Archives for education: opening up the archives to young filmmakers

O'sullivan, Shane and Chambers, Ciara [Collaborator]

Impact Summary

As cultural heritage organisations digitise their collections and increase public access, the creative reuse of archive material remains problematic, beset by questions of copyright law and “fair use” exceptions. The Archives for Education project pioneered by Dr O’Sullivan provides a new model for the licensing and creative reuse of archive film in higher education, giving student filmmakers access to 200 films from the archives of the BBC, the BFI National Archive, Northern Ireland Screen and the Irish Film Institute. 68 institutions have signed up to the scheme, allowing student filmmakers to access these films for creative reuse on course-related projects for the first time, connecting their vision of Britain today with archival representations from their parents’ and grandparents’ generations. This represents a large majority of universities offering film production courses in the UK. In July 2020, Dr O’Sullivan and Dr Ciara Chambers (University College Cork) were awarded research network funding by AHRC and the Irish Research Council to expand the scheme beyond higher education to young filmmakers in education and training across the UK and Ireland.

Key Achievements

  1. Have opened up access to 200 films from a range of international partners for creative reuse by young filmmakers.
  2. 68 higher education institutions have signed up to use the scheme.
  3. One of the films produced through the Kingston pilot was nominated for a Learning on Screen Archive Award in 2018.
  4. A one-day symposium in September attracted 270 registrations and 140 attendees.
  5. An online webinar for leading documentary exhibitor Bertha DocHouse reached 350 attendees, 77% of whom were new for Bertha DocHouse in terms of audience development.
  6. The potential of the Archives for Education project for the digital humanities in the UK and Ireland was recognised by the award of £30K in funding from AHRC and Є12K from the Irish Research Council for the Make Film History project.

Key Aims

This practice research project aims to open up access to audio-visual archives to young filmmakers for creative reuse in their own course-related projects. While the scheme was originally limited to students in higher education, the funding of the Make Film History project has allowed us to widen the scope to young filmmakers at all levels of education and training, from primary school to vocational training. The project asks: "How can we license moving image archive material for creative reuse by young filmmakers for education, training and community use? How can the creative reuse of this material increase community engagement with hidden cultural heritage and strengthen communities through new work created by emerging filmmakers reflecting on the past and developing talent for the future"?

Approach

After researching previous initiatives to open up the archives to young filmmakers in the peer-reviewed journal output below, Dr O’Sullivan identified a gap in provision for student filmmakers in higher education, who had no legitimate access to archive material from the moving image collections of the BFI and BBC. Drawing on his professional knowledge of creative reuse and licensing archival material, he devised a pilot at Kingston, supported by the BFI, to give student filmmakers access to 12 documentaries from the BFI National Archive for creative reuse on course-related projects under an educational license. Following the successful pilot and a workshop at BFI Southbank supported by the BFI and Learning on Screen, the scheme was rolled out to universities across the UK and Ireland. Its innovation was recognised in 2018 when Dr O’Sullivan was invited by Learning on Screen to join their Copyright Advisory Panel, and a film produced on the pilot was nominated for the Archive Award at the Learning on Screen Awards. Dr O’Sullivan subsequently worked with the BFI, BBC Archive Editorial, Northern Ireland Screen and the Irish Film Institute to research and clear 200 films for use on the Archives for Education and Make Film History projects.

Key Outcomes

The Archives for Education and Make Film History projects have opened up access to 200 films from a range of international partners for creative reuse by young filmmakers. 68 higher education institutions have signed up to use the scheme, which is now open to education and training organisations beyond higher education through the Make Film History project. One of the films produced through the Kingston pilot was nominated for a Learning on Screen Archive Award in 2018. A one-day symposium in September attracted 270 registrations and 140 attendees and an online webinar for leading documentary exhibitor Bertha DocHouse reached 350 attendees, 77% of whom were new for Bertha DocHouse in terms of audience development. The potential of the Archives for Education project for the digital humanities in the UK and Ireland was recognised by the award of £30K in funding from AHRC and Є12K from the Irish Research Council for the Make Film History project.

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