Chris Slater obituary

It is with great sadness that the Film Department has learned of the recent death of Chris Slater, who, before his retirement, had been responsible for the department's part-time programme of film courses at Harbour Lights Cinema. For many years Chris had been a lecturer in Film and English at LSU College of Higher Education in Southampton (later the University of Southampton New College). On his retirement as a full-time lecturer, Chris liaised with the Picturehouse cinema chain to establish a regular series of Film Studies courses, which ran from 2001 to 2015, and which became part of the Film department's part-time programme. He also contributed to the first year European Cinema module, giving lectures on Lindsay Anderson and Federico Fellini. Chris was a charismatic and inspirational teacher, with a devoted following of regular students. The Harbour Lights courses (always fully booked out) offered an impressive range of subjects, including the films of Bergman, Truffaut, Renoir, Kieslowski, Heneke, the Coens, Hitchcock, Scorsese, Almodovar, Wong Kar-wai and Park Chan-uk. The weekly seminars were accompanied by intensive study Saturdays at Avenue Campus. Chris's regular students held him in such high regard that they referred to him simply as Mr Film. Chris will be sadly missed by his friends, students and colleagues.