Dr Kim Knowles

BA (Hons) Astudiaethau Ffilm a'r Cyfryngau (Prifysgol Stirling) MSc Astudiaethau Ffilm Ewropeaidd (Prifysgol Edinburgh) PhD Astudiaethau Ffilm (Prifysgol Edinburgh)

Dr Kim Knowles

Senior Lecturer in Alternative and Experimental Film

Head of Department (Theatre, Film & Television Studies)

Department of Theatre, Film & Television Studies

Contact Details

Profile

I received my PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2007 and taught on the Film Studies programme there before becoming Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the AHRC funded project 'Poetry Beyond Text: Vision, Text and Cognition' at the University of Kent. I joined Aberystwyth University in 2011 as a Lecturer in Film Studies. Alongside my work as an academic, I am also a film curator and events facilitator. Between 2008 - 2022, I was Experimental Film Programmer for the Edinburgh International Film Festival's ‘Black Box’ strand, organising major retrospectives in 2016 ('Regrouping') and 2022 ('Reframing the Gaze: Experiments in Women's Filmmaking, 1972 to Now'). I have presented screenings around the world and have taken part in a range of international film festivals, including International Film Festival Rotterdam, Oberhausen Film Festival, 25fps, Diagonale Festival of Austrian Film, Hamburg Short Film Festival and VideoEx.

Additional Information

Series editor: Experimental Film and Artists' Moving Image (Palgrave Macmillan): https://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15817 

Editor: Millennium Film Journal: https://millenniumfilmjournal.com/ 

External Examiner BA (Hons) Film, Anglia Ruskin University (2022 - present)

External Examiner MA in Film Curation, Birkbeck University of London (2015 - 2019)

External Examiner MA in Film and Television Studies, University of Bristol (2016 - 2020)

Co-Investigator AHRC Research Network 'Film and the Other Arts: Intermediality, Medium Specificity, Creativity' (2015 - 2017): http://www.filmandarts-network.hss.ed.ac.uk/

International Partner for 'Reset the Apparatus! Retrograde Technicity in Artistic, Photographic and Cinematic Practices', University of Applied Arts Vienna. Funded by the Austrian Science Fund (2016 - 2019): http://www.resettheapparatus.net/

Experimental Film Programmer for the 'Black Box' strand of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (2008 - 2022)

 

Teaching

Module Coordinator
Coordinator
Lecturer
Tutor
Grader
Attendance Dept Admin
Blackboard Dept Admin
Moderator

Research

My research focuses on historical and contemporary forms of experimental filmmaking, and I have published widely on the French avant-garde, contemporary experimental film aesthetics, film and obsolescence and cinematic intermediality. My recent book Experimental Film and Photochemical Practices assesses the contemporary status of analogue film (primarily 16mm) and argues for the continued relevance of material engagement for opening up alternative ways of seeing and sensing the world. My current research explores the relationship between film and eco-philosophy, particularly within the context of non-human representation and animal worlds. I am working on a monograph on multispecies cinema.

I welcome PhD enquiries related to any aspect of alternative film culture, film and climate change, film and ecology

Responsibilities

Scheme Coordinator for MA in Documentary Filmmaking: Landscape and Ecology

 

Office Hours (Student Contact Times)

  • Monday 13.00-15.00

Publications

Knowles, K 2025, The Aesthetic of Contact in Contemporary Photochemical Film Practice. in ED Noce & L Murari (eds), Experimental Film and Artists' Moving Image. Experimental Film and Artists' Moving Image, vol. Part F27, Springer Nature, pp. 71-82. 10.1007/978-3-031-70729-2_5
Bevan, G & Knowles, K 2024, Documentary Pedagogy and Ecological Thinking. in K Stutterheim, G Cammaer, R Mortimer, K Campbell & N Meissner (eds), Teaching Documentary Cinema for the 21st Century. CILECT, Sofia, pp. 73-86.
Knowles, K 2024, 'Ecological Gestures as Expanded Film Practice', Paper presented at Expanding the Reel Symposium, Vienna, Austria, 31 Jan 2024 - 31 Jan 2024.
Knowles, K 2024, 'Filmic Exchanges with Tea: A Photochemical Ritual', Paper presented at Tea's Times Conference, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 14 Mar 2024 - 15 Mar 2024.
Knowles, K & Walley, J 2024, Introduction. in K Knowles & J Walley (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Experimental Cinema. Springer Nature, Cham, pp. 1-12.
More publications on the Research Portal