
Dr Miguel Gaggiotti
BA (Hons), MA, PhD
Current positions
Senior Lecturer
Department of Film and Television
Contact
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Biography
Research interests
I am a filmmaker and a film scholar. My research focuses on screen performance, ethnographic cinema and experimental filmmaking. My first monograph, Nonprofessional Film Performance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), examined the work of first-time nonprofessional actors in films ranging from the early silent period to contemporary digital cinema. I currently lead Transforming Voices, a digital platform and research network exploring the voice in non-fiction cinema through collaborative filmmaking.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
The Wounds We Keep: Youth, Trauma And Otherness In The 21st Century
Principal Investigator
Role
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of Film and TelevisionDates
20/02/2023 to 31/10/2023
The Bristol-led Digital Filmmaking Research Network
Principal Investigator
Description
This project seeks to consolidate a Bristol-led network of filmmakers, artists and researchers utilising digital spaces and tools to co-create innovative
audio-visual artworks for researching contemporary social issues.Managing organisational unit
Department of Film and TelevisionDates
24/02/2022 to 31/07/2022
Screen Research
Role
Co-Principal Investigator
Description
Screen Research is an interdisciplinary group of scholars and artists based in Bristol and the Southwest researching screen arts and culture. Established in 2007 and located at the University of…Managing organisational unit
Department of Film and TelevisionDates
01/09/2007 to 01/09/2030
Publications
Selected publications
28/06/2023Nonprofessional Film Performance - Palgrave Close Readings in Film and Television
Nonprofessional Film Performance
Nonprofessional Acting in El Perro
Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism
The corruption of non-professional performance: Pasolini and Salò
Screen
The non-professional actor in European cinema
Routledge Companion to European Cinema
Reflexivity in audio-visual ethnography: Thinking through practice
Organizational Ethnography: An Experiential and Practical Guide
Recent publications
24/07/2026Gestures Without Meaning: Non-professional Acting and “The Coffee Grinder Scene” in Umberto D.
Non-Professional Film Acting
Performing the Video Essay: Gesture and Repetition in Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1967)
An Author in Search of a Model: Robert Bresson, Authorship, and Non-Professional Performance
Journal of Film and Video
Transforming Voices: exploring women, vulnerability and organizations through experimental audio-visual ethnography
Women, Organizations and Vulnerability
The Process (2023): Non-Professional Film Performance and Representing Embodied Trauma through Documentary
Open Screens
Thesis
Nonprofessional Performance in Fiction Film
Supervisors
Award date
01/10/2019
