Dr Kamila Kuc

Biography

I am a Polish-born, London-based filmmaker, whose hybrid practice stems from the belief that although we are unable to change our pasts, we have the power to shape our future narratives. Informed by my own lived experience, I see moving image as a portal to ourselves and our shared experience as we inhabit varied moments of collective presence. I utilize empathy as form of resistance. I employ methods of narrative psychology, speculative histories, memories and dreams to subvert dominant narratives of history and create new points of reference for the future. Set within the realm of social choreography, my work considers complex ways to relate to one another through embodied, trust-building practices that defy the traditional notion of authorship and collaboration.

I am a 2021 Jarman Award and IWC Schaffhausen / BFI Filmmaker Bursary Award nominee. My first feature film, What We Shared (2021), premiered at the 65th BFI London Film Festival and was described as one of ‘the finest examples of UK filmmaking’ by Festival Scope. My previous film, uchronia no.1, received Jurors’ Award at the 59th Ann Arbor Film Festival (2021), while noonwraith blues was awarded the Honourable Mention Award at the United States Super 8 Film and DV Festival, New Jersey (2021) and it was among the three winners of the Bomb Factory Artists’ Film Festival, London (2020). My films have screened at many festivals and galleries worldwide: the Edinburgh International Film Festival, CROSSROADS, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives New York; Studio Gallery, Warsaw; Whitechapel Gallery, BFI, ICA, London. I am the recipient of many international grants, most recently, the Arts Council England Project Grants, British Council, New Mexico Arts, New Mexico Humanities Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts (USA), among many others. I am also the author and editor of numerous books and articles on experimental media, including Visions of Avant-Garde Film (Indiana University Press).

I am the Founder and Director of Dark Spring Studio, a London-based production company dedicated to the creation and distribution of artist moving image works that are committed to social change.