Diasporic Film in Communities: A scoping study of the relationship between screen culture, stakeholders and communities

This project will scope the relationship between Diasporic communities and Diasporic film. Starting from the premise that community means different things to different people, it will explore the struggles and processes that take place in how various ideas of community and connectivity are constructed or acted upon in relation to Diasporic screen culture. Broadly, it will investigate how different communities come to inhabit certain kinds of film as culture.

The proposed research involves collaborative activities in partnership with the British Film Institute, the lead advocate for film, film culture and film education in the UK. Four events (a seminar and three workshops) will be held, designed to facilitate a space where postcolonial Diasporic screen audiences discuss how diasporic film shapes their ideas and values about community, and vice versa. A further dimension of the project will look at how the concept of 'community' is approached by cultural organisations that design public projects and programmes around Diasporic film. The project therefore examines the relationship between cultural products, organisations and communities as a dynamic interaction between those who organise and exhibit cultural products, and those who not only interpret the film but process the film experience in a variety of ways.

Diasporic screen culture is used here as both a conceptual frame and case study through which to explore wider themes of community. Community has become an increasingly disputed term and thus fertile ground for an examination of its formation around screen cultures. Specifically, the Diasporic Film in Communities project seeks to help gain a better understanding of community in a contested multicultural moment. The current fascination of researching screen cultures is that, whilst complex modes of migration, globalisation and media consumption develop; the centrality of screen culture persists even in the midst of such change.

Whilst Diasporic film has meaning beyond the contexts of Diasporic audiences and Diasporic audiences engage with a range of screen culture (not just Diasporic film), there are two primary motivations for bringing Diasporic communities and film together in the proposed research. The first is because of the possible experiences that this mode of cinema (ranging from avant-garde practice to more commercially-oriented, from local to global) produces for communities of the postcolonial Diaspora; for example in the context of identification, memory, popular pleasures, audience interpretations or dominant 'structures of feeling'. Does Diasporic cinema offer a space where communities can define or redefine themselves (as an alternative perhaps to more mainstream representations)? Does film language (including music and cinematography), structure, stylistic conventions or point-of-view evoke particular or indeed multiple responses or affects for these communities? A second motivation is that cultural organisations that support and exhibit Diasporic film often target or construct public programmes around particular Diasporic communities and establish consultative community partnerships as part of their broader institutional audience development or diversity strategies. The rationale, structures and processes involved - such as how community is conceptualised, how relationships are developed and sustained and the way in which these organisations and communities interact with each other - have, to date, been under- explored.

The research will be structured in three parts: 1) A critical review of academic literature, 2) An overview of cultural policy documentation and strategies supported by observation of a BFI public diasporic film programme and 3) Consultation with diasporic cultural groups (African-Caribbean, South Asian and Chinese) in collaboration with BFI Education. The dissemination will facilitate an exchange between academics, communities and cultural organisations.

The Diasporic Film in Communities project aims to create pathways to impact in various ways. Chiefly, it aims to have an impact on communities by inviting individual and group reflections on the screen experience and community life. It also aims to have an impact on public cultural policy by inviting cultural organisations to think critically about how they conceptualise 'community' in their programmes and strategies.

The project proposes a partnership with a non-academic partner, the British Film Institute, in order to extend the reach of the research and directly involve a cultural organisation in a piece of academically-led research. The BFI will use existing connections and hope to build new links within the academic and non-academic community through the research and most obviously in the proposed seminar and workshops. To ensure that the project will reach potential beneficiaries and that they have the opportunity to engage with the research, a marketed programme of events will be circulated to people working within film education and cultural film programming, ie. Libraries, Arts institutions, freelance film teachers. This will include print copy as well as targeted e-flyers which will be circulated widely.

The Diasporic Film in Communities project will work with various cultural groups and communities (through the proposed collaborative activities). Since collaborative activities are explicitly built into the project, a range of Diasporic community groups will be consulted through the course of the project and specifically during the four proposed events. It is intended that the findings act as a methodological and theoretical template for future research on communities and screen culture. The BFI will actively market the Diasporic Film in Communities project and also produce a report which they will edit, design, publish and distribute widely. Development of the project will involve careful consultation with regard to the individual sessions for particular communities and will select content according to the particular needs of the group. In addition key members will be given the opportunity and support to contribute to the panel discussion following screening of the film.

The workshops and seminar will provide fora for communities to make their voices and views heard and their contributions felt. They will directly be asked to consider what community and connectivity mean to them in relation to screen culture. Events will provide opportunity for academic and non-academic users to share knowledge about the scope of film culture and for a general exchange of information. Networking opportunities are always an invaluable outcome of bringing a wide community together under the umbrella of a common interest. This potential will be incorporated into the design of the event and include such materials as a list of attendees with email contact and details of relevant organisations. The project will feed into ideas for further research involving other cultural organisations (beyond the BFI) and communities.

The project will go on to disseminate its research findings widely. The PI and the BFI will collectively document findings and produce a critical knowledge base and practical framework for future screen culture/community contexts targeted at a range of stakeholders. One of the objectives of the scoping study is to support cultural organisations in how they reflect on their own practice around how Diasporic communities and screen culture are developed and in how communities are engaged. The research review and compilation of research materials will serve as reference work for project iteration and continuity as well as summary of evidence gathered during the four public events. The outputs and dissemination that have been outlined in the proposal are designed to facilitate an exchange of knowledge between the academic/research community, wider communities and cultural organisations.