title: Collaborative curation: in pursuit of a non-hierarchical practice
Creators: name: Atkinson, Justine
Publisher: name: University of Glasgow
Year: 2022

description: Film curation is regarded as a practice of care, placing and contextualising a film so that it can be best appreciated. Often this is associated with the singularity of an individual who is deemed to hold the necessary cinematic expertise to achieve this process. This thesis shifts and expands this definition of film curation, proposing the model collaborative curation - which aims to create a non-hierarchical process of curation, moving beyond the centricity of the individual towards collective forms of film curation. Through analysing three case studies that traverse a variety of realms within the film sector I looked at how this model has been applied to film festivals, distribution and the film sector workforce more broadly through a focus on traineeships. This was undertaken through an autoethnographic approach as each case study is derived from my own work in the film sector. These are the Africa in Motion Film Festival, a film festival based in Scotland with a focus on African cinema; Aya Films, a distribution company with a focus on African and Black cinema; and the New Promoter Scheme and Curate-It, which are film curation traineeships taking place off and online. These case studies provided a foundation through which I critically reflected on my own positionality as a White woman, the privileged position I occupy within the film sector, and my approach to film curation. Using my own experience as an access point, I analysed the model of collaborative curation within the case studies looking at the extent to which it could allow for non-hierarchical and democratic forms of film curation. It focuses on the communality of film curation and whether the associated collective practices emanating from collaborative curation can create new institutional re-imaginings that de-centre the singular gaze and create new epistemologies of curatorial care. The case studies are framed within wider systemic inequities within the UK film exhibition sector using these to demonstrate that collaborative curation also needs to address structural inequalities present within institutions. This all-encompassing approach led to a model of collaborative curation that includes an assessment of the role of curatorial practice within institutions looking at individualism and collectivity, decision-making processes, on and off-screen representations, and the movement of social capital. Drawing on theories of curatorial practice, decolonisation and diversity the thesis created a critical juncture within studies of film curation, exploring a new model of curatorial practice, framing it within broader scholarship of Critical Whiteness Studies, film distribution, and digital democracy. Each case study advances the model highlighting the limitations and possibilities of collaborative curation, aiming to create collective curatorial processes through structural interventions and institutional re-imaginings. Overall, the thesis conceives of a new model derived from practical undertakings and lays the groundwork for further use and study of the practices of collaborative curation.