Peter Spence

Peter Spence MA, FHEA

Senior Lecturer in Film


Summary

I am a practicing film-maker, educator and researcher having produced a range of film and academic outputs in my career to date. I hold a BA (Hons) in History and Politics from Queen Mary University of London and an MA in Screen Arts (Producing and Directing) from Sheffield Hallam University. I am a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a PhD candidate.

About

Since 2017 I’ve been a Senior Lecturer in Film at Sheffield Hallam University during which time I have taught across a number of film theory modules, have written and presented several peer reviewed journal and conference papers, and was Course Leader of the Foundation Year in Media Arts and Communication for five years.

Prior to this I worked for over 20 years in the cinema, television and independent film sector for employers including the British Film Institute, Picture House Cinemas, BBC, ITV and several indie TV production companies.

As a freelance Producer and Director I have also produced dozens of films and videos, both client commissioned and independently, including a several internationally screened and award winning short films. My work has received funding and support from the British Film Institute, UK Film Council, the British Council, Screen Yorkshire and the David Lean Foundation.

Specialist areas of interest

  • architecture and the moving image
  • archive film
  • the films of Michelangelo Antonioni

Teaching

Sheffield Creative Industries Institute

College of Social Sciences and Arts

Subject area

Film and Theatre

Courses

BA Film and TV Production, BA Film Studies, MA Filmmaking

Sheffield Creative Industries Institute

I primarily teach film theory modules on the BA Film and TV Production and MA Filmmaking courses in areas including film narrative and form, realism, affect and British cinema, as well as a final year dissertation by video essay module. As an experienced filmmaker I also contribute to practice modules and co-led a field trip to Malta in 2023 where I supported and mentored student production crews to make a series of films with the local refugee community. I have been an external reviewer for the new BA Media Production course at Buckinghamshire New University.

Research

Culture and Creativity Research Institute

I use film practice as a methodology for exploring our relationship with the built and natural environments. My practice based PhD with the working title Temporal Architecture: Bodies in Space and Time Through Film draws on the tradition of architectural phenomenology but updated with affect studies in cinema to better understand subjective human temporalities so often indelibly bound with buildings. The research has been presented at conferences at Aalto University, Finland (2023) and University of Notre Dame, USA (2024).

For over 20 years I have also worked with the re-use and re-purposing of archive footage to create new meaning and understandings in film-making. Using this creative research methodology a current project Waterlands combines archive and contemporary interviews with people from the fenland community in East Anglia about their lived experience of climate change to tell the story of the region at this most critical moment in its history. The research has been supported by the British Film Institute and the University of East Anglia where I was a Visiting Fellow based at the East Anglian Film Archive in summer 2024.

In 2018 I produced a historical documentary The Archive which was submitted to REF 2021 along with accompanying published paper. I also presented the film at several international conferences and film festivals, and it is currently available on the True Story platform.

Featured Projects

Publications

Journal articles

Spence, P. (2020). La Cupola: Re-visiting L'Avventura through 'building' and 'dwelling'. Journal of Videographic Film and Media Studies, 7.2 (7.2). http://mediacommons.org/intransition/la-cupola-revisiting-lavventura-through-building-and-dwelling

Spence, P. (2018). The creation of story and character through formal opposition and disunity. Short Film Studies, 8 (2), 187-189. http://doi.org/10.1386/sfs.8.2.187_1

Conference papers

Spence, P. (2021). Re-considering History and Narrative Through the Short Factual Film The Archive (UK 2018). The Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film 2021: Official Conference Proceedings, 9-20. https://papers.iafor.org/submission60938/

Media

Spence, P. (2020). The Archive. [Video Player]. Sheffield Doc/Fest: https://www.facebook.com/TheArchiveFilm

Presentations

Spence, P. (2024). Homelessness in the film work of Michelangelo Antonioni. Presented at: Unhomed, Unhoused, Homeless: An Interdisciplinary Conference, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA

Spence, P. (2023). The Antonioni House. Presented at: VIII Art of Research Conference, Aalto UNiversity, Espoo, Finland

Spence, P. (2019). Film screening introduction - The Archive (2018). Presented at: AntiComm2019 Conference, Queens University, Belfast

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