Letter: Jim Hillier was vital to the British Film Institution’s education department

Jim Hillier played a pivotal role in ensuring the British Film Institute education department stayed on the track that it had been started on during the creative and dynamic headship of Paddy Whannel in the 1960s. Jim also made a substantial contribution to the development of a collective management style in arts educational organisations.

In 1971 a change of policy led to Whannel and his deputy, Alan Lovell, resigning from their posts. This left Jim and the other members of the education department, including Colin McArthur and myself, with no official manager, but we nonetheless set about maintaining the existing approach. The way Jim combined its main features – attention to practical detail, rigorous pursuit of ideas and their aesthetic implications, equal focus on popular and experimental forms, and responsiveness to educational needs – was our lodestone.