Our Film Practice PhD provides you with a unique opportunity to develop your film as a practice-led research project.

Overview

Newcastle University has embarked on an ambitious programme of growth in film practice under the name of Film@CultureLab. It’s led by award-winning documentary filmmaker Dr Ian McDonald. Film@CultureLab is committed to developing a distinctive approach to non-fiction film practice pedagogy and research. This is rooted in an understanding of documentary film as a cinematic medium and filmmaking as a means of expression and of challenging, critiquing, and intervening in the social and historical world.

We offer practice-led, practice-based, or theoretical PhDs in Film Practice in the following areas:

• most areas of documentary/non-fiction film practice (see supervisor profiles for specialisms)
• creative documentary practices in the UK, India, South Asia, Africa
• intersections between the documentary and sociological, anthropological, cultural studies
• sports documentaries
• feminist film practice
• social linguistics, translation and documentary practice
• documentary theory and practice in the USSR / Russia
• theorising documentary as a critical and creative practice
• history of the documentary and of documentary movements
• studies of independent film production and exhibition
• world cinema
• Indian cinema
• film festival studies

Film@CultureLab PhD scholars are based in Culture Lab. You’ll have access to the superb facilities in Culture Lab and join a vibrant community of practice-led PhD scholars in film practice. PhD students are encouraged to regularly present their work to each other as part of the Film Praxis Forum ‘Work-in-Progress’ Series held each year.