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Research by film specialists in Modern Languages (ML) at the University of Exeter promotes the artistic value, diversity and continuing social, cultural and political relevance of European cinema to a variety of audiences in the UK and abroad. Their research has advanced community cohesion through memories of cinema-going (impact 1), informed the teaching of European cinema in secondary schools and HE (impact 2) and enhanced cultural life, promoting public appreciation of European cinema nationally and internationally (impact 3). This has been achieved through contributing to online archival studies of cinema audiences, participation in film festivals, introductions to film screenings, public lectures and DVD commentaries.
UWE research has influenced UK public policy, informing the Department of Culture Media and Sport's Film Policy Review report recommendations, which shaped the British Film Institute's policy and strategic priorities. Members of the public have engaged with local cinema heritage as a result of the development of the Curzon Memories App, preserving historical memories for the benefit of the community in Clevedon, a process which has also engaged local schools. Through UWE co-creative research for the City Strata project, technology partner Calvium has increased its product portfolio to include scalable location-aware apps, and heritage partner Bristol City Council, has extended the reach of its Know Your Place platform, directly leading to a joint commission from English Heritage worth £20K.
Through the agency of Screen Archive South East (SASE) and Cinecity, GRAY's research has transformed the history and wider understanding of screen cultures, particularly during the industry's formative years. Primarily his work has affected public life through the collection, preservation, cataloguing and conversion of diverse footage to publicly accessible formats, creating access to material from otherwise marginalised and forgotten film histories. Engaging with local communities, national and international museums and broadcasters, he has developed new public audiences for contemporary and historical screen culture that have generated over £1.8m in income, with total audiences exceeding 25 million. Secondly, his research has shaped public policy by contributing to the strategic direction of screen heritage across the UK.
Film Festivals constitute the main institutional alternative to commercially-driven cinema and as such occupy a vitally important part of our cultural heritage. The BFI estimates that `only 7% of all cinema screens are regularly devoted to non-mainstream film', and cites the film festival as an exemplary model for broadening cinema knowledge and education (`New Horizons for UK Film 2012-17'). Film Studies Queen Mary is committed to enhancing a public understanding of obscure and complex film through film festivals, bringing to bear insights born of research including production histories and analytical interpretations of film texts and performances. Collaborating with programmers, curators, local authorities, and diasporic communities, researchers have made significant contributions to festivals including to the founding of two new film festivals (the London Spanish Film Festival 2005 and Cutting East Youth Film Festival 2013), engaging with constituent groups and cultures that are not strongly represented in the UK's commercial film culture.
Research on world cinema at Durham University has led to collaboration with filmmakers, cinemas and film festivals regionally and internationally. Durham academics have assisted regional organisations to bring major figures of international independent cinema to North East England, in order to showcase work which would not normally achieve wide exposure, and to enhance public understanding of foreign film, culture and language. In doing so, they have helped those organisations to meet their own institutional objectives. Internationally, Durham research has led to jury membership at a film festival whose mission is to raise the profile of independent filmmaking in Ibero-America, and to provide financial support to encourage further film production. This participation has also led to changes in the festival's practice, in the form of increased involvement of jury members with an academic background.
Deriving from Brady's research on modernist cinema, and Carter's on film reception, the impact focuses on the development of UK reception contexts for German-language film. Both researchers have long worked to enhance public understanding of German-language cinema through curatorship, film talks, and forms of intercultural mediation including translation and interpreting. Since 2011-12, work has focused on creating a sustainable national initiative that translates public engagement into audience impact. The key innovation here is the German Screen Studies Network, a forum for public debate on and promotion of German-language film. Chief beneficiaries are German cinema enthusiasts, cultural partners and collaborating institutions.
A research project on the General Post Office Film Unit culminated in a series of film screenings, DVD releases, talks and events. It resulted in the work of the Film Unit being added to the UNESCO UK Memory of the World register and the BT Heritage telecommunications collections being awarded Designated status by the Arts Council.
Dr Richard Noakes led `Connecting Cornwall', a project working with the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum (PTM) from February 2009 - July 2012, looking at the lives and careers of the `ordinary' men who operated the Victorian and Edwardian British submarine cable network.
The project was fundamental in building a working relationship with PTM that now paves the way for future research-based collaborations. The exhibition also raised the profile of PTM. A new section of the website was created for PTM, greatly improving its online presence and user experience. Impacts on the public have included providing access to previously unseen archival material, preserving and displaying artefacts of cultural heritage and in educating people with regards to their local history.
Impacts derive from archival research in contemporary art practice, specifically curatorial activities within video & experimental film, and the European avant-garde. The focus is on cultural impact in the UK and internationally including public awareness and engagement and includes:
Research insights from Oxford Brookes University's Dr Daniela Treveri-Gennari on the practice of cinema-going in 1950s Italy has raised public awareness of the importance of autobiographical memories in the elderly as well as actively involved the elderly in reconstructing the history of an important time in Italian film industry. These benefits of the project were achieved through innovative British Academy funded research-led collaborations between Dr Daniela Treveri-Gennari (Oxford Brookes University) and colleagues at Exeter and Bristol Universities, working with Memoro (a non-profit initiative dedicated since 2007 to divulgate memories of people born before 1940), Rome City Council and the University of the Third Age. Dr Trevari-Gennari has joined with non-profit organisations to create a full map of post-war Italian cinema which includes: oral history of cinema-going; programming dataset; the first topographical charting of cinemas; and the first extensive reviews of popular press of the time.