicate her wide range of interests and knowledge.

Fortunately for us, Elspeth not only wrote and published, but also left us her most recent film,a beautiful first person musing entitled Stone Street (2012), completed in the midst of her illness. Stone Street premiered in the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival in 2012 and took home the ACP Cultures prize. Her previous films (made with Gabriel Gomez) include Lick Bush in ’92 (1993) and Drag In for Votes (1991). We celebrate the life of an extraordinarily talented, soft spoken, dedicated and supportive colleague and friend.

Contributed by Dr. Alisa Lebow
Brunel University, London