A note from the organisers
After a successful launch in 2023, we are back in MediaCity, Salford, on 18 and 19 July 2024, for our second INEFF Experimental Fiction Filmmaking Festival and Conference.
The International Network of Experimental Fiction Filmmaking (INEFF) brings together practitioners, researchers, scholars, and industry professionals with a shared desire to innovate and experiment in fiction filmmaking. As filmmakers, we believe passionately in the relevance and value of experimental fiction filmmaking as a field of practice and academic enquiry, and we want this field to grow and engender a fruitful exchange of ideas, practices, and perspectives. Our mission is to help to define what experimental fiction filmmaking is and what it can become, whether that is on the level of storytelling, aesthetics, performance, production and presentation methods, or technology. We believe that critical discussion of practice can allow it to develop in new inspiring ways, and we want our event to stimulate such a discussion – breaking the boundaries between practice and theory.
We believe that this aspiration is fulfilled through the rich and diverse programme of this year’s festival and conference, and we hope that you will agree. The programme weaves together a two-day schedule of film screenings, workshops and talks, topping off each day with a bit of mingling over a drink – an opportunity to digest, share and critically appreciate it all. The films selected for our festival come from all around the world, and demonstrate the value and relevance of the field of experimental fiction film to the independent filmmaking community. The sheer variety of presentations and workshops from international INEFF contributors shows the value of experimental fiction film to academic practice-as-research, helping us to deepen our understanding of this new significant field of research.
This year, we have also launched our first 24/7 Filmmaking Competition, which aims to inspire the international filmmaking community with the challenge to make a short experimental fiction film in just one week, guided by a set of creative limitations. The interest in the competition has been considerable, on both a local and global scale, and we really look forward to seeing what the creative community around experimental fiction film can deliver. The best films submitted to the competition will be included in our closing evening programme, when the best film and the runner up will also be announced.
Finally, it is important to acknowledge that our event would not be possible without the support and voluntary contribution from our students and colleagues. We want to thank Jayne Sayer, an INEFF member and our colleague here at Salford, for her graphic design. We would also like to thank the filmmaker Enrico Piffer for editing a trailer for the event, and the composer Rob Szeliga for providing music for the trailer. We would then like to thank our student volunteers from the BA and MA Film Production courses here at Salford, Keira Marchant, Marie-Philippine Pezin and Ellison Jaleel, for helping us document the event and offering general support. Finally, a huge thanks to our research intern, Naomi Aiwekhoe Oghomwen, who has edited some wonderful visual content for us, and made a notable contribution to investigating the field of EFF as a practice researcher.
We hope to see you at the event,
Pavel Prokopič, Matthew Hawkins and Alex Lichtenfels
The International Network of Experimental Fiction Filmmaking (INEFF) brings together practitioners, researchers, scholars, and industry professionals with a shared desire to innovate and experiment in fiction filmmaking. As filmmakers, we believe passionately in the relevance and value of experimental fiction filmmaking as a field of practice and academic enquiry, and we want this field to grow and engender a fruitful exchange of ideas, practices, and perspectives. Our mission is to help to define what experimental fiction filmmaking is and what it can become, whether that is on the level of storytelling, aesthetics, performance, production and presentation methods, or technology. We believe that critical discussion of practice can allow it to develop in new inspiring ways, and we want our event to stimulate such a discussion – breaking the boundaries between practice and theory.
We believe that this aspiration is fulfilled through the rich and diverse programme of this year’s festival and conference, and we hope that you will agree. The programme weaves together a two-day schedule of film screenings, workshops and talks, topping off each day with a bit of mingling over a drink – an opportunity to digest, share and critically appreciate it all. The films selected for our festival come from all around the world, and demonstrate the value and relevance of the field of experimental fiction film to the independent filmmaking community. The sheer variety of presentations and workshops from international INEFF contributors shows the value of experimental fiction film to academic practice-as-research, helping us to deepen our understanding of this new significant field of research.
This year, we have also launched our first 24/7 Filmmaking Competition, which aims to inspire the international filmmaking community with the challenge to make a short experimental fiction film in just one week, guided by a set of creative limitations. The interest in the competition has been considerable, on both a local and global scale, and we really look forward to seeing what the creative community around experimental fiction film can deliver. The best films submitted to the competition will be included in our closing evening programme, when the best film and the runner up will also be announced.
Finally, it is important to acknowledge that our event would not be possible without the support and voluntary contribution from our students and colleagues. We want to thank Jayne Sayer, an INEFF member and our colleague here at Salford, for her graphic design. We would also like to thank the filmmaker Enrico Piffer for editing a trailer for the event, and the composer Rob Szeliga for providing music for the trailer. We would then like to thank our student volunteers from the BA and MA Film Production courses here at Salford, Keira Marchant, Marie-Philippine Pezin and Ellison Jaleel, for helping us document the event and offering general support. Finally, a huge thanks to our research intern, Naomi Aiwekhoe Oghomwen, who has edited some wonderful visual content for us, and made a notable contribution to investigating the field of EFF as a practice researcher.
We hope to see you at the event,
Pavel Prokopič, Matthew Hawkins and Alex Lichtenfels
INEFF Organisers
Pavel Prokopič
Pavel Prokopič is the INEFF principal investigator, as well as a filmmaker, researcher and lecturer in Film Production at the University of Salford. His current research focuses on advancing cinema as a unique form of art and storytelling by synthesising creative practice-as-research, philosophical concepts, and an innovative application of traditional methods and cutting-edge information and communication technologies, which is exemplified in the recent Nested Cinema installation. Previously, Pavel has written and directed several dramas and experimental projects, and worked as a freelance cinematographer in London. He also worked as a content director/producer on an IoT research project The Living Room of the Future with BBC R&D and the British Council, and has taken part in various artistic residencies and collaborations, including the Visual Research Network and the Sidney Nolan Trust. His work has been widely published, exhibited and presented, including FACT in Liverpool, Grosvenor Gallery in Manchester and Victoria & Albert Museum in London. He holds a PhD in Film from the AHRC North West Consortium/University of Salford, and a Master’s degree in Film Aesthetics from Magdalen College, University of Oxford. For more information, please visit pavelprokopic.com
Alex Lichtenfels
Alex Lichtenfels is Senior Lecturer at University of Salford. His filmmaking practices centre around notions of devised cinema, adapting and incorporating theatrical and performance traditions to a filmmaking context. His work invites collaborators from many disciplines, and the guiding principle behind it is to design and enact non-hierarchical filmmaking processes.
Matthew Hawkins
Matthew is a filmmaker and academic. His research interest in film practice is focused on affect and tone in narrative cinema, documentary film, and experimental practice. He holds a PhD from the University of East London, which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. This research project, entitled The Concept of Affective Tonality and the Role of the Senses in Producing a Cinematic Narrative, is focused on affective and mood, rooted in a Deleuzian film-philosophy, and how this can be used as a method and methodology for composing narrative fiction film that privileges the subjective experience of characters, rhythm, and tone, over traditional narrative structure. Matthew is Chair of the Screen Research Group and Course Director for Film Practice in the Division of Film at London South Bank University.
Pavel Prokopič is the INEFF principal investigator, as well as a filmmaker, researcher and lecturer in Film Production at the University of Salford. His current research focuses on advancing cinema as a unique form of art and storytelling by synthesising creative practice-as-research, philosophical concepts, and an innovative application of traditional methods and cutting-edge information and communication technologies, which is exemplified in the recent Nested Cinema installation. Previously, Pavel has written and directed several dramas and experimental projects, and worked as a freelance cinematographer in London. He also worked as a content director/producer on an IoT research project The Living Room of the Future with BBC R&D and the British Council, and has taken part in various artistic residencies and collaborations, including the Visual Research Network and the Sidney Nolan Trust. His work has been widely published, exhibited and presented, including FACT in Liverpool, Grosvenor Gallery in Manchester and Victoria & Albert Museum in London. He holds a PhD in Film from the AHRC North West Consortium/University of Salford, and a Master’s degree in Film Aesthetics from Magdalen College, University of Oxford. For more information, please visit pavelprokopic.com
Alex Lichtenfels
Alex Lichtenfels is Senior Lecturer at University of Salford. His filmmaking practices centre around notions of devised cinema, adapting and incorporating theatrical and performance traditions to a filmmaking context. His work invites collaborators from many disciplines, and the guiding principle behind it is to design and enact non-hierarchical filmmaking processes.
Matthew Hawkins
Matthew is a filmmaker and academic. His research interest in film practice is focused on affect and tone in narrative cinema, documentary film, and experimental practice. He holds a PhD from the University of East London, which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. This research project, entitled The Concept of Affective Tonality and the Role of the Senses in Producing a Cinematic Narrative, is focused on affective and mood, rooted in a Deleuzian film-philosophy, and how this can be used as a method and methodology for composing narrative fiction film that privileges the subjective experience of characters, rhythm, and tone, over traditional narrative structure. Matthew is Chair of the Screen Research Group and Course Director for Film Practice in the Division of Film at London South Bank University.
