Abbe Fletcher

My teaching is focused on fiction and documentary direction and production and screenwriting practice at postgraduate level. My approach to teaching centres on learning through making, combining film theory and creative practice. 

I am currently external examiner at Norwich University of the Arts for the MA Film programme, and have previously been an external examiner at London Metropolitan University for the MA Audiovisual Production. 

I have been supervising practice-based PhDs in filmmaking and Fine Art since 2010 and am a member of the Centre for Practice Research in the Arts at Kingston University. 

Qualifications

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Practice-based MPhil (RCA) in Communication Art & Design from the Royal College of Art
• MA (RCA) in Photography (specialising in experimental filmmaking)
• BA (Hons) Film & Video (2:1) from London College of Communication; University of Arts, London

Course director

• Film Making MA

Courses taught

• Film Making MA

My research interests include experimental and documentary film practice, the intersection of filmmaking and family life, and collective filmmaking practices.

I have written frame analyses of the films of Rose Lowder, Dziga Vertov, Kurt Kren and Stan Brakhage.

I am particularly interested in investigating the processes of filmmaking, printmaking, drawing, textiles and ceramics and the importance of play in creativity.

Recent research projects

• Film Maker in the Family, which began in 2016 with a curated screening event at the BFI Southbank, brought together films that reflexively examined the impact of family life on the creative process. Railwaywomen (2018) a short film shot on the Mid Hants Railway, was part of this project. My chapter, Film Maker in the Family: The impact of family life on creativity, is published in the edited volume Feminist Activisms/Artivisms (edited by Katy Deepwell) by Valiz 2020.
• Contributor to 'Responding to "Women and Creativity"' edited by Catherine Grant. This booklet brings together responses to and archival material about the British artist and filmmaker Annabel Nicolson's project "Women and Creativity" (1978–80). This is a research project run by Catherine Grant, in association with Karen Di Franco at Chelsea Space, and the research network Group Work: Contemporary Art and Feminism, with the co-organisers Amy Tobin and Rachel Warriner. Contributors: Louise Ashcroft, Beth Bramich, Lauren Craig, Amy Dickson, Oriana Fox, Melissa Gordon, Catherine Grant, Faye Green, Deniz Johns, Abbe Leigh Fletcher, Helena Reckitt, Selina Robertson, Rachel Warriner and Annabel Nicolson.
• Collective Practice Conversations, a space to share experience of working collectively in film and other creative practices.
• Project lead on Memories of the Palace Cinema, an Oral History project recording memories of going to the Palace Cinema in Alton Hampshire (established 1912, closed October 2022) creating an archive for the Curtis Museum.
• Volunteer Ceramics Researcher at the Allen Gallery, Alton in support of their National Heritage Lottery Funding bid (successfully awarded)

Specialisms

• Collective Creative Practice
• Filmmaking
• Documentary
• Experimental Film
• Women Filmmakers
• Ceramics on film

Course Director for MA film making.