Dr Steve Presence
PhD
Expertise
I specialise in the screen industries, documentary and activist film culture. I work closely with filmmakers, policymakers and advocacy organisations all over the world to support public service media and independent film.
Current positions
Senior Lecturer
Department of Film and Television
Contact
Press and media
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Projects and supervisions
Research projects
UK Global Screen Fund Documentary Production Funding Consulation
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of Film and TelevisionDates
01/12/2025 to 01/03/2026
The Documentary Film Council: Building a new infrastructure for UK nonfiction film
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of Film and TelevisionDates
01/01/2023 to 01/01/2024
Assessing the impact of Covid-19 on Bristol’s film and television industries’, Co-Investigator
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of Film and TelevisionDates
01/08/2021 to 21/10/2022
UK Feature Docs: Studying the Feature Documentary Film Industry
Principal Investigator
Description
The findings of this project were published in two project reports - Keeping it Real (2020, 72 pp.) and Making it Real (2021, 68 pp.) - and several other publications.…Managing organisational unit
Department of Film and TelevisionDates
02/02/2018 to 31/01/2021
Understanding Watershed: A Study of Independent Film Exhibition in Bristol
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of Film and TelevisionDates
01/01/2017 to 01/01/2018
Publications
Recent publications
01/02/2026UK Global Screen Fund International Documentary Co-Production & Development Report
UK Global Screen Fund International Documentary Co-Production & Development Report
Radical Film, Art and Digital Media for Societies in Turmoil
Radical Film, Art and Digital Media for Societies in Turmoil
The Documentary Film Council: developing nonfiction policy frameworks in the COVID-19 pandemic
Documentary in the Age of COVID
The view from the funders: Doc Society
Documentary in the Age of COVID
Go West 2! Bristol’s Film and TV Industries
Go West 2! Bristol’s Film and TV Industries
Teaching
I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy with nearly twenty years’ experience designing and leading film and television studies curricula across all undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I served as Programme Leader for the MA Film and TV Industries at UWE Bristol (2018–2022) and have extensive experience as a PhD supervisor and external examiner. I am deeply committed to helping our students gain not only the practical skills and industrial knowledge required for creative sector careers, but the critical awareness needed to become forward-thinking, socially responsible global citizens.
I currently lead our mandatory level-one Screen Industries unit and the level-two optional unit Documentary Histories and Practices. Screen Industries introduces students to the key roles, organisations, and sectors that comprise the current industry value chain. We analyse the economic, political, and cultural forces that shape how film and TV is financed, produced, and distributed, and study film and television texts from all over the world.
Documentary Histories and Practices explores the key movements, theories, and methods that have shaped non-fiction filmmaking to the present day. We study a wide range of non-fiction forms and investigate their approach to representing reality, before students produce their own short film that engages with these rich traditions and ideas.
I have taught a wide range of other topics during my career, including units on British cinema and television, classical and contemporary Hollywood, exhibition and distribution, film festivals, film and television theory, and representations of class, disability, gender, and race.
I currently lead our mandatory level-one Screen Industries unit and the level-two optional unit Documentary Histories and Practices. Screen Industries introduces students to the key roles, organisations, and sectors that comprise the current industry value chain. We analyse the economic, political, and cultural forces that shape how film and TV is financed, produced, and distributed, and study film and television texts from all over the world.
Documentary Histories and Practices explores the key movements, theories, and methods that have shaped non-fiction filmmaking to the present day. We study a wide range of non-fiction forms and investigate their approach to representing reality, before students produce their own short film that engages with these rich traditions and ideas.
I have taught a wide range of other topics during my career, including units on British cinema and television, classical and contemporary Hollywood, exhibition and distribution, film festivals, film and television theory, and representations of class, disability, gender, and race.