Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image

Description

Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image is a unique place. An exciting research forum housed in a beautiful cinema, Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image pursues an imaginative public-engagement agenda that combines original and ambitious film curating with top-quality academic research and creative interaction with the artistic and cultural community of London, UK, and beyond.

Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image programmes about 70 events per year, spread over three terms from October to July. These include screenings, discussions, conferences, study days, lectures, book launches and performances. The Institute was the home of the Essay Film Festival from 2015 to 2023, held in collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

All of the Institute's activities take place in the Birkbeck Cinema, Gordon Square, which features 16mm and twin 35mm projectors in addition to high-quality digital projection. The variety of formats and the quality of the facilities make Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image an ideal location for research-led events focusing on the presentation of film, television and video materials from across the artistic and cultural spectrum, and drawing on the full historical range of moving image culture (including archival prints and even magic lantern shows).

Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image thinks of the Cinema as a laboratory for ideas, debate and experimentation, embodied by the projection of images and sounds that can move, surprise, and inspire thought and action.

The Institute's programme is built principally around key thematic STRANDS, all of which involve collaboration with colleagues from across Birkbeck and beyond.

Some of these strands are termly: Guilt Group, Digital Animation, Cinephiles, LUX Artists Moving Image, Sci/Film, Urban Change, Fruitvale Film Club, Children’s Film Club. Others are annual, such as the Pittsburgh Lecture, Human Rights Cinema, and the AL Rees Lecture.

Currently active

Yes

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

Founding year

2013

Contact details

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University affiliation(s)

Birkbeck, University of London
London

Partner Infrastructures

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Additional Partnerships

Centre for Creative AI, Birkbeck, University of London