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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)