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All Outputs (27)

The view from the funders: An interview with Doc Society’s Sandra Whipham and Lisa Marie Russo (2023)
Book Chapter
Presence, S., & Quigley, A. (2023). The view from the funders: An interview with Doc Society’s Sandra Whipham and Lisa Marie Russo. In D. Sills-Jones, & P. Kaapa (Eds.), Documentary film cultures in the age of COVID-19 (48-61). (1). Oxford: Peter Lang International Academic Publishers

This interview explores the pandemic from the perspective of Doc Society, the lead body for UK documentary film funding. From the outset of the crisis to the formation of the Screen Sector Taskforce and the launch of the BFI Doc Society SOS Fund, the... Read More about The view from the funders: An interview with Doc Society’s Sandra Whipham and Lisa Marie Russo.

The DFC: Developing nonfiction policy frameworks after COVID (2023)
Book Chapter
Presence, S. (2023). The DFC: Developing nonfiction policy frameworks after COVID. In D. Sills-Jones, & P. Kaapa (Eds.), Documentary film cultures in the age of COVID-19 (177-199). (1). Oxford: Peter Lang International Academic Publishers

This chapter is based on research conducted under the aegis of the UK Feature Docs research project (2018-20, https://ukfd.org.uk/), a three-year study of the UK’s feature-length documentary film industry funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Co... Read More about The DFC: Developing nonfiction policy frameworks after COVID.

GO WEST! 2 Bristol's Film and Television Industries (2022)
Report
Spicer, A., Presence, S., & Frymus, A. (2022). GO WEST! 2 Bristol's Film and Television Industries. Bristol: UWE Bristol

This report updates and substantially extends the 2017 report, Go West! Bristol's Film and Television Industries. It revises all the statistical information, including the number of companies. The report analyses the major changes that have occurred... Read More about GO WEST! 2 Bristol's Film and Television Industries.

Making it real: A policy programme for UK documentary film (2021)
Report
Presence, S., Quigley, A., & Spicer, A. (2021). Making it real: A policy programme for UK documentary film. Bristol: AHRC

This report outlines a new policy programme for the UK documentary film sector. Based on the extensive consultation that followed our previous report, Keeping It Real: Towards a Documentary Film Policy for the UK (2020) – itself based on the largest... Read More about Making it real: A policy programme for UK documentary film.

Contemporary Radical Film Culture: Networks, Organisations and Activists (2020)
Book
Presence, S., Wayne, M., & Newsinger, J. (Eds.). (2020). Contemporary Radical Film Culture: Networks, Organisations and Activists. London: Routledge

Comprising essays from some of the leading scholars and practitioners in the field, this is the first book to investigate twenty-first-century radical film practices across production, distribution and exhibition at a global level. This book explo... Read More about Contemporary Radical Film Culture: Networks, Organisations and Activists.

Keeping it real: Towards a documentary film policy for the UK (2020)
Report
Presence, S., Spicer, A., Quigley, A., & Green, E. (2020). Keeping it real: Towards a documentary film policy for the UK. Bristol: AHRC

This report presents the findings of a survey of UK feature documentary producers and directors that was conducted in the summer of 2019 under the auspices of the ‘UK Feature Docs’ research project, an AHRC-funded study of the UK’s feature-length doc... Read More about Keeping it real: Towards a documentary film policy for the UK.

Organising counter-cultures: Challenges of structure, organisation and sustainability in the Independent Filmmakers Association and the Radical Film Network (2019)
Journal Article
Presence, S. (2019). Organising counter-cultures: Challenges of structure, organisation and sustainability in the Independent Filmmakers Association and the Radical Film Network. Screen, 60(3), 428-448. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjz022

The Independent Filmmakers Association (IFA) was formed in London in 1974 to represent the various strands of predominantly leftist and experimental independent filmmaking in post-war Britain. For the next fifteen years, the IFA played a key role in... Read More about Organising counter-cultures: Challenges of structure, organisation and sustainability in the Independent Filmmakers Association and the Radical Film Network.

‘Britain’s first media centre’: A history of Bristol’s Watershed cinema, 1964-1998 (2019)
Journal Article
Presence, S. (2019). ‘Britain’s first media centre’: A history of Bristol’s Watershed cinema, 1964-1998. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 39(4), 803-831. https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2019.1600905

This article examines the genesis and development of the UK’s Watershed Cinema and Digital Creativity Centre. Established in 1982, Watershed was both the first full-time multi-screen independent cinema outside London and the first to integrate exhibi... Read More about ‘Britain’s first media centre’: A history of Bristol’s Watershed cinema, 1964-1998.

Freelance networks, trade unions and below-the-line solidarity in regional film and television clusters: An interview with the Bristol editors network (2019)
Journal Article
Presence, S. (2019). Freelance networks, trade unions and below-the-line solidarity in regional film and television clusters: An interview with the Bristol editors network. Journal of British Cinema and Television, 16(2), 233-249. https://doi.org/10.3366/jbctv.2019.0470

This article consists of an introduction and extended interview transcript conducted with several members of the Bristol Editors’ Network (BEN), an organization established in May 2015 to support the large community of editors that work in and around... Read More about Freelance networks, trade unions and below-the-line solidarity in regional film and television clusters: An interview with the Bristol editors network.

United Kingdom: Film Funding, the “Corporate Welfare System” and Its Discontents (2018)
Book Chapter
Newsinger, J., & Presence, S. (2018). United Kingdom: Film Funding, the “Corporate Welfare System” and Its Discontents. In P. Murschetz, R. Teichmann, & M. Karmasin (Eds.), Handbook of State Aid for Film: Finance, Industries and Regulation (447-462). (1). Berlin: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71716-6

The central argument of the chapter is that despite the now well-established and relatively substantial public funding systems for film production that exist in the UK, there is a lack of democratic scrutiny and accountability. Considerable public fu... Read More about United Kingdom: Film Funding, the “Corporate Welfare System” and Its Discontents.

The finance and production of independent film and television in the United Kingdom: A critical introduction (2017)
Book Chapter
Presence, S. (2017). The finance and production of independent film and television in the United Kingdom: A critical introduction. In E. Bakoy, R. Puijk, & A. H. Spicer (Eds.), Building Successful and Sustainable Film and Television Businesses: A Cross-National Perspective (247-269). Bristol: Intellect

This chapter provides a critical introduction to the finance and production of independent film and television production in the UK. Film, long considered entertainment rather than art, continues to suffer from low levels of public funding, and the m... Read More about The finance and production of independent film and television in the United Kingdom: A critical introduction.

'One screening away from disaster': Precarity and commitment in the Radical Film Network’s community exhibition sector (2017)
Book Chapter
Presence, S. (2017). 'One screening away from disaster': Precarity and commitment in the Radical Film Network’s community exhibition sector. In S. Malik, C. Chapain, & R. Comunian (Eds.), Community Filmmaking: Diversity, Practices and Places. London: Routledge

This chapter will build on the conference paper presented at the ‘Community Filmmaking’ conference in January 2014, which discussed the Bristol Radical Film Festival in the context of community filmmaking and the emergent project to develop what was... Read More about 'One screening away from disaster': Precarity and commitment in the Radical Film Network’s community exhibition sector.

Reel news in the digital age: Framing Britain’s radical video-activists (2016)
Book Chapter
Presence, S. (2016). Reel news in the digital age: Framing Britain’s radical video-activists. In Y. Tzioumakis, & C. Mulloy (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Cinema and Politics (103-111). Abingdon: Routledge

The most recent book-length study of radical British filmmaking, Margaret Dickinson’s Rogue Reels: Oppositional Film in Britain, 1945-90 (1999), ends by noting the emergence Undercurrents in 1994 as an example of the burgeoning use of video as a prop... Read More about Reel news in the digital age: Framing Britain’s radical video-activists.

Autonomy and dependency in two successful UK film and television companies: An analysis of RED Production Company and Warp Films (2016)
Journal Article
Presence, S., & Spicer, A. H. (2016). Autonomy and dependency in two successful UK film and television companies: An analysis of RED Production Company and Warp Films. Film Studies, 14(1), 5-31. https://doi.org/10.7227/FS.14.0002

This article analyses the production cultures of two film and television companies in the United Kingdom - RED Production and Warp Films - by discussing the companies' formation and identity, aims and ethos, internal structures and their networks of... Read More about Autonomy and dependency in two successful UK film and television companies: An analysis of RED Production Company and Warp Films.

'Inward industry engagement': Exploring production cultures in British film and television (2015)
Presentation / Conference
Presence, S. (2015, November). 'Inward industry engagement': Exploring production cultures in British film and television. Paper presented at Challenging Media Landscapes, MediaCityUK, Salford, Manchester

This paper stems from research undertaken as part of SiFTI (Success in the Film and Television Industries), a research project analysing the production cultures of several small-to-medium sized critically and commercially successful film and televisi... Read More about 'Inward industry engagement': Exploring production cultures in British film and television.

‘One screening away from disaster’: Precarity and commitment in the Radical Film Network’s exhibition sector (2015)
Presentation / Conference
Presence, S. (2015, October). ‘One screening away from disaster’: Precarity and commitment in the Radical Film Network’s exhibition sector. Paper presented at Screen Seminar, Glasgow University

The Radical Film Network (RFN) was founded in September 2013 to provide infrastructural support to ‘radical film culture’ in Britain and elsewhere. Broadly characterised by a politically engaged and/or aesthetically innovative use of moving image med... Read More about ‘One screening away from disaster’: Precarity and commitment in the Radical Film Network’s exhibition sector.

The contemporary landscape of video-activism in Britain (2015)
Book Chapter
Presence, S. (2015). The contemporary landscape of video-activism in Britain. In E. Mazierska, & L. Kristensen (Eds.), Marxism and Film Activism: Screening Alternative Worlds (186-212). New York, USA; Oxford, UK: Berghahn

This chapter explores the complex contemporary landscape of British video-activism. The most recent book-length study of oppositional film in Britain, Margaret Dickinson’s Rogue Reels: Oppositional Film in Britain, 1945-90 (1999), ends by noting the... Read More about The contemporary landscape of video-activism in Britain.

'The general public don’t need to know who we are. We’re building a profile for the industry as a whole’: Inward engagement in the UK film and television industries (2015)
Presentation / Conference
Presence, S., & Spicer, A. H. (2015, March). 'The general public don’t need to know who we are. We’re building a profile for the industry as a whole’: Inward engagement in the UK film and television industries. Paper presented at Media Engagement International Conference, Lund University, Sweden

The paper stems from research undertaken as part of SiFTI (Success in the Film and Television Industries), a research project analysing the production cultures of several small-to-medium sized critically and commercially successful film and televisio... Read More about 'The general public don’t need to know who we are. We’re building a profile for the industry as a whole’: Inward engagement in the UK film and television industries.

Maintaining a Critical Eye: The political avant-garde on Channel 4 in the 1990s (2014)
Book Chapter
Presence, S. (2014). Maintaining a Critical Eye: The political avant-garde on Channel 4 in the 1990s. In L. Mee, & J. Walker (Eds.), Cinema, Television and History: New Approaches (85-101). Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

This chapter explores the oppositional documentary broadcast on Channel 4’s Critical Eye series (1990-4). Published research on aesthetically and politically radical film broadcast on the channel focuses almost without exception on the Independent Fi... Read More about Maintaining a Critical Eye: The political avant-garde on Channel 4 in the 1990s.