Category Archives: Film

C3 Agata Lulkowska’s 5th Season of Rebellious Research will be kicking off next week!

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We are delighted to share the details of the 5th season of Rebellious Research, hosted by Associate Professor and Centre Lead Agata Lulkwoska,  and exploring Creative Practice Research in an online live series of talks and discussions. 

The full seminar programme is available here:  https://www.agatalulkowska.com/seminar-series

Over the last few year, the prior four rounds led to a Special Issue on Recontextualising Practice-based Research, a creative practice research manifesto, Collaborative Creative Provocation, a book on Filmmaking in Academia, another one on Fiction Filmmaking as Research (due 2026), and a book series (in progress) on Creative Practice Research.

For the fifth time, the seminar series returns with, again, some truly exquisite guests. As always, free and open to all (all sessions run online via MS Teams), this initiative aims at widening support and understanding around practice research in a friendly and inclusive manner, with some top experts sharing their experience and advice.

For more info and to be added to the mailing list, please contact Agata Lulkowska (Agata.Lulkowska@staffs.ac.uk)

All sessions are recorded and available to rewatch on the dedicated YouTube channel.

Kick-starting the fifth round is Chris Nunn (University of Birmingham)  who on Wednesday, 29th October at 3:30 (UK time), will deliver a talk on ‘Practice-Based Research and Feature Film Production.‘

Details below:

Session 1: Wednesday 29th October 2024, 3:30-5pm (UK): Chris Nunn (University of Birmingham)

 Link to join on MS Teams

Title: Practice-Based Research and Feature Film Production

This talk examines how universities might function as alternative production bases for feature films that commercial industry structures cannot support. Drawing on two recent University of Birmingham projects – the documentary Children of The Wicker Man (2024) and folk horror feature An Ill Wind (2026) – I argue that higher education institutions possess unique resources positioning them as sites of genuinely independent filmmaking.

Both projects emerged from archival discovery and practice-based research, prioritising investigative inquiry over commercial viability. Children developed from found documents exploring Robin Hardy’s cult film and complex creative legacy, while An Ill Wind attempted ethical folk horror through extended Shetland Islands collaboration. Neither would have necessarily secured traditional funding due to their investigative approaches, moral complexity, and development timelines allowing genuine reflexivity.

Universities offer key advantages: access to emerging talent, reduced labour costs through academic-industry hybrid models, intellectual frameworks for complex cultural questions, and freedom from immediate commercial pressures. However, this model faces limitations around funding structures, equipment access, and temporal conflicts between academic cycles and industry schedules.

The talk examines whether universities can genuinely function as alternative production spaces or inevitably become industry training grounds. Rather than mimicking industry practices, universities might develop distinctly educational approaches prioritising process over product, collaboration over hierarchy, and inquiry over entertainment. The question remains whether such approaches can create films finding audiences beyond academic contexts, and whether rebellious research can translate into genuinely rebellious cinema.

 

Dr Chris Nunn is Assistant Professor of Film at the University of Birmingham, creative producer of both films discussed, and Associate Editor of the Film Education Journal.



C3’s Professor Carola Boehm joins the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) College of Experts

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Carola Boehm, Professor of Arts and Higher Education from the C3 Centre for Creative Industries and Creative Communities at the University of Staffordshire, has been recruited to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) College of Experts. She will be joining 58 external experts from across academia and industry, forming a diverse and experienced community of experts. The DCMS College of Experts members have been called upon to provide external expertise and apply innovative scientific methods to support government policy.

Her expertise will contribute to helping DCMS tackle complex challenges across their policy areas with research insights.

Professor Carola Boehm said:

“I am delighted to be collaborating with fellow college members and DCMS colleagues and look forward to supporting evidence-based policymaking, driving forward impactful solutions for our creative and cultural sectors.”

Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Tom Crick said:

“We are delighted to welcome our new members of DCMS College of Experts. Since 2021, the College of Experts has made a significant impact on our department, ensuring that our policy design, development and implementation is grounded in the most rigorous and robust research and evidence available. Your engagement will help us continue to tackle the complex and interdisciplinary challenges across our policy areas with confidence and insight. We look forward to engaging with you and building on the meaningful collaboration that has shaped and informed impactful decision-making.”

 The College of Experts has expertise across the DCMS portfolio. The College supplements any existing relationships that teams have established with experts and offers a diverse breadth of scientific and technical knowledge that colleagues can draw upon dynamically. This allows the department to benefit from longer-term, systematic working relationships and addresses the increasing need for on-demand expert advice to underpin policy work.

Professor Carola Boehm’s research focusses on creative and cultural industries and has already been featured in the UPEN Study on how Arts and Humanities research influence public policy making (https://upen.ac.uk/resources/how-does-arts-and-humanities-research-influence-public-policymaking/). Her work underpins various strategic initiatives, from Cultural Leadership Programmes, such as Create Place Programme (https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/createplace/), or supports the work of Cultural Compacts, such as Stoke Creates, where she is currently the chair (https://stokecreates.org.uk/). She has recently published a book in Emerald’s book series, Great Debates in Higher Education, titled Arts and Academia: The Role of the Arts in Civic Universities.

Her public output can be accessed or requested from EPRINTS/STORE BOEHM

The Universit press release can be read at https://www.staffs.ac.uk/news/2025/06/staffordshire-professor-joins-the-department-of-culture-media-and-sport-dcms-college-of-experts

Launch of a new Creative Industries Lecture Series

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  • When: 5th March 2025
  • Where: G027 Cadman Building / Cadman Yard, University of Staffordshire
  • Registration: Sign up for free through Eventbrite linke below

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/staffs-creative-industries-lecture-series-tickets-1222599059699

Led by C3 Member Dr. Mark McKenna, the inaugural lecture in the newly established Creative Industries Lecture Series will be at 3pm on March 5th in G027 Cadman Building / Cadman Yard. Britain’s creative industries are world leading and they are the engine of our economic growth. In stark financial terms, in 2021 they generated £108bn in economic value and employed 2.3 million people. They are valuable and vital, but the importance of the creative industries goes well beyond the economy. Art, design, and entertainment enrich our lives and contribute to cultural identity and societal well-being. The works that these industries produce are the lens through which we understand the world.

This series of lectures will feature emerging and established speakers sharing their insights and experiences of the creative industries and, whether you’re a student, professional, or simply ‘creative industries curious’, the series is perfect for anyone looking to be inspired and to learn something new.

Mark has a forthcoming book with Routledge – Levelling Up the Screen Industries: Film and Television Production as Regenerative Strategy in Places Left Behind (2025), which grew out of a piece of work for Stoke-on-Trent City Council on the viability of a Film Office in the region and offers an assessment of the contribution that similar regions can make to the screen economy. The book considers the impact that various industrial and governmental devolution strategies have had or are having and explores the potentially transformative effect that this could have on the UKs screen economy.

 

 

EVENT: Critical Ecologies, Thursday 11th July 2024

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  • Thursday 11th July 2024
  • Catalyst CA2 Creative Lab
  • 10 am – 5pm

Critical Ecologies is an opportunity for academic and non-academic staff to come together and share research in alliance with communities and ecologies.

We have two exciting keynote presentations, and space for 6 presenters from within the University to share their research. In creating this fledgling research hub we are acknowledging the need for an open and respectful space where we can build (and rebuild) an interdisciplinary research culture. We also aim to centre nature recovery and environmental justice within these interdisciplinary conversations.

Rebellious Research is Back!

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Led by one of our C3 Centre members, Agata Lulkowska, a new third season in the Rebellious Research Seminar Series (previously known as art/practice based-research seminar series) is now published and available to download and share.

It runs on a last Wednesday of each month starting in October, via MS Teams, at 3:30-5pm UK time.

More details and the programme can be found in the links below or the downloadable PDF.

https://www.agatalulkowska.com/seminar-series
https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/c3centre/files/2023/09/Rebellious-Research-2023-2024-Seminar-Series-003.pdf

The C3 Centre at our Research Conference’23

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C3 Centre members will be presenting on various sessions at the upcoming Research, Innovation and Enterprise Conference on 24th and 24th of May 2023, this week.

It is still time to sign up for free at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/staffordshire-university-research-innovation-and-enterprise-conference-23-tickets-522644542897

Key events include a session on getting to know the C3 Centre, with a panel including:

  • Carola Boehm, Panel Chair, Co-Director
  • Music and Sound (Marc Estibeiro) (www)
  • Philosophy, Film and The Environmental Humanities (www)(Patrick O’Connor)
  • Ceramic Cultures, Practices and Debates (Neil Brownsword) (www)
  • Practice as Research (Agata Lulkowska)
  • Art and Design Research Group (Ian Brown)

And in a keynote slot, we also have members exploring the tensions between research, teaching, internationalization and regional impact.

Co-chairs:

  • Carola Boehm, C3 Co-Director & Professor of Creative Communities and Creative Industries
  • Jackie Reynolds, C3 Co-Director & Research Impact Manager

And Panel Members:

  • Michael Knowles, PhD Researcher & Film Producer
  • Giulia Lapucci, PhD Researcher & Cultural Researcher, University of Macerata
  • Jodie Gibson, Visiting Fellow & Arts & Culture Professional
  • Nick Gratton, Lead for Civic Engagement and Evaluation & Associate Professor of Community and Civic Engagement
  • Anna Francis, Associate Professor of Fine Art and Social Practice

We also have individual presentations from members, including

  • Dan Lewis: Designing Emotions: Strategies for Furniture Designers
  • Jackie Reynolds: Building Research Impact
  • Rebecca Nunes: Eco-alliances: imaging the other-than-human to create advocacy for the environment
  • Giulia Lapucci: Collaboration at the Centre: building a Constellation to share and disseminate knowledge
  • David White: The design, development and pilot study of a marine ecological simulation for education or environmental changes on marine life

Registration is free at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/staffordshire-university-research-innovation-and-enterprise-conference-23-tickets-522644542897

 

Hawthorn Ridge : a forensic investigation into the archaeology and history of Hawthorn Crater

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Recently released, in a warm and engaging audio interview, producer and Associate Professor Fiona Graham from C3 and historian Colin Winn walk to the craters and tour their perimeter. While doing so they share with us their stories behind this exciting project into the crater and talk about the special relationship that has developed with the local community. Colin is a military historian and tunnelling expert and Fiona an associate professor on the project.

The Hawthorn Redoubt was an formidable defensive position for the Germans which was blown up on the morning of 1 July 1916 by a mine that had been placed beneath the German stronghold on the ridge. The explosion, ten minutes before the whistles blew at 7:30am, destroyed the position but the timing of the detonation and the lifting of the artillery barrage meant that the position was reinforced by the Germans, leading to massive losses among the attacking British troops. 

The full article and interview can be viewed and listened to at:
https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/hawthorn-ridge-a-forensic-investigation-into-the-archaeology-and-history-of-hawthorn-crater/

Catch-Up: New Civic Imaginaries (#2) Andrew Stubbs and Becky Nunes

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In this session, we consider existing strategies for cultural production that masquerade as avantgarde, while potentially in fact perpetuating an ideological status-quo. The role of the auteur is implicated in these strategies and examined in both presentations. The question is asked: what sort of art is really  needed for our future societies?

In this session:
Wednesday 2 March 2022, Room T101

  • Dr. Andrew Stubbs: Talent Managers and their Indie-Auteur Clients: Understanding the Conematization of Television
  • Becky Nunes: 15 Minutes of Fame. Andy Warhol, Facebooks and the Work of Luke Willlis Thomspn

 

Interdisciplinary International Conference and Festival

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On 24th April 2021 the C3 Centre and the Department of Media and Performance hosted the international and interdisciplinary conference around the themes of Connections “Communities and Communication”.

Co-hosted by Agata Lulkowska, Sharon Coleclough and Stephanie Steventon, this conference considered the ways in which creative digital communities start, develop and grow, what is created within those groups and how real connections are built through technology sharing and eventually within the virtual environment of online discussion and dissemination.

“The idea for the event emerged in early 2020 as we were entering into the unknown of what later developed into a full-blown pandemic. Coming from a perspective of practice-based researchers, we discussed the links between academia and the creative world, and we thought of the importance of connections – between disciplines, between cultures and between people. The idea of our hybrid-event was born. We did not expect such a spectacular response to our call for submissions. Between films and papers, we have received nearly 2500 applications from 105 countries. It was clear that there is a need for a positive reminder about what brings us all together. We were fortunate to secure some fantastic keynote speakers, both local and international, as well as invite our colleagues from the Department of Media and Performance to talk about some amazing projects they are working on.”

The conference website is at https://www.agatalulkowska.com/communitiesandcommunication

Conference Programme (PDF)Download

#CreativeConnections2021

Staffordshire University’s film students document research into the plastic pandemic

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A new documentary series, made by Staffordshire University students, takes a deep dive into the global plastic pollution crisis

    The six-part online series Plastic Pandemic was created by Isaac Robinson and Jonathan Eley while completing a Master’s degree in Film Documentary. It demonstrates how documentary film making can really help to bring science research alive and communicate the importance of the increasing threats to the planet, people and animals.

    Fiona Graham, Associate Professor of Film Technology and Masters supervisor to Jon and Isaac, said the students spent many months developing their film project researching into Plastics Pollution and had pitched the idea to be a long form film. With the Covid pandemic and lockdown a year ago, this changed.

    She said:

    Jon and Isaac wanted to create a film about plastics pollution and to talk to people about the growing problem for the planet. Documentary form has the power to investigate, probe and tell stories that need to be heard and they were passionate to still do this despite the pandemic affecting film production. Staffordshire University’s Professor Claire Gwinnet was one of many contributors internationally to support their film.

    The film students wanted to explore new methods and processes in documentary film online, as they were emerging from industry and we developed ideas working through the problems and solving the technical and creative issues that arose.”

    They created an international research project for their Masters that had international contributors who may never have come forward before the pandemic.”

    Full press release at https://www.staffs.ac.uk/news/2021/03/new-online-documentary-takes-on-the-plastic-pandemic

    The website and the videos at https://www.isaacjonesrobinson.com/copy-of-plastic-pandemic-series-tra