HOME ABOUT NEWS RESEARCHEVENTS CONTACT
UPCOMING EVENTS
Beyond Access: Working For and About Local Communities - Ethics and Workflows for Community Docs
Fotis Begklis
9th December 2025, 5:00 - 7:00pm
The Cinema Room, MLG06, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Community filmmaking takes many forms — from everyday creative activities for local communities that help people find their voice and tell their own stories, to films about local communities made for wider audiences. Fotis Begklis’ work oscillates across this spectrum, focusing on how filmmaking becomes a shared process that reflects local values and civic aims.
Drawing on recent community-based documentaries in Elephant & Castle and coastal UK towns, and a wide range of community-based projects, this presentation explores: the filmmaking approaches and challenges of collaborating closely with communities, designing community-led story development and negotiating access and trust over time. Fotis will also discuss how these collaborations evolved, the relationships they nurture, and how the creative outcomes feed back into both my academic practice and teaching.
Fotis Begklis
9th December 2025, 5:00 - 7:00pm
The Cinema Room, MLG06, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Community filmmaking takes many forms — from everyday creative activities for local communities that help people find their voice and tell their own stories, to films about local communities made for wider audiences. Fotis Begklis’ work oscillates across this spectrum, focusing on how filmmaking becomes a shared process that reflects local values and civic aims.
Drawing on recent community-based documentaries in Elephant & Castle and coastal UK towns, and a wide range of community-based projects, this presentation explores: the filmmaking approaches and challenges of collaborating closely with communities, designing community-led story development and negotiating access and trust over time. Fotis will also discuss how these collaborations evolved, the relationships they nurture, and how the creative outcomes feed back into both my academic practice and teaching.
Sights and Sounds of Institutional Neglect: Comparing Lowkey and Fahim Alam’s Ghosts of Grenfell Music Videos – a collaboration between SSL and DCE
10th December 2025, 4:00 – 5:15pm
Location: Online - Please sign up to our mailing list, or reach out to sonicscreenlab@lcc.arts.ac.uk, to access the event link.
10th December 2025, 4:00 – 5:15pm
Location: Online - Please sign up to our mailing list, or reach out to sonicscreenlab@lcc.arts.ac.uk, to access the event link.
A presentation of Joe Jackson’s latest research will be followed by, firstly, a conversation with Nadine Persaud and then, secondly, a group Q+A session. Joe’s presentation argues that the sonic and visual contributions of musician Lowkey and filmmaker Fahim Alam draw from the pair’s own lived experiences as members of London-based communities who are also a part of – or closely adjacent to – the local groups affected by the Grenfell Fire, addressing Anamik Saha’s calls to pay close attention to the ways in which neoliberalism’s material conditions nuance the symbolic content of diaspora-produced media commodities (2024). In turn, he adopts Ed Kiely and Rosalie Warnock’s notion of ‘institutional neglect’ (2023) – and the focus that their paradigm seeks to afford to the precise mechanics which underpin certain forms of austerity-marked violence in Britain – in comparison to broader and more imprecise definitions of ‘institutional violence’) as a lens through which to navigate the manner in which Ghosts of Grenfell and Ghosts of Grenfell II articulate their respective audiovisual representations of the tower and events surrounding the fire.
The event will be chaired by Marco Scalvini and represents a collaboration between the Sonic Screen Lab and the Digital Cultures and Economies Research Hub, both of which are based at LCC.
The event will be chaired by Marco Scalvini and represents a collaboration between the Sonic Screen Lab and the Digital Cultures and Economies Research Hub, both of which are based at LCC.
BOOMERANG: Episode 2 Screening
Kate IIes & David Knight
3rd February 2026, 5:30 - 7:00pm
The Cinema Room, MLG06, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Kate IIes & David Knight
3rd February 2026, 5:30 - 7:00pm
The Cinema Room, MLG06, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
The television series examines intergenerational precarity, affective labour, and the cyclical dynamics of dependency shaping austerity and the cost of living in Britain. Episode 2 develops the project’s central metaphor of the “Boomerang Generation”, as both literal return to the family home and symbolic recurrence of social and emotional constraint. Its humour and muted observational tone make way for irony and vulnerability to coexist within the banalities of daily life. Episode 2 contributes to ongoing debates around how comedy drama, grounded in social realism, can interrogate the lived experience of stasis, care, and resilience within the confines of precarious modern adulthood.
As an educational and research-led project, ‘Boomerang’ integrates undergraduate practitioners into professional workflows, positioning the creative process as an epistemological tool. This aligns with current discourse on screen-based practice research, where making is both a method and an inquiry. The collaborative and pedagogical conditions of the production allow for a reflexive interrogation of how creative, logistical, and ethical decisions shape both narrative meaning and representational authenticity. The event will feature a screening of Boomerang followed by Q&A.
As an educational and research-led project, ‘Boomerang’ integrates undergraduate practitioners into professional workflows, positioning the creative process as an epistemological tool. This aligns with current discourse on screen-based practice research, where making is both a method and an inquiry. The collaborative and pedagogical conditions of the production allow for a reflexive interrogation of how creative, logistical, and ethical decisions shape both narrative meaning and representational authenticity. The event will feature a screening of Boomerang followed by Q&A.
Relational Storytelling & Co-Creating Fiction(s)
David Alamouti
4th March 2026, 4:00 - 6:00pm
The Cinema Room, MLG06, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Pulling Teeth is a feature film built through a close co-creative process with a community of non-actors - playing versions of their own lives in the film. Harnessing improvisational techniques of filmmaking (and not just performance) the film explores the textures and rhythms of lives caught in the margins of a global city aggressively changing. The event will feature a screening of the film followed by discussions on the methodologies used.
Memory, Locations and Postcolonial Adaptations
Gracia Ramirez
21st April 2026, 5:00 - 6.30pm
The Cinema Room, MLG06, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
This event presents the short documentary “Mompox, Cinema and Memory” which examines the filming of an adaptation of the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1981) by the Italian film director Francesco Rosi. The documentary journeys through memories, filming locations and the impact of making a European art film in a small community in the Colombian Caribbean.
The screening of the film will be introduced by situating the documentary as part of a larger research project on film realism, historiography and the relationship between the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and will be followed by Q&A.
Gracia Ramirez
21st April 2026, 5:00 - 6.30pm
The Cinema Room, MLG06, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
This event presents the short documentary “Mompox, Cinema and Memory” which examines the filming of an adaptation of the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1981) by the Italian film director Francesco Rosi. The documentary journeys through memories, filming locations and the impact of making a European art film in a small community in the Colombian Caribbean.
The screening of the film will be introduced by situating the documentary as part of a larger research project on film realism, historiography and the relationship between the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and will be followed by Q&A.
PREVIOUS EVENTS
Chiaroscuro: a Concert of Visual Music Works with Live Sound Spatialisation, by Adam Stanovic
3rd November 2025, 5:00 - 6:30pm
M108, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Visual music is a time-based art form that synchronizes abstract visuals with music. Visual elements are typically composed and presented with similar aesthetic principles to musical composition, often employing rhythm, melody, and harmony, while translating musical structure into a visual language through abstract imagery, light, and movement. This concert offers a slightly broader take on the term 'visual music'; the works 'mostly' adopt the core principles of visual music. However, they frequently employ representational sounds and images, narrative, dramaturgy, and spatial composition at their core. The programme features visual music from across the Screen School, LCC, alongside curated works from elsewhere, all of which shall be performed using live sound spatalisation over 16-channels.
3rd November 2025, 5:00 - 6:30pm
M108, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Visual music is a time-based art form that synchronizes abstract visuals with music. Visual elements are typically composed and presented with similar aesthetic principles to musical composition, often employing rhythm, melody, and harmony, while translating musical structure into a visual language through abstract imagery, light, and movement. This concert offers a slightly broader take on the term 'visual music'; the works 'mostly' adopt the core principles of visual music. However, they frequently employ representational sounds and images, narrative, dramaturgy, and spatial composition at their core. The programme features visual music from across the Screen School, LCC, alongside curated works from elsewhere, all of which shall be performed using live sound spatalisation over 16-channels.
Exposing the ‘Tissue of Making’ in Fiction Filmmaking: Collecting Evidence When You Are at the Centre of a Creative Project
22 October 2025, 3:00 - 4:00pm
M404, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
In this talk, filmmaker and researcher Lee-Jane Bennion-Nixon explores the intricate balance between creativity, story, and compromise at the heart of fiction filmmaking. Drawing from her award-winning short film About the Night (2023), she reflects on the tensions between artistic vision, production realities, and collaborative decision-making. Through behind-the-scenes insights and reflexive methods, Lee-Jane reveals how examining the messy, negotiated process of “making” can deepen our understanding of creative practice and support more inclusive, transparent approaches to filmmaking research.
22 October 2025, 3:00 - 4:00pm
M404, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
In this talk, filmmaker and researcher Lee-Jane Bennion-Nixon explores the intricate balance between creativity, story, and compromise at the heart of fiction filmmaking. Drawing from her award-winning short film About the Night (2023), she reflects on the tensions between artistic vision, production realities, and collaborative decision-making. Through behind-the-scenes insights and reflexive methods, Lee-Jane reveals how examining the messy, negotiated process of “making” can deepen our understanding of creative practice and support more inclusive, transparent approaches to filmmaking research.
Talk will be followed by discussion around documenting creative practice.
Aromatic Tales: India with Lainy Malkani
24 September 2025, 4:00 - 5:00pm
M404, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
24 September 2025, 4:00 - 5:00pm
M404, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Lainy is a Senior Lecturer in Media Communications at LCC with over 20 years’ experience as a BBC and independent radio/TV presenter, newsreader, and producer. Lainy will be presenting her project Aromatic Tales: India, which explores how the aromas in the food we eat can inspire community cohesion. While taste often dominates discussions of food, aromas are equally powerful in unlocking memories, shaping perceptions, and bringing people together. This work investigates how scent can reveal shared histories among Indian diasporic communities and considers podcasting as an audio platform for telling those stories.
Lainy will also share insights into applying for EDI funding — how the process worked, how the application developed, and what was expected in return — offering valuable takeaways for anyone considering similar opportunities.
Lainy will also share insights into applying for EDI funding — how the process worked, how the application developed, and what was expected in return — offering valuable takeaways for anyone considering similar opportunities.
Brewing The Past: A Journey Into History Through Beer and Film
15 May 2025, Intellectual Forum, Jesus College, University of Cambridge
A journey into history through beer and film, screening and panel discussion with Prof Shreepali Patel (film director), historian Dr Susan Flavin (historian), and Mark Burton (biochemist and Brewer) and Chaired by Dr Julian Huppert.
15 May 2025, Intellectual Forum, Jesus College, University of Cambridge
A journey into history through beer and film, screening and panel discussion with Prof Shreepali Patel (film director), historian Dr Susan Flavin (historian), and Mark Burton (biochemist and Brewer) and Chaired by Dr Julian Huppert.
Honest Histories? Uncovering Where Our Tasmanian Tigers Came From
19 March 2025, Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge
New research there has uncovered an uncomfortable truth about how the history of the extinction of the thylacine had strong parallels with the violent events that took place in Tasmania in the nineteenth century. Talk with Jack Ashby (zoologist & author, University of Cambridge), Lainy Malkani (journalist & academic, University of the Arts London) and elder Uncle Hank Horton (a Pakana man from Trooloolway mob, lutruwita, Tasmania), followed by the release of podcasts: Echoes from the Museum (Jack Ashby, Lainy Malkani, Julia Schauerman & Shreepali Patel).
19 March 2025, Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge
New research there has uncovered an uncomfortable truth about how the history of the extinction of the thylacine had strong parallels with the violent events that took place in Tasmania in the nineteenth century. Talk with Jack Ashby (zoologist & author, University of Cambridge), Lainy Malkani (journalist & academic, University of the Arts London) and elder Uncle Hank Horton (a Pakana man from Trooloolway mob, lutruwita, Tasmania), followed by the release of podcasts: Echoes from the Museum (Jack Ashby, Lainy Malkani, Julia Schauerman & Shreepali Patel).
Screening Resistance: The Changing Media in Challenging Racism and Fascism
14 March 2025, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Panel discussion on the changing media landscape within the context of historical and contemporary racism and fascism with Shaminder Nahal (C4 Head of Specialist Factual), Nelson Adeosun (Producer, BAFTA & RTS award winning Uprising, with Steve McQueen & James Rogan), Dr Anamik Saha (Professor of Race & Media), Harry Shukman (undercover journalist, BAFTA nominated, Undercover: Exposing the Far Right), chaired by Lainy Malkani (journalist & academic).
14 March 2025, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Panel discussion on the changing media landscape within the context of historical and contemporary racism and fascism with Shaminder Nahal (C4 Head of Specialist Factual), Nelson Adeosun (Producer, BAFTA & RTS award winning Uprising, with Steve McQueen & James Rogan), Dr Anamik Saha (Professor of Race & Media), Harry Shukman (undercover journalist, BAFTA nominated, Undercover: Exposing the Far Right), chaired by Lainy Malkani (journalist & academic).
From the Frontline: Fifth Year Anniversary Online Premiere
9 March 2025, online film screening, University of the Arts London
Documenting the story of healthcare workers on both sides of the Atlantic who harnessed the power of their creative voices to make sense of their world during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, a time capsule, released as part of Covid Remembrance Day, 5 years on. Professor Shreepali Patel (UAL), Dr Marques Hardin (Anglia Ruskin University) and Meghan Horvath (Brunel University).
9 March 2025, online film screening, University of the Arts London
Documenting the story of healthcare workers on both sides of the Atlantic who harnessed the power of their creative voices to make sense of their world during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, a time capsule, released as part of Covid Remembrance Day, 5 years on. Professor Shreepali Patel (UAL), Dr Marques Hardin (Anglia Ruskin University) and Meghan Horvath (Brunel University).
Kahlil Joseph and the Audiovisual Atlantic
30 January 2025, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Launching Joe Jackson’s new book, Kahlil Joseph and the Audiovisual Atlantic: Music, Modernity, Transmedia Art (2024), by examining the works of multi-award winning director Kahlil Joseph as well as proposing the Audiovisual Atlantic as a framework for negotiating transnational movements of contemporary music videos and musical forms of digital media. A collaboration between Sonic Screen Lab, Digital Cultures and Economies Research Hub, the Screen Worlds project and SOAS’s Centre for Creative Industries, Media and Screen Studies.
30 January 2025, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Launching Joe Jackson’s new book, Kahlil Joseph and the Audiovisual Atlantic: Music, Modernity, Transmedia Art (2024), by examining the works of multi-award winning director Kahlil Joseph as well as proposing the Audiovisual Atlantic as a framework for negotiating transnational movements of contemporary music videos and musical forms of digital media. A collaboration between Sonic Screen Lab, Digital Cultures and Economies Research Hub, the Screen Worlds project and SOAS’s Centre for Creative Industries, Media and Screen Studies.
The Crossing: 16 Days of Action Against Gender Based Violence
4 December 2024
Screening and discussion of The Crossing film (director, Shreepali Patel) on human trafficking to invited community leaders. This event addressed issues and raised awareness of gender-based violence with the project subsequently used and disseminated by community leaders.
4 December 2024
Screening and discussion of The Crossing film (director, Shreepali Patel) on human trafficking to invited community leaders. This event addressed issues and raised awareness of gender-based violence with the project subsequently used and disseminated by community leaders.
Retracing Kampala: Questions of Memory - Screening and Discussion
6 November 2024, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Screening of The Riddle of Bakuli (2020) as part of the Retracing Kampala project. Discussion with the filmmakers Said Adrus and Daniel Saul, chaired by Ash Sharma on movement, displacement, persecution, memory and migration.
6 November 2024, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
Screening of The Riddle of Bakuli (2020) as part of the Retracing Kampala project. Discussion with the filmmakers Said Adrus and Daniel Saul, chaired by Ash Sharma on movement, displacement, persecution, memory and migration.
Experiments in Radical Publishing
1 May 2024, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
A panel discussion addressing how developments in publishing (practice-research, experimental book publishing, race and post-colonial digital, and politics of open access research) are challenging the way academic research is presented and published. Panelists include: Prof. Charlotte Crofts (UWE), Dr Janneke Adema (Coventry University), Ash Sharma (darkmatters) and Chaired by Dr Mark Peter-Wright (LCC).
1 May 2024, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London
A panel discussion addressing how developments in publishing (practice-research, experimental book publishing, race and post-colonial digital, and politics of open access research) are challenging the way academic research is presented and published. Panelists include: Prof. Charlotte Crofts (UWE), Dr Janneke Adema (Coventry University), Ash Sharma (darkmatters) and Chaired by Dr Mark Peter-Wright (LCC).