Queerness, community and cinema - participants wanted

Three years ago we launched Wonderland, a project exploring the vast landscape that is Birmingham’s cinema stories. We uncovered a treasure trove of memories and materials, but the story is far from over. We’re excited to work with PhD student Gina Matuska as they delve into Birmingham's queer cinema heritage for a new project: Queerness, community and cinema. Fancy getting involved? Over to Gina for more info.

Hi I’m Gina,

I’m looking for contributors to share their experiences of being queer in Birmingham, and what role film and culture plays for you.

A bit of background

The first installment of Wonderland was a beautiful exploration of the unique and diverse connection that Birmingham has to film and cinema, from Kung Fu to the Wild West Brummies have proven they love the cinema. This project (currently named Queerness, community and cinema: exploring Birmingham's queer cinema heritage through place and lived experience) aims to extend Flatpack’s research and explore the queer community in Birmingham and the cultures and connections to cinema and film that they have forged over time.

What I need from you

The project is being articulated through practice-based research and is taking the form of a documentary. If that sounds scary, don’t worry, you do not have to be in front of a camera, or even have your voice recorded and shared publicly, to contribute to ‘data collection’ (the terminology sounds dull, I know). Your interview being recorded for the purposes of audio or footage in the documentary is helpful but not necessary, as long as you're happy for me to make notes of the interview or create a transcript from an audio recording so your voice doesn’t appear on anything shown to the public, that’s perfect. Also you can absolutely remain anonymous if you want to. Your contributions will help to prove the unique roles of spaces, especially cinema, within people's sense of their own identity.

Why this project?

This research specifically will bring new contributions to knowledge in regards to how specific cultural spaces impact marginalised individuals' conceptions of their identity and how cinemas can offer unique spaces for communities to gather and be sustained. This current political and economic climate has brought a significant financial strain on cultural sectors and fraught relations towards those who are marginalised within society. Meaning culture and communities are both more at risk than they have been in recent years and more necessary than ever. With cinema attendance being on a steady decline and many cinemas being closed down or at risk of closure too, you will be adding to the conversations surrounding the importance of spaces of cultural significance and the arts in general to people's lives.

How to get involved

There are several ways you can contribute as we want to ensure everyone who wants to be part of the project has the opportunity to do so. Below is a link to a survey (I assume?) with a few questions relating to experiences in Birmingham, identity and (of course) cinema that will help contribute to gathering ‘data’.

Complete our survey (Microsoft Form)

You can indicate on the survey whether you want to be involved further with an in-person interview.

Or, if you have any questions or want to do an in-person interview without the survey, feel free to get in touch: email me at georgina.matuska@mail.bcu.ac.uk

Hope to hear from you soon :)