The BUFVC Moving Image Gateway includes nearly 1,200 websites relating to video, multimedia and sound materials. These have been subdivided into over 40 subject areas. To suggest new entries or amendments, please contact us by email or telephone or visit the Gateway at: http://bufvc.ac.uk/gateway/

Africa Investigates
Part of the Al Jazeera English website, this series features African reporters going undercover to expose corruption and abuse across the continent. The subjects range from illegal mining in Ghana, in the film Ghana Gold, to an investigation by journalist Stanley Kwenda into the reasons why thousands of children have fled from Zimbabwe to South Africa over the past decade in Zimbabwe’s Child Exodus. Other subjects covered include the trade in the body parts of murdered albinos in Tanzania and illegal logging in Sierra Leone.

The ethos and background to the series is explained in What Price the Story? which explains the dangers of being an investigative journalist in Africa and why it is important that African reporters be given a voice, rather than, as has been the custom in the past, having Western correspondents ‘parachuted’ in who lack the knowledge and local perspective to do the subject justice.

Economic and Social Research Council
The ESRC is the UK’s largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues, supporting independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The multimedia part of their website hosts a number of videos including a series of films highlighting how ESRC-funded research is affecting all areas of people’s lives. Topics explored includes how to measure well-being and the economics of happiness, flaws in the official poverty statistics and views on immigration.

The site also has a selection of more general videos, such as What is Social Science? which provides a brief introduction to the subject.

Frantic Assembly
Formed in 1994 by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, Frantic Assembly’s productions are characterised by a physical style which combines movement, design, music and text. Education and outreach are important to the company and their website features streaming trailers, rehearsal footage and interviews with cast members, as well as downloadable resource packs, featuring production histories and other detailed contextual and background material. The coverage of their production of Othello features footage of rehearsals as well as an interview with actor Jimmy Akingbola who plays the eponymous role.

Seminars About Long-Term Thinking
A monthly seminar series, hosted by Stewart Brand, founder of The Long Now Foundation. The seminars were started in 2003 with the aim of building “a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking to help nudge civilization toward our goal of making long-term thinking automatic and common instead of difficult and rare”. The website includes podcasts from a wide range of speakers, including geneticist Craig Ventner, technologist Ray Kurzweil and musician Brian Eno. A recurring concern is the use of environmental resources, but all speakers, from whatever discipline, are encouraged to frame their thoughts with reference to the deep past and the deep future, to combat the short-term thinking that the Long Now Foundation sees as endemic in modern culture. The entire archive of podcasts is available and new seminars are streamed live. Video of the seminars is available to members of the Long Now Foundation.

The Space
A new free, experimental digital arts service developed by Arts Council England in partnership with the BBC which aims to transform the way people connect with, and experience, arts and culture. The Space is divided into seven categories: Dance, Film, Literature and Spoken Word, Music, Performance & Festival, Theatre and Visual & Media Arts. Each section features streamed footage of performances (including key events streamed live), interviews with filmmakers, artists and musicians and films from the archives of the BBC, Arts Council and British Film Institute. The Space was launched in May 2012 and will be available online until October 2012. New material is being added daily to the site. Some of the material currently available includes early films by major British directors, such as Ken Russell’s Amelia and the Angel and performances of Shakespeare at the Globe Theatre in London by companies from all over the world, including this performance of King John by the Gabriel Sundukyan National Academic Theatre from Armenia.