Selected through an open call, we are commissioning three new moving image works from artist filmmakers aged 18-25 based in England. The commissioning programme will actively support artists from under-represented backgrounds, and includes:
A specific commitment to commissioning at least one Black artist
A specific commitment that at least one of the commissioned artists will be based outside of London and the South East of England
Three commissioned artists will receive:
a £1,500 fee/budget
£2000 additional production support
Curatorial support from satellite across a two-month period
Online distribution
The final works will be streamed through our own digital channels and through an online broadcast partner TBC.
The three commissioned works will be made under the present and evolving conditions of lockdown, but are designed to look beyond it, to the new possible worlds that lie ahead.
SKIP/INTRO is a new online commissioning initiative from satellite. Initially intended to support three emerging artists through the challenges of the present moment, this new and evolving strand of satellite’s activities also aspires to be forward-thinking and future-facing.
The new ideas we need to hear will not come from the usual places. Civil rights struggles, a pandemic unlike anything in our lifetime, and the resulting global recession have illuminated inequalities that were already present - inequalities based on multiple intersecting factors including wealth, social class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age, disability and geography. Looking at our own, specific world of film and art, we see a systemic failure to represent a diversity of voices, and to support artists from diverse backgrounds. We need new ideas and diversity of experience now more than ever.
Artists’ film has always embraced different models of working – many of them uniquely self-contained and self-sufficient. From solo animation, to the creative repurposing of ‘found’ or archive material, to diary film and DIY experimentation, artists have always made the most of finite resources, pushed the envelope of what is possible, and championed the virtues of the self-made and self-shot.
satellite wants to continue to support these experimental practices at a moment when they are particularly vulnerable, and play our small part in championing an art world for all.
Through this scheme satellite is aiming to support a wide variety of artistic practices. We are looking to support practices that are self-sufficient, that do not require substantial external production support via crew, cast, specific equipment, etc, while still offering satellite’s production and curatorial support.
We are interested to see proposals working with a wide range of techniques and methodologies; for example, digital or analogue animation techniques, working with found material, or self-shot films, that experiments under current conditions, seeing constraints as beneficial to the creative process.
We are especially excited to commission:
work with the potential for broad appeal. Artists film is often seen as elitist or inaccessible. We believe that work can be daring, and engage with big ideas in new ways, whilst being accessible to everyone.
work that speaks to, and represents, people and communities who are under-represented on screen. These works may be about a wide variety of subjects, for example (but not limited to): social, political, cultural, technological, environmental or personal change taking place under present conditions.
Applicants must have completed:
An application form
An Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form
And have submitted a CV to office@satellitefilms.org with the subject “Skip/Intro application”
By the deadline of 12pm 20 July 2020.
If any part of your application is missing or incomplete, it will be ineligible, so please be careful!
Elizabeth Benjamin - Film Producer at satellite
Edwin Mingard - Artist filmmaker and Director of satellite
Reman Sadani - Artist filmmaker
SKIP/INTRO is a moving-image commissioning opportunity produced by satellite, and funded by Arts Council England.