POLITICS OF PRODUCTION: A report on the conditions for producing artists’ moving image.

Commissioned by City Projects
Written by Dan Ward
Read the report here

The Politics of Production is a report on the conditions for producing artists’ moving image that brings together research conducted over the last two years, drawn from interviews with 22 artists, analysis of roughly 50 works, and conversations with over a dozen administrators.

The artists interviewed included those who have been practicing for many years – commissioned by the BFI, Film London, Film and Video Umbrella, BBC, Channel 4 and many other organisations – as well as those just starting who have to negotiate such structures for the first time. Additional conversations also took place with staff previously working at the British Film Institute, London Film-Makers’ Co-op, London Video Arts, and Arts Council England amongst others, as well as a review of various reports, histories, and accounts over the last twenty years.

The text attempts to understand what problems are faced by those working within this ill-defined field, as well as across cultural production generally. The issues examined being not only low/no fees, but how artists are paid via sales or distribution fees, what commissions generally entail, how work is produced, and complex questions regarding education, access and support.

In addition to the online PDF printed copies are available at LUX and BFI bookshops and on request from info@cityprojects.org (A4, 36 pages).

This is an independent piece of research commissioned by City Projects funded by Arts Council England.

A sister text written by City Projects producer Kate Parker in 2016 is available here 

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