Special Collection screening event - transcript of a discussion session with former student filmmakers from Sheffield Polytechnic

Prior to being inaugurated as Sheffield Hallam University in 1992, Sheffield Polytechnic was one of the first UK higher education institutions to teach Filmmaking, from the late 1960s onwards. The Special Collection at Sheffield Hallam University Library is the repository for over 60 reels of 16mm films made by students at the Polytechnic and University dating from the 1960s – 1990s. In 2018, following a screening of a selection of newly-digitised titles at Sheffield’s Doc/Fest film festival financed by the Sheffield Institute of Arts, the Library secured funding to digitise the remaining titles, to ensure that there are preservation backup copies available. In 2019, two screening events were staged primarily for academic staff working in the field of Film and Media to view a selection of the digitised films. As part of these screenings, four former student filmmakers from the 1970s and 1980s were traced and invited to take part in informal discussion sessions about their time as students and subsequent postgraduate experience.