Culture Lab Newcastle

Staff Profile

Dr Alastair Cole

Senior Lecturer in Film Practice.

Background

Alastair is a Senior Lecturer in Film Practice as well as an award winning documentary filmmaker and practice based researcher. His films have been released in cinemas internationally, screened at over 150 international film festivals - including at global A-list festivals Cannes Critics Week and Black Nights Film Festival. They have also been broadcast on the BBC and internationally in more than 30 languages. His work has received funding from AHRC, ESRC, Screen Scotland, Creative Scotland, BFI, NZ Film Commission, BBC amongst others. He has been led international impact projects with his films at the centre, which have seen him present and his films screen at the United Nations in Geneva, the EU in Brussels, and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. His written work has also been published widely and he holds a Ph.D from The University of Edinburgh. 


His work aims to embrace the potential of research led creative documentary film as a uniquely valuable, public facing methodology, that can foster new insights into humanities, social science and creative practice research. 


His recent films includes the Screen Scotland, BBC and ESRC funded feature documentary Iorram (Boat Song) (2021) exploring the relationship between Scottish Gaelic and fishing in the islands of the Outer Hebrides through sound archive and contemporary observational filmmaking. The film premiered at the 2021 Glasgow Film Festival and was subsequently released in over 50 cinemas and film festivals across the UK and broadcast on BBC. The film was released internationally in cinemas and festivals receiving multiple awards including the Best NZ Director at the 2022 Doc Edge Film Festival (You can read more about the project on www.iorramfilm.com). 


His previous feature documentary film Colours of the Alphabet (2016) has screened at over 40 international film festivals and won various awards including being shortlisted at the 2016 Greirson Documentary Film Awards. The film was the major output of a research project focusing on themes of mother-tongue education, childhood and minority language rights in Zambia. It was also the centre of an ESRC funded international impact project which Alastair led focusing on indigenous language film translation. This resulted in the release of the film across 50 countries in Africa in 30 languages and the creation of the African Film Translation Network. He was awarded the 2021 Engaging Globally Award at the NCL Engagement & Place Awards for his work on this project. (See www.coloursofthealphabet.com or for more information on the film, and here for more on the impact project)


Alastair’s previous short documentary films have been selected for festivals around the world and have been broadcast in 28 countries. 

Alastair has also recently led, or been co-investigator, on creative arts based research projects which engage with traditional music and live cinema scores, participatory documentary filmmaking within the care sector, and an AHRC funded forum theatre and visual arts based engagement with communities impacted by Bolivian wildfires.


His written scholarship engages with both documentary film practice alongside the themes and foci of his film led work. His writing also includes his co-authored book Learning Through Film: Human Rights in Scotland (2011) which was released to all Scottish Secondary Schools in partnership with UNICEF. 


Alastair holds a Ph.D in Trans-Disciplinary Documentary Film from The University of Edinburgh, Scotland, as well as a M.Sc (Distinction) in Social Anthropology (Edinburgh) and B.A and B.Com (Otago). He speaks and works in English and Italian, and has worked as a documentary film maker in Scotland, New Zealand, across Europe - including Italy, Finland and the Balkans, as well as in Zambia and South Africa. Prior to joining Newcastle University he also help positions at Edinburgh Napier University, The University of Edinburgh, UWS, and as a guest lecturer in filmmaking at Shanghai Normal University. 


You can see more about Alastair's work at www.tonguetiedfilms.co.uk and find him on Twitter at @TongueTiedFilms. 


Research

Research interests include:


  • Film-based research as a means of exploring subjects within the humanities and social sciences.
  • Anthropologically informed documentary filmmaking. 
  • Environmental history and its exploration through film.
  • Sound archive and oral history within film practice.
  • Participatory documentary filmmaking.
  • Indigenous and minority language use in film production and distribution.
  • Accessibility and subtitling in documentary film.


I am interested in supervising any practice based PhDs using creative documentary filmmaking, contact me directly or see our PhD in Film Practice for more information. 


Current and recent research projects:

I am currently continuing my creative documentary film based exploration of subjects and themes emerging from anthropology, environmental history, oral history, as well as exploring creative documentary film practice along the way. Recent film projects have seen me filming off the bow of prawn trawlers off the islands of the Outer Hebrides, off the back of sheep mustering farm bikes in NZ, filming for 12 months in a rural Zambian classroom, as well as collaborating with filmmakers in Eastern Bolivia and care home staff in Sunderland. 


More details on current and recent research projects:



Playing with Wildfire (2020 - 2023)

I am a co-investigator and producing the documentary film outputs of the AHRC funded Playing with Wildfire research project. It used Forum Theatre to explore multi-layered conflicts (cultural, political, distributive, environmental) in communities most affected by recent extensive wildfires in Bolivia. It aims to advance local and international public debate on the complexity and urgency of wildfire emergency through the creation of research-derived artistic work, including community theatre, experimental participatory photography and collaborative documentary film-making. You can see more about the project at https://playingwithwildfire.org/ The project received an AHRC Global Challenges Research Grant


Iorram (Boat Song) (2018 - 2022)

Feature length (96min) creative documentary film based research project into the relationship between oral history, Scottish Gaelic and the fishing communities in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The project aims to simultaneously research the creative potential of restored sound archive to reconstitute and historically position contemporary observational moving images alongside its linguistic anthropological research inquiries. The feature documentary film premiered at the 2021 Glasgow Film Festival was released in over 50 cinemas across the UK and broadcast on BBC. It was also released internationally in cinemas, broadcast and was awarded and screened at film festivals including having its northern European premiere at global A-list film festival Tallinn Black Nights. For more information please see the films website at https://iorramfilm.com

The film has received financial support from Screen Scotland and BBC Alba. Its development has been supported by Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), a Newcastle Institute for Creative Arts Practice (NICAP) Pioneer Award, and a Newcastle University School Strategic Research Award. It was produced in collaboration with The University of Edinburgh and Bofa Productions. 


Muir ar n-athraichean (Our Fathers Sea) (2017-2019)

Short (5min and 12min) impact documentary film based investigations into the relationship between the Gaelic language preservation and the Hebridean fishing communities n the Outer Hebrides. Muir ar n-athraichean (Our Fathers Sea), (2018) and is currently screening at festivals, it won the 2019 BBG FilmG award ‘Film Dùthchais as Fheàrr’ award, was screened on BBC Alba in Feb 2020, For more information see here 

The project has received funding from an ESRC IAA Impact Grant.


African Film Translation Network / Colours of the Alphabet International Impact Project (2018-2019)

This impact project and web based network, culminated in the launch of the African Film Translation Network website in 2019 as well as the release of my film Colours of the Alphabet in 30 languages across Africa in 2018. I was the P/I with professor Nick Higgins from the University of the west of Scotland for both elements of the project. The website provides the first network and online platform for film producers to reach out to African indigenous language subtitler’s and film translators to help get their content and films translated into African languages and viewed by audiences across the continent. The project was the final output of the Colours of the Alphabet International Impact project, which included the translation of the film into 30 indigenous African languages (a first for documentary film) in preparation for its Africa wide release on AfriDocs. The impact project also included the training of 60 Africa based, African language speakers in subtitling stills, as well as the continent wide #mytonguemystory campaign, giving African viewers the chance to share their own stories of language and education. See www.subtitlingafrica.org for the network website.

The project and network’s creation received financial support from an ESRC Impact Initiative Award, ESRC follow on funding, and a Newcastle University School Strategic Research Award.

The project, along with the film at its centre, was also the recipient of the Newcastle University Global Engagement Award 2021, see here for more. 


Assunta Spina Live Score (2018-2019)

This live score based music and film practice based research project exploring the capacity of traditional folk music, including the use of live vocals, to reimagine the 1915 Italian silent film Assunta Spina. I was the lead researcher, co-composer, co-arranger and one of the performers of the score. The project had its premiere as part of the 2018 Glasgow Film Festival and has since toured around UK over 2018 and 2019, with performances at cinemas, music venues and film festivals. The project has also provided the basis of events exploring the previously invisible role of female filmmakers in cinema history. The project is being recorded for release in November 2019. More information on the project can be found at www.silentdivas.com and here.

The project was awarded financial support from the Glasgow Film Festival, PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund for Organisations, Film Hub North (part of BFI’s Film Audience Network and funded by BFI and Creative Scotland ), Mazzini Garibaldi Foundation, and the Italian Cultural Institute Edinburgh. 


Colours of the Alphabet (2012-2017)

A Feature Documentary film based research project focusing the experience of non mother-tongue education in primary education in rural Zambia, and highlighting the global issue of the lack of mother tongue education for 40% of the worlds population. The project also sought to focus on the ability of creative subtitling to reveal complex multilingual contexts in film, and the capacity of creative documentary film practice to uniquely reveal aspects of linguistic anthropology research. Filmed over 12 months in a rural grade one Zambian classroom, the resulting 80 minute feature documentary Colours of the Alphabetwas released early 2016 at the Glasgow Film Festival, and since had 40 film festival screenings, as well as cinema releases in the UK and Zambia. It has been broadcast in 30 languages, across 52 countries, and is currently available on DVD, BluRay and VOD internationally. The film has won a variety of awards, including being nominated for a 2017 Grierson Award. Writing outputs related to the project have covered the research methodology, editing approaches, and impact pathways.See more on the film output at www.coloursofthealphabet.com or on its Facebook and Twitter pages.

The project was awarded financial support from the Creative Scotland Film Development and Production Fund. The project was developed with the support Scottish Documentary Institute's InterDoc Programme, European Documentary Networks Twelve For the Future and Berlinale Talents. It was produced in collaboration with Lansdowne Productions and Professor Nick Higgins at the University of the West of Scotland. 





Teaching

I module lead and teach on:

MCH 2086 - Analysing Documentary Practices.

MCH 2082 - Making a Short Documentary.

I also teach sessions on:

MCH 3090 - Final Film Practice Project.

MCH 1025 - Introduction to Scholarly Practice

Publications