Sarah Turner is an artist who writes and makes films. Her work spans single screen gallery pieces (rooted in the formal preoccupations of the avant-garde from which she emerged) to feature length projects that explore the interplay between abstraction and narration.

All of her films have toured nationally and internationally and several have been broadcast through artists’ showcases on Channel 4. Sarah has had feature scripts commissioned by the British Film Institute, Film Four Lab and Zephyr Films. 

She was the writer in residence in the Dept of English and Related Literature at the University of York (2004). In the same year she received a Small Grant for the Creative and Performing Arts from the AHRC in order to investigate and produce an alternative to a script-based filmmaking practice through an innovative, location based process that exploits the responsive potential of digital video technologies. 

Her feature films Ecology (2007) and Perestroika (2009) are characterized by explorations of technologies, experimental approaches to writing and an engagement with experiences of narrative, immersion and embodiment within the long form film.

Prior to her appointment at Kent Sarah was prominently involved in public life as a curator: In 1997 she curated (with Jon Thompson) the launch season of the cinema at the LUX CENTRE; the most important centre for the production, distribution and exhibition of artist’s moving image work in Europe.  Prior to this she curated: Hygiene and Hysteria: The body desired and the body debased; touring programmes of Artists film and video for the Arts Council of England, as well as programmes for Tate Gallery and the National Film Theatre.

Sarah is Director of Fine Art.

“As physically immersive as anything you’re likely to see at a 3D multiplex, Perestroika sets its coolly minimalist structure against a visceral emotional tone to produce a work unlike any other in current British cinema.’ Chris Darke, Sight and Sound BFI review

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I am the Programme Director of the Practice as Research MA and I also oversee all Practice as Research admissions, both MA and MPhil/PhD.

Practice as Research MA
Film Studies launched this Masters programme in January 2006.  It offers a unique opportunity to undertake research at masters level with moving image practice, and is the first MA in Film Practice as Research in the UK to engage closely with the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s guidance on practice-led research.  Drawing on Kent’s longstanding international reputation in the development of film theory and film aesthetics the programme offers supervision by both practice and theory staff.  The department has a well-established history of research activity and currently has many PhD students, including PhD PaRs.

I also teach and convene two courses:
FI555 - An Introduction to Screenwriting (2nd year)
This course introduces students to the terms, ideas and craft, involved in the creation of screenplays.  Screenwriting is a unique form of writing with very different concerns from the novel, theatre and radio. In this module we explore the conventions of dramatic structure, new narrative forms and short film variations.  Students are encouraged to think critically about screenplay writing and have an opportunity to write their own screenplay.  A selection of writing exercises are designed to take you through the writing process; from preparation and initial concept to final draft.

F1567 - Moving Image Production (3rd year)
This course offers students an opportunity to explore the possibilities and limitations of the short film form.  It does not, however, aim to prepare you for entry into the film or television industries. The course prioritises an approach that is driven by ‘ideas led’ filmmaking.  Within that, the course explores languages and processes developed by both the avant garde and documentary traditions, alongside approaches to narrative fiction.  Students learn basic digital video production techniques in order to produce a piece of work that is innovative and imaginative in both form and content.  The course is a progressive programme, which encourages a creative exploration of shot construction, the development of narrative and performance, and the implementation and analysis of the editing process.  The course emphasises an approach to production that prioritises experimentation which is informed and developed through critical and conceptual debate.

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Filmography
This is Not a Pier: For Poetry Beyond Text, 12 mins, (2011)
Perestroika, 118 mins, (2009)
Overheated Symphony: For Birds Eye View Film Festival; 10 mins, (2008)
Ecology , 97 mins, (2007)
London Birds Can't Fly, 11 mins,  (2003)
CUT, 17 mins,  (2001)
A Life in a Day with Helena Goldwater, 20 mins, (1996)
Sheller Shares her Secret, 8 mins, (1994)
A Tale Part Told, 4 mins, (1991)
One and the other time, 5 mins,  (1990)
She Wanted Green Lawns, 4 mins,  (1989)

Broadcast
'Shooting Gallery', Channel 4. Nov 2000 - Cut // Repeat Screening, C 4. Nov 2001 – Cut
'Midnight Underground', Channel 4 Sept 1996 - A Life in a Day with Helena Goldwater
'Midnight Underground' Channel 4 Sept 1996 - Sheller Shares her Secret
‘Midnight Underground' Channel 4 Oct 1997 - Repeat screening of A Life in a Day ...
Film Four - Sheller Shares her Secret and profile of filmmaker, 1998

Tours include
Flesh Histories - Curated by Tom Kalin – 1992
'Sight & Sound/BFI Women Making Movies Tour' UK – 1995
Beacons of Style: A history of Experimental Cinema - Curated by Cinenova UK – 1998
The Raw and The Cooked. Fourth ICA Biennial curated by B. Ruby Rich - ongoing.

Publications and Selected Bibliography
CUT. COIL magazine – 1999
The Raw and the Cooked - The fourth ICA Biennial. B. Ruby Rich, Chris Darke 1997
A Directory of British Film and Video Artists - Arts Council Of England/University of Luton Press 1996
Beacons of Style - Cinenova/The Arts Council Of England 1998
BFI | Sight & Sound | The tracks of time: Sarah Turner's 'Perestroika
BFI | Sight & Sound | Film of the month: Perestroika (2009)
Sarah Turner / Rosalind Nashashibi | Reviews | Interface | a-n

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Sarah welcomes Practice as Research proposals which explore inter-relationships between fact and fiction; work that explores experimental approaches to writing; particularly work that experiments with narrative, narration, or challenges narrative causality. Also work that engages with digital video technologies; contingency or improvisation within filmmaking practice; and more generally, proposals which engage with artists film: single screen, installation and sound.

Sarah is also working with an independent research group formed of scholars (Kent/Goldsmiths), curators (NoWhere/ Tate Modern) and (film) artists to bring together a programme of work, and, an edited collection (Ed: Lucy Reynolds) of writings on the under explored impact, legacy and visibility of, the British Women’s Avant Garde.

Any proposals that engage with the British avant garde and curatorial pratice are also welcomed.

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