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Staff Profile

Dr Alastair Cole

Senior Lecturer in Film Practice. School Director of Impact.

Background

Alastair is a Senior Lecturer in Film Practice, School Director of Impact and Engagement. and School Director of Research (interim). He is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and practice-based researcher. His films have been released in cinemas internationally, screened at over 200 international film festivals — including twice at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival — and received multiple international awards in both the film industry and academia. They have also been broadcast on the BBC and internationally in more than 40 languages.


His work has received over £1.2 million in funding from AHRC, ESRC, The British Academy, Screen Scotland, Creative Scotland, BFI, NZ Film Commission, and the BBC.


He has led award-winning international impact projects with his films at the centre, which have been presented at the United Nations in Geneva, the EU in Brussels, the UK Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, Holyrood Parliament in Edinburgh, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. His written work has also been published widely, and he holds a Ph.D. from The University of Edinburgh.


His work aims to embrace the potential of creative documentary film as a uniquely valuable, public-facing research methodology that can foster new insights into social science, humanities, and creative practice research.


His current projects include:


  • The ESRC-funded Refugees Care — an action and film-based research project engaging and supporting refugee medical professionals in Northeast England. (www.refugeescare.co.uk). 2025–2027. Co/I (£487,000).
  • The British Academy-funded Canvas for Change - co-producing art to reduce the stigma of neurological disorders in Kenya. (www.canvasforchange.net). 2024–2026. Co/I (£287,000).
  • The ESRC IAA-funded impact project Care: A Documentary Film and impact release amplifying the voices of care staff in the UK. 2023–2026. P/I (www.carethefilm.com).
  • The Screen Scotland and NZ Film Commission-supported feature documentary film in development, Land of Voices (WT). P/I (2024–2028).

His previous films include the Screen Scotland, BBC, and ESRC-funded feature documentary Iorram (Boat Song) (2021), which was released in over 50 cinemas and film festivals across the UK and broadcast on the BBC. The film explored the relationship between Scottish Gaelic and fishing in the islands of the Outer Hebrides through sound archive and contemporary observational filmmaking (www.iorramfilm.com). His film Colours of the Alphabet (2016) screened at over 40 international film festivals, won various awards, and explored mother-tongue education, childhood, and minority language rights in Zambia. (See www.coloursofthealphabet.com.)


Alastair's previous short documentary films have been selected for festivals around the world and have been broadcast in 28 countries. His written scholarship engages with both documentary film practice and the themes and foci of his film-led work. His writing also includes his co-authored book Learning Through Film: Human Rights in Scotland (2011), which was released to all Scottish secondary schools in partnership with UNICEF.


Alastair speaks and works in English and Italian, and has worked as a documentary filmmaker in Scotland, New Zealand, and across Europe — including Italy, Kenya, Finland, and the Balkans — as well as in Zambia and South Africa. Prior to joining Newcastle University, he also held positions at Edinburgh Napier University, The University of Edinburgh, UWS, and as a guest lecturer in filmmaking at Shanghai Normal University.


You can see more about Alastair's work at www.tonguetiedfilms.co.uk.


Research

Research interests include:


  • Film-based research as a means of exploring subjects within social sciences.
  • Anthropologically informed documentary filmmaking. 
  • Environmental history and its exploration through film.
  • Filmic engagement with medicine, health and social care.
  • Sound archive and oral history within film practice.
  • Participatory documentary filmmaking.
  • Indigenous and minority language use in film production and distribution.



I am interested in supervising any practice based PhDs using creative documentary filmmaking, see current PhD students the teaching tab, and contact me directly, or see our PhD in Film Practice for more information. 


Current and recent research projects:


I am currently continuing my creative documentary film based exploration of subjects and themes emerging from anthropology, health, environmental history, and sound archives. Recent film projects have seen me filming off the bow of prawn trawlers off the islands of the Outer Hebrides, off the back of sheep mustering farm bikes in NZ, filming for 12 months in a rural Zambian classroom, as well as collaborating with filmmakers in Eastern Bolivia, coastal Kenya and care home staff in Sunderland. 


More details on current research projects:


Refugees Care (2024-2026) Funders: ESRC Research Grant. CoPI.


A new major research project documenting the lived experiences and employment pathways of refugee medical professionals in Northeast England. https://www.refugeescare.co.uk/


Canvas for Change (2024-2026). Funders: British Academy - ODA International Interdisciplinary Research Award. CoPI.


A film and participatory theatre based project exploring the lived experience, and stigma surrounding epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease in coastal Kenya. Planned outputs include community theatre, mid length documentary film and short scripted films supporting a community-based awareness campaign. http://www.canvasforchange.net/


Land of Voices (2024-2028) Funders: Screen Scotland and NZ Film Commission, in partnership with Bofa Productions. P/I.


A new sound archive based feature documentary film exploration of the contemporary stratified socio-ecological effects of historical environmental activities in Aotearoa New Zealand. The project is in production with an expected release in 2028.


Care (2023-2026) Funders: ESRC IAA. NCL C19 fund, and Deans Participatory Research Award. PI.


Participatory documentary film based project exploring the lived experience of care home staff and residents. The project resulted in a mid length participatory documentary film, which has screened at cinemas and online across the UK, including as part of a 2025 UK Impact release, culminating in a special screening for MPs and change makers at Westminister Parliament. https://www.carethefilm.com/


Previous Research Projects:



Playing with Wildfire (2020 - 2023). Funders: AHRC Global Challenges Research Grant.


Playing with Wildfire research project used forum theatre and documentary film to explore multi-layered conflicts (cultural, political, distributive, environmental) in communities most affected by recent extensive wildfires in Bolivia. It aimed to advance local and international public debate on the complexity and urgency of wildfire emergency. You can see more about the project and its outputs at https://playingwithwildfire.org/


Iorram (Boat Song) (2018 - 2022). Funders: Screen Scotland, BBC, ESRC, and NICAP. PI.


Feature length (96min) creative documentary film based research project into the relationship between oral history, Scottish Gaelic and the fishing communities in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The project aims to simultaneously research the creative potential of restored sound archive to reconstitute and historically position contemporary observational moving images alongside its linguistic anthropological research inquiries. The feature documentary film premiered at the 2021 Glasgow Film Festival was released in over 50 cinemas across the UK and broadcast on BBC. It was also released internationally in cinemas, broadcast and was awarded and screened at film festivals including having its northern European premiere at global A-list film festival Tallinn Black Nights. For more information please see the films website at https://iorramfilm.com



Muir ar n-athraichean (Our Fathers Sea) (2017-2019). Funders: BBC Alba and ESRC IAA


Short (5min and 12min) impact documentary film based investigations into the relationship between the Gaelic language preservation and the Hebridean fishing communities n the Outer Hebrides. Muir ar n-athraichean (Our Fathers Sea), (2018) and is currently screening at festivals, it won the 2019 BBG FilmG award ‘Film Dùthchais as Fheàrr’ award, was screened on BBC Alba in Feb 2020, For more information see here 


African Film Translation Network / Colours of the Alphabet International Impact Project (2018-2019). Funders: ESRC IAA. PI.


This impact project and web based network, culminated in the launch of the African Film Translation Network website in 2019 as well as the release of my film Colours of the Alphabet in 30 languages across Africa in 2018. The project was the final output of the Colours of the Alphabet International Impact project, which included the translation of the film into 30 indigenous African languages (a first for documentary film) in preparation for its Africa wide release on AfriDocs. The impact project also included the training of 60 Africa based, African language speakers in subtitling stills, as well as the continent wide #mytonguemystory campaign, giving African viewers the chance to share their own stories of language and education. The project was also the recipient of the Newcastle University Global Engagement Award 2021. See here for more.


Assunta Spina Live Score (2018-2019). Funders: Glasgow Film Festival, PRS, BFI Film Hub North, Mazzini Garibaldi Foundation. PI.


This live score based music and film practice based research project exploring the capacity of traditional folk music, including the use of live vocals, to reimagine the 1915 Italian silent film Assunta Spina. The project had its premiere as part of the 2018 Glasgow Film Festival and has since toured around UK over 2018 and 2019, with performances at cinemas, music venues and film festivals. The project has also provided the basis of events exploring the previously invisible role of female filmmakers in cinema history. More information on the project can be found at www.silentdivas.com and here.


Colours of the Alphabet (2012-2017) Funders: Creative Scotland. PI.


A Feature Documentary film based research project focusing the experience of non mother-tongue education in primary education in rural Zambia, and highlighting the global issue of the lack of mother tongue education for 40% of the worlds population. The project also sought to focus on the ability of creative subtitling to reveal complex multilingual contexts in film, and the capacity of creative documentary film practice to uniquely reveal aspects of linguistic anthropology research. Filmed over 12 months in a rural grade one Zambian classroom, the resulting 80 minute feature documentary Colours of the Alphabetwas released early 2016 at the Glasgow Film Festival, and since had 40 film festival screenings, as well as cinema releases in the UK and Zambia. It has been broadcast in 30 languages, across 52 countries, and is currently available on DVD, BluRay and VOD internationally. The film has won a variety of awards, including being nominated for a 2017 Grierson Award. Writing outputs related to the project have covered the research methodology, editing approaches, and impact pathways.See more on the film output at www.coloursofthealphabet.com or on its Facebook and Twitter pages.





Teaching

I module lead and teach on:

MCH 2086 - Creative Documentary Film Practice

MCH 2082 - Making a Short Documentary.


I also teach sessions on:

MCH 3090 - Final Film Practice Project.

MCH 1011 - Introduction to Research Methods for Film


Current PhD Students:


I am interested in supervising any practice based PhDs using creative documentary filmmaking, see current PhD students below and contact me directly, or see our PhD in Film Practice for more information. 



  • Paul Zhou - A Documentary Film-Based Research Project Exploring the Identities and Belonging of Chinese Migrants in Belgium
  • Eoin Wilson - La lucha sigue: An ethnographic, documentary-film led investigation of resistance to state violence in Mexico
  • Emily Linane - An autoethnographic reimagining of Guernsey’s cultural heritage through compositional practice
  • Simon Rushton - Revealing Truth – A Discourse in Methodologies and Approaches to Depicting the Religious Life
  • James Davoll - Doing more-than-human research about ‘damaged’ landscapes through sensory ethnography and ‘liveness’.


Publications