Fraser Elliott

Fraser joined the MSc Film, Exhibition and Curation in 2020. Before joining the university, he worked as a member of the film programming team at HOME (https://homemcr.org/), Manchester's leading independent cinema and cross-art form venue.

He holds a PhD in Screen Studies from the University of Manchester's Drama department. His thesis, titled "The Circulation of Chinese Cinemas in the UK: Studies in Taste, Tastemaking and Film Cultures", covered the ways Chinese-language films have been mediated, distributed, and exhibited for audiences around the UK since the 1950s. This research pays particularly close attention to the role of cultural gatekeepers and tastemakers to better understand the local intersections of taste, class, ethnicity, and numerous other factors, in the curation of "Chinese cinema" for regional audiences.

This work developed from his MSc in Media Management where he focused on the possibilities for academic involvement in film exhibition and film festivals. He is a strong believer in collaborative research between the film industry and film academics and works with the understanding of "curation as research" in his practice. As part of this research, in 2014 Fraser joined the Chinese Film Forum UK (CFFUK), a Manchester-based research and curation network centred on discussing and expanding the availability of regional Chinese-language films in the UK. As part of the CFFUK, Fraser has programmed numerous film seasons, events, one-off screenings, talks, and academic conferences at venues in Manchester and around England and Scotland. This work has been recognised by the Arts and Humanities Research Council who invited Fraser to provide the keynote presentation at their 2019 conference "Meeting of Minds: Collaborative Research in the Arts and Humanities".