Senior Lecturer Peter Spence MA, FHEA

About

Since 2017 I have been employed as Senior Lecturer in Film at Sheffield Hallam University. During this time I have taught across a number of film theory and practice 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 around 25 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. www.naturalcinema.co.uk

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

Film and Theatre

BA (Hons) Film and TV Production

BA (Hons) Film Studies

MA Filmmaking

Approaches to Film Analysis

Moving Image Research Project

Collaborative Film-making

World Wide Cinema

Cinemas, Festivals and Communities

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 and Film Practice draws on architectural phenomenology and 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), and is due for publication in the RUUKKU: Studies in Artistic Research journal in late 2025.

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 film and contemporary interviews with people from the fenland community in East Anglia about the 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. The research has been presented at The Social Impact of Climate Fiction conference, University of Southern Denmark (2025) and In The Palace International Short Film Conference, Pernik, Bulgaria (2025).

In 2018 I produced a historical documentary film 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.

I primarily teach film theory modules on the BA (Hons) Film and TV Production, BA (Hons) Film Studies and MA Filmmaking courses in areas ranging across narrative and form, realism, affect and British cinema, as well as a final year dissertation by video essay module. As an experienced film-maker 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. This fieldwork has been written up as a research paper which is due for publication in the Social Sciences Journal in late 2025.

Publications

Other activities

External reviewer for the BA (Hons) Media Production course at Buckinghamshire New University