Graduate seminars

Cambridge Screen Media Group

Probably the single, most useful event you can attend is the Cambridge Screen Media Group seminar. In fact, we can't emphasise enough how much we hope you will come along to these fortnightly sessions. Each seminar is followed by a lively Q&A, and often even livelier refreshments, plus the opportunity to meet fellow film enthusiasts. The seminars usually take place at CRASSH, the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, on alternate Mondays from 17.00-19.00 during term time. Keep an eye on the calendar on the homepage for details of upcoming seminars.
→www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/screen-media-group

You can also sign up to the Cambridge Screen Media Group's mailing list to receive regular updates and reminders by e-mail:
→lists.cam.ac.uk/crassh-screen-media-group

Other research groups

There are a number of other research groups in Cambridge whose seminar series often include sessions on photography, installation art and the moving image. Here are a few that you might like to check out whilst you are here:
→The City Seminar
The East European Memory Studies Research Group
Europe East and West: Film, History and Mourning
The French Graduate Research Seminar
The German Graduate Research Seminar
Cambridge Hispanic Research Seminars
History of Art Graduate Research Seminar Series
Anglia Ruskin University Conferences and Seminars

Lectures

Anyone enrolled as a student at Cambridge is free to attend undergraduate lectures in any department. Several, including MML, the English Faculty and the Department of Architecture, run lecture series on film and media that may be of interest to incoming M.Phil students. You may also be interested in attending particular lectures focusing on specific theories and areas of philosophy. Or maybe you just want to enhance your already well-rounded personality still further by exploring an area outside your immediate field of study. A full lecture list is published at the beginning of Michaelmas Term and can be accessed here:
→timetables.caret.cam.ac.uk

Libraries

Cambridge is full of libraries linked to the University: the departmental and college libraries, the mighty UL... Luckily, there is a dedicated webpage, The Libraries Gateway, to help you navigate them all. The website comes with a search function that allows you to locate books across Cambridge, and also includes links to e-resources that let you download articles using your Raven login.
→www.lib.cam.ac.uk/libraries

The Screen Media M.Phil is hosted by the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages; hence their library is particularly well-stocked with Core Course and related films.
→www.mml.cam.ac.uk/lib

The Centre of Latin American Studies has an extensive collections of films from the region, which you can search using their Catalogue of Latin American Films on DVD and VHS. You will need to be a registered student at Cambridge, though, as access is password-protected.
→www.latin-american.cam.ac.uk/videosearch.html

Cambridge Central Library has quite a good selection of DVDs available for loan, though it does charge a fee per film. The library is also home to a BFI Mediatheque, enabling you to access the National Film Archive free of charge.
→www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/cambridge_central_library.htm

If you want (or need) to venture further afield, the BFI National Library in London has excellent holdings in the area of film and television.
→www.bfi.org.uk/nationallibrary

The British Library is located conveniently close to King's Cross Station.
→www.bl.uk

Film institutes

Film institutes and archives are a fantastic resource for national film and media holdings.

The British Film Institute (BFI) is located in London, and as well as a number of cinemas, it has an excellent library. Incidentally, the BFI Mediatheque's film holdings (the BFI National Archive) can be accessed and viewed at Cambridge Public Library.
→bfi.org.uk

The French equivalent of the BFI is the Paris-based Cinémathèque française. The Seventh Art meets seventh heaven.
→www.cinematheque.fr

Meanwhile, Berlin is home to Germany's Deutsche Kinemathek (and film & TV museum, with enough Marlene Dietrich memorabilia to keep you occupied for hours).
→www.deutsche-kinemathek.de

Finding films

Rich though Cambridge's library holdings are, there will be times when you may have to look further afield to find films. Here are a few places where you might locate what you need.

MUBI is an online film community that allows you to view films in near-DVD quality. Although most are pay-per-view, there is some free content, and the social network structure makes it a good way of communicating with other film buffs.
→mubi.com

Sometimes, truly hard-to-find material can crop up on YouTube. Not just for people who love cat videos.
→youtube.com

The BFI's National Film Archive can now be accessed and viewed from the Mediatheque located in Cambridge Central Library.
→www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque

Making films

Although the M.Phil course itself does not include a practical component, occasional seminars and workshops are organised, which might focus on thing like scriptwriting or pitching ideas for films, so keep an eye on the calendar on the homepage.
→www.screenmedia.group.cam.ac.uk

Cambridge itself does have a student society, Cinecam, that caters for budding filmmakers. Sign up to their mailing list or contact the organisers to get involved.
→www.cinecam.org.uk

Watching films

Chances are, you will spend a good amount of time in front of a screen of one kind or another during your course. Here's a brief overview of some of the screening facilities available in and around Cambridge.

The MML CALL Facility and Media Centre

The department of Modern and Medieval Languages is home to the CALL Facility: a fully equipped language learning lab with a number of individual booths that can be booked to watch DVDs.
→www.mml.cam.ac.uk/call

Next to the CALL Centre, you will find the Media Centre: a large room with a projector and DVD, Blu Ray and video equipment. Again, this can be booked for larger screenings, subject to availability.
→http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/roommc

Cinemas

Obviously a must for any serious Screen Media enthusiast, Cambridge has three commercial cinemas:

The Arts Picturehouse offers student membership and screens a wide range of mainstream and arthouse cinema. It also hosts Slackers Club events - free monthly screenings especially for students.
→www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Arts_Picturehouse_Cambridge

Vue Cinemas offer a much more mainstream selection of films. They also offer a 'cheap day' ticket discount.
→new.myvue.com/home/cinema/cambridge

The Cineworld complex, again, is more on the blockbuster end of the cinematic spectrum. If you feel so inclined, it offers an 'all-you-can-watch' unlimited cinema membership. Bear in mind, though, that the cinema is about 1.5 miles from the city centre, which in Cambridge terms is unfeasibly far away.
→www.cineworld.co.uk/cinemas/7

College film societies

Cambridge is home to many well-equipped colleges, several of which have screening facilities and very active film societies. Here is a selection:
→St. John's College Film Society
Jesus College Media Society
Trinity College Film Society
Trinity Hall Film Society
Christ's College Film Society

Other

The Cambridge Film Trust champions independent cinema, primarily in Cambridge and the Eastern region, organising screenings, events and special seasons that 'enable audiences to engage with film culture in a challenging and creative way'.
→www.cambridgefilmtrust.org.uk

The Cambridgeshire Film Consortium is a partnership between Anglia Ruskin University, the Cambridge Film Trust, Parkside Federation and Long Road Sixth Form College. It organises film-related activities to benefit students and the wider community, including archive film shows, introduced screenings, evening courses, digital production workshops, Cambridge Film Festival screenings and lectures.
→www.cambridgeshirefilmconsortium.org

Film festivals

The London Film Festival takes place every year in October, just as the M.Phil gets under way.
→www.bfi.org.uk/lff

Cambridge also has its very own Cambridge Film Festival in September, which you might be able to attend if you come up early or decide to stay on after finishing your M.Phil. The organisers are often looking for volunteers, which can be a great way of making new contacts and gaining an insight into festival organisation.
→www.cambridgefilmfestival.org.uk

Cambridge also hosts a number of smaller film festiivals, including the student-run Watersprite Festival, which has received high-profile support from BAFTA in the past. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved, so watch out for the society at the Societies' Fair or contact the organisers through the website.
→www.watersprite.org.uk/

Graduate resources

All Screen Media and Cultures M.Philers are members of the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and as such are entitled to use its graduate facilities, including a Graduate Centre equipped with communal computers, a binding machine (perfect for binding your essays and thesis), printing facilities and a kitchen. The MML website comes with a handy list of graduate resources for you to browse through.
→www.mml.cam.ac.uk/grad_resources.html

Seminar resources: CamTools

During your time on the M.Phil, you will probably need to access CamTools, a network resource that allows departments to communicate and share materials with students. Sign in with your Raven login to access files for Core Course and Module seminars.
→camtools.cam.ac.uk

Finding people: University Lookup service

The University provides a Lookup service allowing you to search a complete database of current staff and students to locate e-mail addresses and other information, such as course, departmental and college affiliations, and telephone numbers. The service is password-protected, so available only to current members of the University, who sign in using the Raven user name and password selected at the beginning of their course.
→www.lookup.cam.ac.uk

Computing resources: CHUCOL

And seeing as you will be based in MML, you might be interested in the Faculty's Certificate in Humanities Computing for Languages, known as CHUCOL for short. Digital Humanities are on the rise and this course offers a great opportunity to refine your computing skills.
→www-chucol.mml.cam.ac.uk/

Graduate Development Programme

Cambridge University runs a Graduate Development Programme offering training and workshops for postgraduate students. Whether you want to brush up on your presentation skills or learn how to manage your time more effectively, this is the place to go. Bear in mind that courses do book out fast.
→www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/hr/ppd/graduates/

Languages

The Language Centre not only offers a wide range of high-quality, low-cost language courses, it also has audio-visual resources including film and other media that are of interest to Screen Media students in general. You can also access a growing collection of streamed films and documentaries online through the website.
→www.langcen.cam.ac.uk

Social networking

There are many ways of getting to know members of the wider film community online.

To meet other people at Cambridge, have a look at the student-run Screen Media M.Phil Facebook page:
→facebook.com//SMCgroup.php

Then there's MUBI, an online film portal whose social network structure makes it a brilliant way of communicating with other cinema lovers.
→mubi.com

If you are looking for a more academic community, sign up to NECS, the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies, which brings together film scholars and students. You can message members and attend and/or apply to present at the annual conference, which takes place in a different location every year. Student membership rates available.
→www.necs-initiative.org/

Conferences

Although it is not a requirement of the course that M.Phil students attend any conferences, there are plenty of events going on that may well be of interest to you and that could help inform and shape your research. You'll make some great contacts, too.

Local

CRASSH, the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, organises a good number of interdisciplinary conferences and symposia in Cambridge, several of which address film and visual media.
→www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/conference-programme.htm

You can sign up for the CRASSH mailing list to receive regular updates by e-mail:
→www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/crassh-mailing-list.htm

Anglia Ruskin University has an active film & media department and publishes details of its conferences and seminars here:
→Anglia Ruskin University Conferences and Seminars

National

The largest film conference in the UK is the Screen Studies Conference, which takes place in July and is organised by Screen journal at the University of Glasgow. You will find more information about upcoming and past conferences here.
→http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/screen

International

NECS, the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies, hosts an annual conference, taking place in a different European location each year. For details, see their homepage:
→www.necs-initiative.org/

Should you feel inspired to venture further afield, there is always the Society for Cinema & Media Studies Annual Conference, which takes place in March in the US.
→www.cmstudies.org/conference

You may also find some interesting events on this page of links to conferences, though it can be a little hit-or-miss...
→www.conferencealerts.com/film.htm/

We can't provide an exhaustive list of national and international film and media-related conferences here, but you will receive some announcements through the Faculty mailing lists — and do ask Screen Media staff for advice, too.

Careers

All good things come to an end, and there will come a time when you will start to think about life after the M.Phil. You may want to apply to continue to the Ph.D, here or elsewhere, or you may prefer to venture out into the world of work. Either way, the Cambridge University Careers Service should be your first port of call. Make an appointment to discuss your plans, improve your interview skills or hone your CV. Sign up to use their online site and you will have access to GradLink, a searchable database of former Cambridge students who are happy for current students to contact them for advice.
→www.careers.cam.ac.uk

We've also included some information about former students on this site. To see what some of our erstwhile M.Phil students are up to and read their advice on how to go about finding a job, take a look at this page:
→www.screenmedia.group.cam.ac.uk/former_mphils

And here's a link where you can access profiles for some of the University's former screen media Ph.D students:
→www.screenmedia.group.cam.ac.uk/former_phds