Film and Screen/Cinematic Arts 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.
The Film and Screen/Cinematic Arts research community on the Magee 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
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
- Dr 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)