This practice-led research investigates the function of filmic space in essayistic discourse through the dialogic relationship between the essay film My Pink City that reflects on post-Soviet urban space in Yerevan and a written thesis that examines the role of space in the essay film. The research considers essay film as a distinct modality of thought in moving image practices that incorporates multiple processes, a diversity of forms and heterogeneous material in its discursive logics. Reacting against the privileging of the temporal in the thinking operations of the moving image, the research addresses the renewed importance of spatial imagination, as a first step in establishing the significance of filmic space in cinematic consciousness. Filmic space has been mainly conceived as a static space that forms a background to action by centring movement, thus restricting the thinking potential of the moving image. Mapping a series of theorisations of filmic space in film theory, in geography of film and in the Deleuzian conception of cinema, the research identifies that filmic space can contribute to the thinking operations of the image when it precisely opens up to movement. Locating moments of spatial thinking in fiction and avant-garde film, the written thesis redefines filmic space as open, relational, heterogeneous and always under construction and relates this expanded notion of filmic space to the thinking modality of the essay film. The written thesis and My Pink City both demonstrate how the expanded notion of a fluid and dynamic filmic space, expressing thought via a variety of strategies, functions on multiple levels in the essay film and thus contributes to the thinking operations of the moving image. Following essay film’s ability to continuously makes visible its own thinking operations, the research proposes that filmic space (as the spatial imagination inherent in the image) also makes visible its own procedures, resulting in an essay film that does not only think about (the changes and complexities) of space but also thinks through filmic space.

A turn towards documentary modes of practice amongst contemporary fine art video and filmmakers towards the end of the 20th Century, led to moving image works that represent current social realities. This drew some comparisons of these forms of art to journalism and industrial documentary. The practical research is embodied in a single screen film that responds to recent political and ecological realities in Spain. These include the mass demonstrations that led to the occupation of Madrid’s Plaza del Sol and Spain’s in 2011 and largest recorded forest fires that spread through Andalusia in August of the following year. The film, titled Spanish Labyrinth, South from Granada, is a response to these events and also relates to political avant-garde film of the 1930’s by re-tracing a journey undertaken by three revolutionary filmmakers, Yves Allegret, René Naville and Eli Lotar, in 1931. The theoretical research for this project establishes an historical root of artists’ film that responds to current social realities, in contrast to news media, in the Soviet and European avant-garde movements of the 1920s and 1930s. The main aim of this method is to argue the status of the works that I identify, both avant-garde and contemporary, as a form of art that preceded a Griersonian definition of documentary film.

The thesis entitled 'Reclaiming the Image' is an artistic and philosophical enquiry. It aims at a radical re-thinking of the concept of the image outside the accepted notions of realism and representation by opening up the photographic real in the process of bringing together photography and cinema, stillness and movement, life and art, aesthetics and politics. It involves a thinking and writing with Béla Tarr's cinematic imagery through Gilles Deleuze's philosophical concepts. Its objective is not to illustrate Deleuze's ideas with Tarr's images, nor to read Tarr's cinema through Deleuze as such, but to think with images philosophically, in the hope of opening up the area of theory to the creative 'powers of the false'. I wish it to be seen as an aesthetico-ethical experiment which, rather than developing an overarching theoretical argument, constructs a critical and creative assemblage of different ideas and voices. On the one hand, the project seeks to creatively re-think Deleuzian concepts while thinking 'about' still and moving images, in relation to the real as affect and thought. On the other, to 'continue' films' images by opening their thinking further. The project of reclaiming the image as re-thinking in non-representational terms of immanent becoming will engage the Deleuzian- Bergsonian- Nietzschean concepts of time, life and aesthetics, and Tarr's intensely felt image-world in the series of encounters – affect-thoughts – that will undermine the normative notion of reality. The two modes – critical and creative – are not constructed separately but weaved together throughout what is 'enacted' as filmosophical "free indirect discourse" – a poetic coming together of film, philosophy and writing (as art). It is hoped that this will enable the potential for opening new areas of thinking and writing about/ with film/ photographic imagery outside the main discourses concerning theory and practice, the critical and the creative.

This thesis offers an ethnography, with both audiovisual and written components, of the virtual places brought into being through the creation and consumption of event videos in a transnational community. It is intended as a contribution to the development of conceptual and methodological frameworks, which will allow anthropological engagements with vernacular audiovisual media that take into account their phenomenological properties as mimetically active assemblages. In San Francisco Tetlanohcan, Mexico, young parents often leave their children behind as they cross the border illegally, heading north to look for work. Event videos, made by videographers at rite of passage ceremonies and sent to the USA, are an important aspect of migrant life. This research draws on thinking in philosophy and film studies to conceptualise these videos as agents in a process of ‘filmic emplacement’ as their production and consumption bring into being imagined places and selves. The project combines methodological approaches borrowed from sensory ethnography with video editing techniques inspired by avant-garde filmmaking, in a dynamic evocation and exploration of these filmic places. Close participation in the creation and consumption of event videos combined with the movement of alternative ‘video messages’ across the border, gave the researcher a sense of these places. Shared screenings of found footage sequences materialised and refined that understanding. By co-opting the aesthetics of popular television, event videos transform that which they depict, bringing into being collectively created and experienced imagined places. This coherent and constant virtual realm allows for the creation and maintenance of kinship and fictive kinship relationships, despite separations over space and time. The video 900,000 Frames Between Us produced as part of this thesis uses the juxtaposition of ontologically diverse images and sounds to provide an audiovisual evocation of this ‘filmic home’. In addition to contributing to the anthropological understanding of San Francisco, this thesis suggests ways in which visual anthropologists might engage with and understand the mediated experiences of others.

Cinema Komunisto is a documentary film about the use of the cinematic image in the creation of the political narrative of socialist Yugoslavia, taking as its starting point an abandoned film studio that had once been the crown-jewel of the Yugoslav film industry. An intensive five-year research process resulted in a story told through a montage of clips from fiction films and exclusive documentary archive, interspersed with interviews with key filmmakers, actors and studio bosses, as well as President Tito’s personal projectionist. In the introduction, a brief historical overview establishes the central position of cinema in socialist Yugoslavia, its contribution to the ‘imagined community’ in it’s articulation of political myths and the narration of the common past. Transitioning over to the present-day, the commemorative function of cinema is discussed in the context of post-war and post-socialist public discourse. A theoretical analysis of the relationship between cinema and history follows. Beginning with the concerns over the use of cinema as historical document, it extends to challenges faced by filmmakers seeking to ‘revision’ the past (Rosenstone, 2006)through the making of historical films. Starting with the Annales historians, such as Marc Ferro, and their contribution to the liberation of film from the requirements of written historiography, the argument is made for separating visual historical discourse from historical evidence (Ernest, 1983) and the challenge of making films with cinematic language (de Baecque, 2008)) is taken on. The final theoretical section discusses the impact of the ‘memory turn’ on the meeting between cinema and history, and argues for adopting the key concepts of cultural memory, such as it’s present-day operation, instrumentality and mediality as useful tools for this inquiry. Pierre Nora’s concept of lieux de mémoire proves fundamental as an analytical tool of the analysis of films as ‘memory sites’. The memory turn is then situated within the context of postsocialist societies, such as Yugoslavia, where films become a useful means ofrepresenting the ‘transition of meanings’ taking place. Adopting the concepts of Robert Rosenstone, the next section responds to the challenge of developing ‘rules of engagement’ that would allow for a particular ‘historical understanding.’ By situating Cinema Komunisto within the tradition of refractive cinema (Corrigan, 2011), particularly the use of cinema as an expression of history (Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma) or of history written by decree (Marker’s The Last Bolshevik), I set out to assess and build on aesthetic and philosophical concepts developed by Marker and Godard. Closer to home, inspiration is drawn from filmmaker Dušan Makavejev and his approach of developing ‘theory in practice’ in Innocence Unprotected. The elaboration of rules of engagement involves re-working the visual material, including the free mixing of documentary archive and clips from feature films, decontextualising and interrogation of images. Use of concepts such as that of intentional disparity (Baron, 20014) allows the subversion of the intended use of images. Thesection on narrative voice questions the establishing of the right critical distance and subjective positioning of the author as narrator. Following the decisions to eschew an all-knowing voice-over, and to rely on character-narration, the editing approach becomes vital. Montage allows the elaboration of a philosophical approach, invoking Benjamin’s concept of the dialectic image land the rapprochement of historical fragments to provoke critical reflection. Finally, temporal disunity and spatial articulation are discussed as narrative strategies. Temporal non-linearity and parallels in the dramaturgy add the ability to chart transitioning historical meanings into the present-day, tying back to concepts of social memory as the traces of the past in the present. Spatial narration is discussed in light of situated testimonies in geographical lieux de memoire, and the narrative and symbolic meaning of ruins, as markers of social forgetting. Both strategies prove to be valuable as ‘rules of engagement’, in particular because of the political dimension of constructing memory texts. In conclusion it is argued that the historical understanding achieved by the adoption of the discussed ‘rules of engagement’ achieves a reconciliation of subjective truth and intimate lyricism, with the philosophical and pedagogical aim of a critical reflection on conventional historical narration. As a memory text, Cinema Komunisto positions memory before historical truth, and ultimately managing to find meaning in ruins.

This thesis explores the first iteration of iFeatures, a grant-aided low budget production scheme in Bristol, UK, from 2009 – 2014. The scheme encouraged and trained filmmakers to develop digital marketing and distribution strategies to enable the three feature films, In the Dark Half (2012), Flying Blind (2013) and 8 Minutes Idle (2014) to compete in the market place against bigger budgeted films. Little original research on low budget marketing and distribution has been carried out which this thesis attempts to rectify. The research captured a specific period in history in which digital marketing and distribution was regarded by the UK Film Council (UKFC) and other stakeholders as techniques that would allow the low budget sector to find its audience, and overcame the century-long problems of how to sustain indigenous feature film production. The research findings are based on multiple data sources that collectively fill a gap in original research. Unprecedented access was obtained to major stakeholders including the iFeatures creative teams, BBC Films, the UKFC, sales agents and distributors. The in-depth interviews uncovered motivations and attitudes to marketing and these were analysed using Pierre Bourdieu’s framework (1986, 1996, 2001, 2003). In a separate chapter, conceptual approaches underpinning digital marketing and distribution, and the emerging strategies are also analysed. The three films are presented as case studies to show how each film adopted different strategies using digital and traditional marketing techniques. These case studies drew on unique data which captured the impact and scope of the online marketing, and over a thousand surveys from cinemagoers which showed the relative persuasiveness of both digital and traditional marketing. The thesis argues that iFeatures’ objectives were not achieved. Training filmmakers to become marketers did not account for their attitudinal dissonance nor the importance of symbolic capital. Also, coherent marketing strategies were lacking that understood and deployed the principles of marketing and emerging paradigms and logics. The case studies showed that digital marketing is only effective for defined audiences and when manipulated by expert personnel, and that traditional techniques should not be ignored. These results suggest that, as the commercial returns are so small, low budget filmmaking should exist to take creative risks and to develop talent and that its future may best be supported within a television business model.

In this thesis I develop a theory of political cinema. I use philosophical tools in order to build up a framework for the classification, analysis, and assessment of political cinema. I define the category of political cinema and, to do that, I also tackle the problem of what it means to be 'political'; then I analyze the relation between the value of a film as a political film and its value qua art. I move from two hypotheses: 1) the purpose of a political film can differentiate it from other kinds of films; 2) this very purpose can affect our aesthetic appraisal of political films. Hence, my aim is twofold. I aim to map the category of political cinema, and to identify analytical tools that could be used to assess the value of political films. This means that, through philosophical enquiry, I aim to construct a framework that could be of use in art-critical practice and that can help with the classification and assessment of political films. I argue that a political film's epistemic value is crucial for its own assessment, as it determines the value of a film as a political film (capable of affecting the audience's system of beliefs concerning a specific, political, issue) and the value of a film qua art. To proceed in my investigation, I use tools of analytic philosophy of art and cognitivist film theory, but I also import insights from cognate disciplines that can help us develop a more accurate analysis of the relation between films and the 'political'. In particular, I import tools from political science, political philosophy, epistemology, and cognitive science. Moreover, I take it that the theoretical effort needs to be tested with specific case studies, so I also use specific films as examples of the applicability and explanatory power of the theoretical framework I propose.

This thesis argues that there exists an analogous position in how the human body is represented on the cinema screen, and the response of spectators to this, within two key turning points in film history: the technological advancements made during the late 19th Century (what is commonly referred to as 'early cinema'), and the move away from analogue techniques in the rising dominance of digital filmmaking practices at the turn of the last century (in what can be broadly termed the 'digital age'). In both instances the filmic human body is used as a central spectacular attraction in the promotion of new and novel technologies intended to entertain, startle and challenge audiences. In particular, the use of trick photography in the late 1890s and the popularisation of motion-capture technology at the beginning of the 21st Century are comparable in the way these special effects technologies draw on the aesthetics of photographic realism and the idea of cinematic indexicality, whilst simultaneously rendering their depiction of the human body as unstable and transformative. An analysis of audience reactions to these technologies reveals how spectators from both eras have found these bodies strange, compelling and eerie: these filmic humans are uncanny. This thesis compares the technologies of early and digital cinema and their representation of the human form under the theoretical framework of the uncanny. Inspired by Freud's argument for the unheimlich, this investigation argues for the presence of a technological uncanny: an experience of the uncanny which has been provoked by the experience and direct contemplation of cinematic technology in its mediation, simulation and representation of human bodies.

This thesis contends that all types of film hold historical value and should be appreciated as relevant and valuable sources for contemporary historians. It is argued that feature films, and in particular fictional feature films, are overlooked as sources of information for scholars analysing contemporary history. Planet of the Apes (dir. Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968) is used as a case study to indicate the breadth of information available within the complex audio-visual text. This study contributes to the study of the under-researched film Planet of the Apes that holds an important place within the history of the American science fiction genre. The film is worthy of study because it can be understood as a countercultural document. It reflects upon, engages with and at times critiques the complexities of the political and social culture of the United States in the 1960s. Close analysis of the film provides insight into the attitudes of the filmmakers and their intended audience revealing a intricate commentary on a broad array of concerns and movements including the civil right movement, the women’s liberation movement, the Vietnam War and the fear of the advancement and proliferation of nuclear technology. Fictional feature films, such as Planet of the Apes, can and should be used to provide a better understanding of a particular historical period supplementing the archival materials traditionally consulted by historians. Film is interpreted in this thesis as a primary source deserving of respect and incorporation into the study of contemporary history.

My thesis examines imagery of the Jew in four Italian silent fils: Il mercante di Venezia (Gerolamo Lo Savio, 1910), L'Inferno (Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, Giuseppe de Liuoro, 1922) Quo Vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913) and Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, 1914). The thesis deconstructs this filmic imagery and traces its history back to medieval and Renaissance representations of the Jew. This process reveals connections between traditional anti-Jewish ideologies and the moving images of early Italian cinema. In so doing, my thesis demonstrates that there is a powerful relationship between the socio-political and relifious discourses that were in circulation before the First World War in Italy and the presence of anti-Semitic stereotyping in these films. It also argues that the image of the Jew in all of these filmic case studies functiones as a representation of the radical dangerous Other that threatens the unity of the citizenry of the nationstate of the Kingdom of Italy and the cohesion of the Liberal Italian society at a key time of new nation building.