April 28-30, 2025
Porto, Portugal
a TRACTS multimodal training school
What?
Drawing on discussions and debates central to the pedagogical mission of the Centre for Visual Anthropology and the TRACTS Network, this three-day workshop considers how juxtaposing, activating, and remixing image and sound is an experiment with trace, whereby new forms of knowledge are produced through audiovisual experimentation. Approaching the essay film as a contribution to the cinema of ideas, the workshop approaches this genre as an opportunity for reconsidering text-centered forms of making, thinking, and doing. It will equip participants with the theoretical, methodological, and practice-based skills needed to situate this genre as a legitimate research practice.
The workshop will bring together 25 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who are experimenting with the film essay as an integral part of their research practice. Drawing on theories and methods from the fields of anthropology, visual studies, and film, as well as from other fields of artistic, practice-based research and documentary image-making, this workshop-style training school will include master classes, crit sessions, and screenings.
We encourage applications from filmmaking researchers who are working across a range of themes that include (but are not limited to) multispecies ethnography and more than human assemblages; archival (re)activations; memory and history; technology and the social; and critical ecologies. Projects can dialogue with any academic discipline but should be rooted in a research practice that combines theory, methodology, and work with and through images.
All participants will come to the training school workshops with an advanced draft or cut of film essay. They will leave with a broader understanding of the essay film genre and the possibilities that audiovisual remix opens when thinking critically and reflexively about the visuality, multimodalitity, and creative invention.
The 3-day event will culminate in a collective conversation about where finalized projects can be showcased, screened, circulated, and/or published. The training school will be hands-on and experimental, and participants will be asked to contribute to this collaborative space via the presentation of their own work and their participation in crit reviews.
Workshop Leaders
This TRACTS workshop and training school will be facilitated by filmmaker/researchers from the Centre for Visual Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London. They are actively engaged in multimodal forms of knowledge production and in creating sustainable platforms for image-driven research.
Lee Douglas CVA, Goldsmiths, UoL
Ricardo Leizaola CVA, Goldsmiths, UoL
Miro Stambolsky CVA, Goldsmiths, UoL
Available Fellowships
TRACTS is offering 16 fellowships for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers based in Europe. Through a reimbursement scheme, these fellowships will cover travel and accommodation expenses. Students based locally will be eligible for local travel reimbursements. The workshop itself is free of charge.
Applications
All participants are asked to submit a description of their research and practice and conceptual statement, accompanied by a film essay that is in production and near completion. The project must be a work in progress. The application dossier must be submitted by 11pm (GMT) on Monday, March 24th.
Applications should include:
RESEARCH & PRACTICE STATEMENT
A description of your research and multimodal practice, focusing specifically on how you work with and through images to produce knowledge. The statement should also make clear where you are based, what disciplines you are engaged with, and what stage you are in your studies/training. (Max. 250 words)
CONCEPTUAL STATEMENT
A description of the film essay you are currently developing that makes clear the theoretical and methodological issues that you are addressing. The statement should make clear what this film essay contributes to your specific field of research and practice. (Max. 250 words)
FILM ESSAY
You must include a link and, if required, password to the film essay that you are currently finalizing. This does not need to be a completed work, but it should be in its final stages of completion. Please do not send original files. (Max. 250 words)
IMAGE ETHICS STATEMENT
Please address any ethical issues that you are considering in finalizing your projects, such as image permissions and questions of representation. (Max. 150 words)
Submission Details
Applications should be in submitted in PDF format and be no larger than 20MB. Please provide a youtube, vimeo or another type of accessible link to the most recent cut of your film essay.
All dossiers must be submitted by email to tracts@st-andrews.ac.uk by 11pm (GMT) on Monday, March 24th March 2025 with the following subject heading: FILM ESSAY – First Name Last Name – Institution.
We will announce the participants by the end of March 2025.
Host Institution
Collaborating Institutions
This Training School is organized by TRACTS (CA20134), supported by European Cooperation in Science and Technology. COST is a funding agency for research and innovation networks.
