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School of Social Sciences

Film Sales

Please note that due to a change-over of personnel, the film sales distribution has been temporarily suspended. In the meantime, potential clients may like to contact  the Royal Anthropological Institute which distributes many Granada Centre films. Please  visit the Video Sales list on the Royal Anthropological Institute website.  Many recent Granada Centre films are listed under the New Additions section. Older films may be found at the end of the more general RAI list. 

The great majority of films in this catalogue were produced by students enrolled on the MA in Visual Anthropology run by the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, now located within the Social Anthropology Discipline Area of the School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester. The programme commenced in 1987 with a firm commitment to teaching practical documentary film-making skills to students with a first degree in social anthropology. Since then both the number of students on the course and the range of subject matters covered has changed considerably.

Today, the course offers three different pathways, each involving a different degree of engagement in hands-on film-making. Alongside the documentary film production courses, there are now courses offering an introduction to other aspects of visual anthropology broadly defined, such as photography, visual culture and museum studies. Further details of the course as it presently stands and the range of options available can be found on the Social Anthropology website.

MA 'Final Project' films

The films by MA students distributed through this catalogue were all produced as 'Final Projects', i.e. projects that they conceived, researched, shot and edited over the summer vacation. By that stage of the course, most students have been involved in the making of at least four films of progressively increasing duration. The Final Project films are now normally of a maximum duration of 30 minutes, reduced from a maximum of 40 minutes in1992. Students generally carry out all the technical production roles themselves, both in the field whilst shooting and back in the edit suite. Only in the last stage of post-production, i.e. in on-line editing and in sound mixing, do students receive a major input from technically qualified staff. But even this input is generally no more than a case of 'polishing', since all major creative, structural decisions should already have been made by the student by then.

Students can go anywhere in the world to carry out their projects provided they can convince the course tutors in a formal viva that they have carried out the background research necessary to formulate a coherent and responsible project, have considered fully the potential logistical and linguistic problems as well as an any relevant ethical issues. The students are expected to fund their own project costs, though in recent years the One World Broadcasting Trust has generously awarded a number of travel bursaries to Centre students.

Not all final project films are offered here: only those that have achieved certain technical and editorial standards are included. In a small number of cases, it has not been possible to include films due to copyright or other legal considerations, or on account of potential ethical problems. In all appropriate cases, the student film-makers have signed a form giving their consent to the distribution.

Other films

A much smaller number of films in this catalogue were made in the course of fieldwork for the PhD in Social Anthropology with Visual Media, which the Granada Centre also offers in conjunction with the broader Discipline of Social Anthropology. This is a 3-4 year programme that can follow on directly from the MA. Further details are also available through the Social Anthropology website. These films are clearly marked in the catalogue.

Finally, there are a few films in the catalogue which were made by members of staff of the Granada Centre and various associated lecturers, researchers and other film-makers. These too are clearly indicated in the relevant entries.

Technical specifications

Since 1999, all Granada Centre films have been originated on mini-DV cameras (primarily the Sony VX1000 and VX2000). Unless otherwise stated, it should be assumed that this was the acqusition format. Prior to 1999, a number of formats were used and these are indicated in brackets in the second line of each entry, after the name of the student director, the year of production and the running time. Regardless of the acquisition format, the great majority films were edited on Adobe Première edit suites and mastered on BETA SP in AVID on-line suites in the University Media Centre. Sound-mixing was carried out on a Pro-Tools system.

Festivals

The GC encourages students to enter their films for festivals. Where they have been selected for screening this is indicated in the corresponding entries. There are now several well-established ethnographic film festivals, indicated by the following abbreviations:

Other festival names are given in full but with the abbreviations 'Int' for 'International' and 'FF' for 'Film Festival'.

Price

All films in this catalogue are offered at the flat rate of £15.99 each, regardless of the year or format of production and regardless of the distribution format. This price includes tax as well as postage and packing, regardless of destination.

The sale of GC films through this catalogue operates on a non-profit basis, the principle objective being to achieve the maximum distribution of the films rather than to generate income. However, the distribution has to meet its own costs, so the sums charged are those deemed necessary to cover this.

All films in the catalogue are offered in the following formats:

Please note that these DVD copies will only play in multi-regional or PAL players. They also only feature the film itself. At this stage, we have not developed the capacity to offer DVDs with a menu of additional features, though this is something that we are working on.

In the case of a limited number of films, as clearly indicated in the corresponding entries, the Granada Centre has agreements with certain North American distributors giving them exclusive rights of distribution in that region. Any requests originating in North America must therefore be directed to them.

Ordering and Payment Methods

Films may be ordered and paid for using one of the following methods:

Credit Card
Please complete the credit card form indicating your order details and email it to paul.henley@manchester.ac.uk, phone the Granada Centre Administrator on 0161 275 4002 or send it by post to:

Paul Henley
Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology
The University of Manchester
Arthur Lewis Building
Manchester M13 9PL

We regret to inform you that we cannot accept American Express.

Cheque
Please complete this form indicating your order details and send it together with a cheque in sterling made out to “University of Manchester” to the following address:

Paul Henley
Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology
The University of Manchester
Arthur Lewis Building
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL

If you are ordering from abroad, it is very important that any bank charges connected with the issuing of these cheques have been paid for by you beforehand.

 

Please note that films cannot be dispatched until payment has been received.

Contact Details

Paul Henley
Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology
The University of Manchester
Roscoe Building
Manchester M13 9PL
Email: paul.henley@manchester.ac.uk

 

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