To mark the BBC centenary, the Make Film History project is offering emerging filmmakers across the UK access to 150 films from BBC Archive for creative reuse in short film projects on themes including the environment, mental health, youth culture and cultural diversity. 50 filmmakers will create films in response to this BBC collection, uncovering the forgotten histories of underrepresented communities.
A series of workshops will take place in London, Leeds, Glasgow and Belfast, organised by Kingston School of Art in partnership with the Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, Bertha DocHouse, the National Library of Scotland, Cinemagic Film Festival and Leeds Young Film. For each call, we are looking for twelve emerging filmmakers to develop a short film idea at two in-person workshops on the following dates:
London: August 12th and 25th (deadline for applications: CLOSED)
Leeds: August 24th and TBC (extended deadline: August 17th)
Glasgow: August 26th and September 9th (extended deadline: August 17th)
Belfast: September 2nd and 16th (extended deadline: August 22nd)
The workshops will be led by experienced filmmakers who work with archive in their practice and will mentor participants to create a new short film in response to a BBC film within the Make Film History collection. The resulting films will be screened in October as part of the BBC’s centenary celebrations.
This is a wonderful opportunity for filmmakers without significant filmmaking experience to engage imaginatively with the enormous untapped potential of archive film, and to learn to integrate it into their practice. We are looking for proposals which reinterpret the archive in new and imaginative ways and speak to our lives today. Previous filmmaking experience is not required and we are especially keen to hear from participants who don’t have a track record of previous successful funding applications.
To apply, please send us 200 words about yourself, and choose a film from Make Film History’s archive of BBC films, suggesting how you might creatively respond to it. Your proposal should be no longer than one page. We are not looking for scripts, just an indication of how your voice, style, and vision can offer a fresh and original perspective on your chosen film and theme. Please send proposals to Dr Colm McAuliffe (colm.mcauliffe@kingston.ac.uk) with the workshop you are applying for in the subject line.
This project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (part of UK Research and Innovation) in partnership with the BBC. You can find out more here and follow us @makefilmhistory #BBC100
