Film and Screen at Ulster University is a new and vibrant area of research that combines theory and practice of moving image arts in the new digital media age, as well as encompassing related areas such as emerging screen-based and immersive media and computer games.
The Film and Screen research community on the Magee (Derry~Londonderry) and Belfast campuses, working across the Schools of Arts and Humanities and Communication and Media, has established a substantial body of research in a range of topics, including numerous major contributions to the field.
Three themes provide strands across which much of this work can be categorised:
- Contemporary Filmmaking Practice
- Contemporary Cinema and Screen Studies
- Alternative, Activist and Indie Media
- Creative Technologies
These connect with the research unit interdisciplinary themes of Arts and Conflict and Practice-as Research.
The subject area is leading on the AHRC-funded Future Screens NI project, a collaboration with QUB and industry partners.
Research within this subject is also conducted as part of a British Academy Newton project in collaboration with Turkey; Literary & Filmic Representations of Trauma, Violence and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and Turkey.
The project is a collaboration between Prof. Hülya Adak (Sabanci University, Istanbul) and Dr Murat Akser (Ulster).
Staff and Research Interests
- Dr Laura Aguiar (Magee/Derry~Londonderry) - film festival studies, archival studies, socially-engaged filmmaking practices
- Dr Murat Akser (Belfast) - Third Cinema, social media and protest, contemporary filmmaking practice, film festival studies
- Mr Lee Cadieux (Magee/Derry~Londonderry) - filmmaking practice and visual effects; games
- Dr Darryl Charles (Magee/Derry~Londonderry) - games and interactive media
- Dr Victoria McCollum (Magee/Derry~Londonderry) - horror - theories, practices and cultures
- Dr Gerard Gibson (Belfast) - horror theory and visual effects
- Prof. Declan Keeney (Belfast) - virtual production and immersive media
- Dr Michael McKnight (Belfast) - immersive media (incl. audio)
- Prof. Paul Moore (Magee/Derry~Londonderry) has interests in the creative economy, as well as practices in sound and audiovisual practices
Contemporary Filmmaking Practice
The Film and Screen/Cinematic Arts team have held positions at:
- Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television
- BBC
- Disney
- International Cinematographers Guild
- HBO
- ITV
- MTV
- NI Screen
- RTE
- The Irish Film Board
Contemporary Cinema and Screen Studies
The Film and Screen/Cinematic Arts team have also published major work recognised in the field of contemporary cinema and screen studies.
Their recent publications include:
- Aesthetics of Displacement: Minorities on Screen (Akser, 2018)
- Changing LGBT Narratives in Cinema (Akser, 2017)
- HBO’s Original Voices: Race, Gender, Sexuality and Power (McCollum, 2019)
- Make America Hate Again: Trump-Era Horror & The Politics of Fear (McCollum, 2020)
- OK, Boomers! Here are Our Challenges and Opportunities: Can the BBC Win Over Today's Young Audience? (McCollum, 2020)
- Post-9/11 Heartland Horror: Rural Horror Films in an Era of Urban Terrorism (McCollum, 2016)
- New Cinema, New Media: Reinventing Turkish Cinema (Akser, 2016)
- New Media and Film Festivals in the Middle East (Akser, 2016)
Alternative, Activist and Indie Media
Recent publications include:
- Alternative Media in Contemporary Turkey: Sustainability, Activism, and Resistance (Akser and McCollum, 2018)
- Resist! Protest Media and Popular Culture in the Brexit-Trump Era (McCollum, 2020)
- Social Movements and their Technologies: Wiring Social Change (Asker, 2016)
- The Revolution will be Hacktivated (Asker, 2016)