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The Africa in Motion Film Festival (AiM), based in Glasgow and Edinburgh, directly emerged from research led by David Murphy and a community of postgraduate students at the University of Stirling. The festival has attracted new audiences for African cinema (over 20,000 spectators since 2006) and contributed to wider debates about it amongst the general public, NGOs, as well as cinephiles in Scotland and more widely. In particular, two projects on the `lost classics' of African cinema allowed neglected films to be discovered both by a general audience and influential film critics/journalists.
Imruh Bakari's film projects such as African Tales (2005/2008) and Big City Stories (2011) have had impact in the areas of civil society and cultural life, specifically in illuminating social and cultural assumptions (of audiences of audio-visual culture in Africa and the UK) about contemporary Tanzania and Black London.
The impact of Bakari's research focusing on African and Caribbean cinemas, and related subjects in cultural studies, also extends into areas of policy making, education, and training surrounding film production and distribution in Africa and Europe. This is evident through public engagement (with film industry professionals, younger audiences, and the wider public) and archiving, and through engagement with policy initiatives for the creative industries sector in Tanzania.
Jane Thorburn's research into Nigerian cinema and storytelling forms, together with her long-running practice-based research within documentary and experimental arts filmmaking, led to a NHS commission to produce a film on sickle cell disease (SCD). The Family Legacy project has had an impact on cultural values and health and wellbeing in civil society, and on public services and education in the UK and Nigeria. Making innovative use of the story-telling conventions of Nollywood home videos in order to engage its audience, the film successfully led an NHS campaign to educate — and enhance the public service offered to — people at risk of producing children with debilitating sickle cell disease, enabling them to make informed health choices before conception and during pregnancy. It also challenged taboos and myths that previously surrounded the disease. The Family Legacy has been widely disseminated, not only on television channels in UK, USA and West Africa, but also on genealogical websites and in ground-breaking outreach campaigns in barbers' shops, mosques, churches and doctors' surgeries in the UK. An estimated 12 million people have been reached by this campaign, with positive feedback of attitude change from the 3500+ people attending NHS awareness-raising sessions.
Roger Shannon's research on the legacy of the Birmingham Film and Video Workshop (BFVW) has fed directly into the curation and digitisation of previously neglected productions from this pioneering collective, which are now available for public exhibition at arts centres, cinemas, galleries and festivals. The specific examples of the public articulation of the impact include the Participation exhibition at the Vivid Gallery in Birmingham (2009), the digitisation of the original BFVW material, and the Hell Unltd/Traces Left event at the Glasgow Film Theatre (2013) which Shannon co-ordinated. He also worked closely with musician Kim Moore in her composition and performance to accompany the Hell Unltd event.
Three claims to impact stemming from Shannon's research are made here:
Dr Julie Brown's research on the sounds of `silent film' exhibition in Britain has had an impact well beyond academia. Her collaborations with film festivals and major film venues plus public lectures have brought about an enhanced public awareness of a lost media art. Through a practitioner/academic network and via practice-based activities involving professional musicians she has had a direct impact on musical practice, and also brought significant performances to the general public in well-attended public events and film festivals at major cinema venues in both Edinburgh and London. Her work has led to enhanced public understanding of the history of the sonic dimension of `silent cinema' in Britain.
This case study examines the impact of Catherine Wheatley's research into spectatorship, audiences, and critical contexts through engagement with the popular press and public-facing media institutions. It focuses on Wheatley's work with Sight & Sound, the monthly consumer magazine published by the British Film Institute, which reaches beyond academia to a cine-literate but non-specialist audience. Her research has influenced discussion and criticism of cinema for a large, interested cine-enthusiastic audience as well as contributing to broader public debate and cultural discussion of cinema through mass-media appearances. She has also judged a competition for budding female critics, encouraging more women to write thoughtfully on film, and nurturing a new generation of women critics through which her research has been able to influence the practice of film criticism more widely.
Carter's research into the life and work of the Hungarian film theorist Béla Balázs (1884-1949), and her collaboration with Rodney Livingstone (Professor Emeritus, Southampton) on the first English translation of his early works, provided the inspiration for a travelling exhibition, film screenings and website that showcased Balázs's early writing, and explored the connections between his film theory and contemporary film practice. Artist Zsuzsanna Ardó approached Carter to collaborate following the publication of an article on Balázs (Screen 2007), and worked with her to mount an exhibition at BAFTA and three Everyman Cinemas in London, accompanied by public talks and film screenings.
This case study describes the impact of Grobler's practice-as-research conducted through development of illustrations for a book targeted at an international children's readership of 5 to 11 year olds. Providing `an African retelling' of Aesop's fables and intended to stimulate children's playful engagement with African cultures, the book's and Grobler's illustrations' overt agenda was to promote and promulgate intercultural understanding and multiculturalism. Impact has been achieved through initial publication and international distribution of Aesop's Fables in English and subsequent republication in a further nine editions and six languages in the period. Additional impact was derived from Grobler's invited presentation and discussion of his approach to developing his illustrations in the context of international exhibitions and professional fora in Europe.
`Zanzibar Soccer Queens' has had a series of cultural, social and policy impacts since 2008.
These impacts include the emancipation of the players (`Women Fighters'), improved respect and understanding of Muslim women, better health and wellbeing of women and girls in Zanzibar through increased involvement in sports, and a change in government policy to allow girls in Zanzibar to play football in schools. The film's screenings have also been used to raise issues from racism in football to health matters such as HIV/AIDS.
[Throughout this template, references to underpinning research are numbered 1-6; sources to corroborate are numbered 7-10]
I am Breathing, a feature-length documentary directed by Emma Davie (ECA) and Morag McKinnon (unaffiliated) and released in 2012, builds on experiments in co-creativity in film, and explores the ethics and the aesthetics of making a film with, rather than about a man dying of Motor Neurone Disease (MND). Neil Platt wanted to use the film to raise awareness about MND, and since his death, I am Breathing has not only been screened 242 times in thirty-four countries, but has been distributed in concert with the MND Association, raising awareness about the disease, contributing to increased sign-ups to the Association, and lending people with MND a new public voice.