Film(making) education for all? British cultural policy and film education

Abstract

Since the late 1990s various consortia have published papers and reports seeking to establish a systemic public film education in Britain. Despite the time and effort taken by colleagues in organizations such as the British Film Institute (BFI), who have been involved in the production of these papers since at least Making Movies Matter in 1999, it is observable that each policy initiative has eventually fallen away. This article seeks to explore the discourse that these reports, taken together, present and how this might impact the development of a future public film pedagogy, as well as affect students who seek to study film and television production at later stages. This research was finalized shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when the film and television industries in Britain were demonstrating huge fiscal successes; however, the fate of the talent that will shape the future of these industries is still very much hanging in the balance.