Funding Success for Research on Communities and Film

Diasporic Film Communities Event at the BFI, September 2012

In 2012, Dr Sarita Malik from the Department of Sociology / Communications, Brunel University, who was a member of the AHRC Network Migrant and Diasporic Cinema, was awarded an AHRC grant of £38,905 as part of its Connected Communities programme. The project titled, ‘Diasporic Film in Communities’ explored the relationship between screen culture, stakeholders and communities with a spotlight on how postcolonial Diasporic audiences consider diasporic film to shape their ideas and values about community.

The project involved collaborative activities in partnership with the British Film Institute, the lead advocate for film, film culture and film education in the UK and gathered evidence from public programmes targeted at African, Caribbean, South Asian and Chinese film audiences.

Sarita has now been awarded a follow up award from the AHRC. The new project is titled, ‘Community Filmmaking and Cultural Diversity: practice, innovation and policy’ (£54,390). Sarita will be the Principal Investigator working with two Co-Investigators; Dr Roberta Comunian (Kings College London) and Caroline Chapain (University of Birmingham).

The research aims to understand better how community filmmaking practices, in culturally diverse contexts, contribute to the wider film ecology and to representation, identity and innovation and how this contribution can be better supported by policy.

Sarita is delighted to have the opportunity to extend her research in the area of communities and film and also to build on the links and relationships that she has been developing within and beyond the academy. The British Film Institute, where the final project conference will be held in 2014, says that this new project will help, “enrich our own knowledge and contact with this area of film culture.”

The outputs and dissemination from both these projects has been designed to facilitate an exchange of knowledge between academics, cultural organisations and wider publics.

For more information contact: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Posted by Daniela Berghahn on 24 Jan 2013 •