Radical Film Network: Sustaining Alternative Film Cultures

近年来，随着当代社会政治、经济和环境背景与数字技术的接触，“激进的电影文化”迅速扩张，其主要特征是对移动图像媒体的政治参与和审美创新。由学者、艺术家、电影制作人和其他数字创意人员以及电影节、金融家、发行商、专员和无数社区组织和集体组成的激进电影文化现在是一个多元化、多学科和国际化的领域。然而，尽管它迅速扩张，但目前激进电影文化的研究人员和利益攸关方之间严重缺乏互动，而激进电影文化目前在工业、地理、政治和美学方面分散和支离破碎。因此，许多激进电影文化的研究人员和利益相关者正在以互不关联的方式工作，往往不知道彼此，也不知道政治活动形象中的历史、文化和当代国际发展。最近，该领域的学术研究也几乎完全集中在过去。因此，迫切需要克服这种支离破碎的情况，激发跨越这些界限的辩论，并将现有的历史知识应用于我们的当代背景并加以发展。此次竞标提议创建一个激进电影网络(RFN)，该网络将在英国和美国的22个月内举办四场活动，在行业和另类电影日历的关键日期举行。RFN建立在由Steve Presence博士在英国西部大学运动图像研究中心领导的一个成功的试点项目的基础上，该项目将于2015年2月举行一次会议。该试点项目显示出对这种网络的明显需求，已经引起了全球18个国家的83个组织的兴趣，其中许多组织与其他跨学科的学术和行业机构以及社区团体建立了现有的关系。该网络将把这个利益相关者社区与国际研究社区--从世界级学者到博士生--聚集在一起，将激进电影文化的过去、现在和未来作为一个整体来研究，并基于关键主题探索四个相互关联的研究问题：1.本体论：什么是激进电影文化？2.实践：以前的激进电影文化在概念上、理论上和实践上都有哪些关切？与当代关注的问题相比如何？挑战：激进电影文化的生命力和可持续性面临哪些挑战？我们可以从过去学到什么来应对当代的挑战？4.政策：什么样的政策将帮助RFN长期继续下去，我们需要什么样的电影政策来支持和维持更广泛的替代电影文化(从而鼓励整体上更多样化的电影文化)？通过解决四个活动中的这些关键问题，该网络将促进对将在该领域产生新知识的想法的探索。网络及其产生的知识将把理论和实践带入学术界内外的一种富有成效的关系中，并导致跨越这些边界的合作和创造性进步。更广泛地说，它将把英国定位为独立和另类电影学术的全球中心，并为参与其中的研究人员和利益相关者建立一个可持续的国际网络。该网络将在对当代电影文化的批判性审问中发挥关键作用，以及该媒体传达思想和激发对当今文化和社会中一些最重要问题的辩论的力量。在这个阶段提供资金对于确保试点项目的基础工作不会白费以及实现该网络的深远潜在影响至关重要。

Broadly characterised by the politically engaged and aesthetically innovative use of moving image media, 'radical film culture' has expanded rapidly in recent years as contemporary socio-political, economic and environmental contexts have meshed with access to digital technologies. Comprised of academics, artists, filmmakers and other digital creatives, as well as festivals, financiers, distributors, commissioners and the myriad community organisations and collectives that feed into them, radical film culture is now a diverse, multidisciplinary and international field. However, despite its rapid expansion, there is at present a major lack of interaction between the researchers and stakeholders involved in radical film culture, which is in turn currently dispersed and fragmented along industrial, geographic, political and aesthetic lines. As a result, researchers and stakeholders across the many strands of radical film culture are working in disconnected ways, often unaware of one another and of the history, culture and contemporary international developments in the political moving image. A recent increase in scholarship in the field has also focused almost exclusively on the past. There is thus urgent need to counter that fragmentation, stimulate debate across these boundaries and apply and develop existing historical knowledge to our contemporary context. This bid proposes the creation of a Radical Film Network (RFN), which will stage four events across 22 months in the UK and US, taking place at key dates in the industry and alternative film calendar. The RFN builds upon a successful pilot project led by Dr Steve Presence at the University of the West of England's Centre for Moving Image Research, which will conclude with a conference in February 2015. The pilot project has demonstrated a clear need for such a network, having generated interest from 83 organisations in 18 countries across the globe, many of which bring existing relationships with other cross-disciplinary academic and industry institutions and community groups. The network will bring together this community of stakeholders with an international research community - ranging from world-class academics to PhD students - to address the past, present and future of radical film culture as a holistic entity, exploring four interrelated research questions based on key themes: 1. Ontology: What was/is radical film culture? 2. Praxis: What were the conceptual, theoretical and practical concerns of previous radical film cultures? How do they compare to contemporary concerns?3. Challenges: What are the challenges facing the vitality and sustainability of radical film culture? What can we learn from the past to address contemporary challenges?4. Policy: What kind of policy will assist the RFN to continue in the long-term, and what kind of film policy do we need to enable and sustain alternative film cultures more generally (thereby encouraging more diverse film cultures overall)?By addressing these key questions across the four events, the network will facilitate the exploration of ideas that will generate new knowledge in the field. The network and the knowledge it generates will bring theory and practice into a productive relationship both inside and outside the academic community and lead to collaborative, creative advances across these boundaries. More broadly, it will position the UK as a global centre for independent and alternative film scholarship and establish a sustainable, international network for the researchers and stakeholders involved. That network will play a key role in the critical interrogation of contemporary film culture and the power with which the medium can convey ideas and stimulate debate about some of the most important issues in culture and society today. Funding at this stage is essential to ensure groundwork of the pilot project does not go to waste and that the far-reaching potential impact of the network is realised.