'One cut too many?' History and film: a practice-based case study

This article explores the different ways that film-makers and historians approach the narrating of the past. It draws upon a collaborative, practice-based case study of a feature film project, The enigma of Frank Ryan, in order to explore the role of the history film as a vehicle for extending historical understanding. In the dialogue between film-maker and historian, a range of issues regarding the import of the history film for the practice or 'poetics' of history is explored.