Music and Filmmaking

In the Music Department, we don't only make music, we also make documentary films about music.

We see filmmaking as a vital research tool for increasing understanding about the diverse musical practices that are going on all around us.

We conceive of filmmaking as a kind of performance, as a creative research process based on a three-way interaction between filmmaker, subject and audience. Our films aim to inspire as well as inform; they aim to stimulate new ways of thinking about and experiencing music.

Music staff have received acclaim for their ethnographic music films and have shot documentaries in countries around the world, including the UK, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Ethiopia. Students on our masters degrees have the opportunity to make short films as part of their programme of study. We encourage students to make ethnographic films that explore a musical style that interests them, whether it be rock or electronic music, new chanson or Indian classical music. You can view some of our films by going to the film archive of our staff films and student films.