Independent Film & Video Distribution in the UK

Creating Audiences: a case study of women's film and video distribution

Presented at IAMCR, Paris, November 2007

Film Studies has critically neglected the area of moving image distribution. Yet a consideration of distribution practices and how they interconnect with promotion and exhibition is crucial since they play an important role in shaping our moving image culture. Only with a consideration of this area can we fully understand why we have the film culture we do. This paper will use the history of women's film and video distribution in the UK as a case study to look at how distribution practices impact on what films get seen by whom and where. To do this, it will draw primarily on information taken from audience feedback forms, royalty statements, distributor correspondence and research interviews. The paper will demonstrate that the role of moving image distribution is not simply one of passive delivery of work to audiences, but is integrally related to the creation of audiences for particular works.

Julia Knight
Reader and Lead Researcher on the AHRC funded project 'Databasing Key Documents and Narrative Chronologies of Artists' Film and Video Distributors in the UK', University of Sunderland
julia.knight@sunderland.ac.uk