Make Film History: A New Platform for Archive-inspired Storytelling in Education

This project is a twelve-month programme of knowledge exchange, public engagement and active dissemination, building on the impact of two previous AHRC-funded Make Film History projects: a UK-Ireland Collaboration in the Digital Humanities research networking grant which created a new, sustainable model for the creative reuse of moving image archive material in education; and a public engagement grant which worked with fifty emerging filmmakers across the UK to create new short films in response to one hundred years of BBC storytelling. Twelve of the films were showcased on the BBC website and all are available on the project website as exemplars of the diverse range of new work produced through the scheme.

Through educational licensing agreements with our archive partners, the Make Film History project offers 270 films for creative reuse by educators and students in schools, training and higher education across the UK and Ireland. Once licensed by an educational institution, films can be downloaded by tutors for use in the classroom, on campus or online. Students browse the project website, choose an archive film to respond to and request download access to the film, integrating clips of up to two minutes into their own work.

While most UK universities use the scheme on their filmmaking courses, in consultation with the original project partners, we have identified three key issues preventing wider engagement across disciplines and beyond HE. These are three key aims and objectives of the proposed project, to strengthen the engagement and reach of our innovative creative reuse model in education through new activity not built into the original award. A fourth aim is to expand our impact into Europe.

The project will improve the user experience of the MAP Marketplace delivery platform, through which films are licensed and downloaded. We will develop a more streamlined, accessible student-facing platform, where students can download films directly once their institution has signed up to the scheme.

It will also provide time-poor educators with an entry-level module to the creative reuse of archive material which doesn't need a lot of teaching preparation time. We will develop an accredited e-learning module with Future Learn, ScreenSkills and Screen Ireland, building on the forty-page Creative Reuse Guide published as an output of the research networking grant. This will provide online training and microcredits for students, educators and emerging filmmakers, addressing skills gaps in the industry and creating new archive-inspired stories in response to the films available through the scheme.

The project will establish Make Film History as an annual fixture on the film festival and academic calendar by hosting Make Film History Days at Sheffield Doc/Fest, the leading documentary festival in the UK; and at BFI Southbank and the IFI Documentary Festival in Dublin in September as a curtain-raiser for the new academic year, offering students and educators an induction to the scheme.

We will also extend access to these archival resources to educators in Europe, by developing our project partners' links to cultural heritage portals like EUScreen and Europeana, and launching a pan-European online student festival of creative reuse to mark UNESCO's World Day for Audiovisual Heritage in October 2024.

Together, these aims and objectives will enhance the value and wider benefits of the original bilateral research project, improving the student user experience, making it simpler for educators to embed MFH material within courses, and making the project more visible to industry, educators, and emerging creatives in the UK, Ireland and Europe.