Ms Linda Ward

Module Leaderships Current: FILM613 Beyond Film, FILM512 Cinematic Crafts

Module Leaderships Previous: FILM403 Film Drama, FILM511 Filmmaker

Module Support: HTCC511 Critical Context, FILM413 Storyteller

Linda Ward is a Lecturer in Filmmaking, an artist filmmaker and a doctoral researcher by film practice at Plymouth University. Her research explores iconography, perception, memory and the maternal through experimental film. Her research interests include 360-film, the essay film, film and water and the intersection of film and architecture.

Her award-winning film poems have been screened around the world including the London Short Film Festival, The New York Flash Film Festival and the Barcelona Film and Video Festival. Recent projects include the film poem Opticians Daughter (2022) selected for the Europa Film Festival, the Kerala Short Film Festival and it is also to be screened at the 19th edition of IN THE PALACE which will take place in the Palace of Culture - Pernik, Bulgaria in the summer.

She has over 20 years of experience as a professional broadcaster, working as a presenter, producer, and director on a broad range of news, documentary and factual programming for ITV and BBC television and radio.

An active member of the Arts Research Network recently chairing a panel at the water~ways online symposium.

She conceived and delivered the inaugural BA Filmmaking Producers Conference bringing Working Title Films, Channel 4 and independent production companies into discussion with aspiring students.

Worked with the Royal Television Society and three South West Universities to link students with industry in a series of on-line workshops.

Qualifications

(2018–present) PhD researcher – Film

(2022) ALBERT trained Sustainable Production

(2017) Master of Arts - with Distinction in Contemporary Film Practice, University of Plymouth

(2006) Final Cut Pro training at National Film and Television School

(2005) Multi Camera Direction training at BBC Elstree Studios

(2003) Video Journalism in New York with Michael Rosenblum

(1991) Yorkshire TV Directors Training Course Script to Screen

(1988) Post Graduate Diploma in Radio Journalism (NCTJ accredited) Darlington Technical College

(1987) B.A (Hons) English. Lancaster University

Professional Background:

(2002 – current) Freelance Director/Producer, Artist Filmmaker with films selected worldwide in festivals

BBC2, Actor Time Trumpet, directed by Amando Ianucci

Artist Film Documentary maker, Doing the Drift made in Collaboration with HANTU

Independent Documentary Producer/Director, BBC Inside Out

(2000-2002) BBC South: On Screen Reporter, News Producer and Network Broadcast Journalist working on the main Network News outputs  

(1989 – 1999) Westcountry TV: Reporter/ Producer/Director/ Presenter. Factual Series including Getaways, What’s on West, One for the Girls, A Place in my Heart, That Sunday Feeling. News Presentation of Westcountry Live, and Westcountry News Bulletins

London Weekend Television: Reporter, providing live coverage of breaking news in the Capital

Yorkshire TV: News Reporter/ Producer /Presenter, Calendar News, Calendar Events Guide, Calendar Fashion

BBC Radio Leeds: News reporter and producer. Operation of radio links truck and live reporting on location

Professional membership

British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS, Special Interest Groups: Colour and Film, Documentary and Essay Film)

Producer, Director BECTU – Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union.

Federation of Entertainment Unions NUJ Equity​ MU and The Writer's Guild of Great Britain.

The Royal Television Society

Teaching interests

Teaching interests include scripting and pre-production, production, post-production of narrative and factual film in 360 film, artist film, experimental film and mainstream cinema.

Module Leaderships Current:

FILM613 Beyond Film – working in association with The Box and BFI (Year 3)

FILM512 Cinematic Crafts - working with Industry practitioners (Year 2)

Module Leaderships Previous:

FILM403 Film Drama – long form drama using Zoom technology during UK Lockdown (Year 1)

FILM511 Filmmaker (Year 2)

Module Support:

HTCC511 History, Theory and Critical Context – Consideration of the Essay Film with Architecture Students (Year 2)

FILM413 Storyteller (Year 1)

During the Covid Pandemic, co-produced the Plymouth Best Practice Code of Filmmaking which was shared with other Film Schools

Produced Inaugural BA Filmmaking Producers Conference with contribution from Channel 4, Working Title Films, Screenskills, Creative England and others

Produced Industry Insights with the Royal Television Society and three South West Universities linking students with industry in a series of on-line workshops

Research interests

Linda Ward is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art and Media – Filmmaking – at the University of Plymouth.

PhD: Mary Mother of Meaning a practice led exploration of the feminine and the sacred.

Supervisory Team: Dr Kayla Parker (DOS) and Dr Heidi Morstang.

A study of perception, moving image and maternal iconography to find contemporary significance in the feminine and the sacred via analogue and digital technologies that re-mediate and re- envision. The locus of the research is a statue of the Virgin Mary that overlooks the ocean at Firestone Bay in Plymouth, Devon, UK.

Key words: film poem, remediation, phenomenology, embodiment, transformative film.

Other research

Conferences and Talks:

October 2021 – History Theory and Critical Context 501 Film making Workshop with Zoe Latham.

September 2021. Festival of Discovery. Futures 21' Voyage of Discovery. Presented and screened 360 Immersive Film 'River Plym from Source to Sea' with Zoe Latham.

July 2021. AVANCA International Film Conference. Presented 'How might we simulate a riverside experience through virtual collaboration?' a paper and film co-authored with Zoe Latham.

June 2021 Chaired Panel and presented paper at water~ways online symposium: Exploring and connecting to and with water through practice-led research.

October 2020 – History Theory and Critical Context 501 Film making and Architecture with Zoe Latham.

April 2020 ‘Gold and Golden Sunlight Light’ talk by Linda Ward for Arts research seminar group convened by Professor Liz Wells. Screened: I Wash My Hands in the Sunlight (2020) and Bar Sur Seine (2020). 

Feb 2020 ‘Cinema by the Sea’, talk by Linda Ward at Test Space research seminar, Plymouth University Fine Art studios, Royal William Yard. Participants were asked to engage with a ripple tank of sea water prior to screening.

Dec 2019 ‘Water Light and Flickering’ talk by Linda Ward at Jill Craigie Cinema, University of Plymouth. Water Light and Flickering (2020) experimental film documentation of 4 ripple tanks with projection of footage of sunlight on water from another day, used in 4-day installation at Firestone Bay for Illuminate Festival, 28 Nov to 1 Dec 2019. Also, screening of a new super 8mm film Mary Chora (2019).

October 2019 ‘Introduction to Filming with Sweetie Wrappers as Colour Filters and their Effects’, talk by Linda Ward with staff and residents of Nazareth House, Firestone Bay, Plymouth.

October 2019 ‘Ourselves the Water’, a joint contribution and screening for Marine-Oriented Urban Plymouth, MA Architecture, Plymouth University. Linda Ward and Zoe Latham presented and screened research practice, including Linda Ward’s Mary River (2020) and co-constructed a ripple tank for a live projection of water from Firestone Bay.

September 2019. Flows of Entanglements: how rivers shape identities, University of Plymouth. ‘Water and Wholeness’ paper by Linda Ward and screening of Mary River (2020) at the Flows of Entanglement Conference, part of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment’s Biennial Conference, Plymouth University.

September 2019 ‘Blueness and Wholeness’ Talk by Linda Ward at Test Space: Expositions of practice-led research Symposium, Plymouth University Fine Art studios, Royal William Yard. In this session, analogue recordings of music composed by Linda Ward accompanied her new super8 and digital film Mary Home (2020).

March 2019 ‘A Speculation on Mary Sea’ presentation by Linda Ward, part of Feminist Matters: The Body Politic. Jill Craigie Cinema, University of Plymouth. Presenters: Kayla Parker, Karen Abadie, Gail Flockhart, Marjan Saberi, Linda Ward.

Research Groups:

Land Water. https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/landwater

Arts Research. https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/arts

Performance Experience Prescence https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/about-us/university-structure/faculties/arts-humanities-business/performance-experience-presence-pep

Urban Dialogues https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/urban-dialogues

Creative Research Projects. Films Produced Shot Directed and Edited:

Refracting Pool (2021) Duration 2:00 Digital

Hydrangea River (2021) Duration 3:00 Digital

Sea Hydrangea (2021) Duration 2:10 Digital

The Light Through (2021) Duration1:00. Digital

Bus Trip (2020) Duration 1.05. Digital

Mary Material (2019) Duration: 1.46. Digital. Go pro camera submitted to a washing cycle with veil. Washing machine and electronic music composed by Ward.

Mary Fold (2019) Duration: 2.11 Digital, Super 8 mm film.

Mary Flow (2018) Duration:1.49. Digital.

Mary Lucent (2018) Duration:1.53. Digital.

Mary Ciel (2018) Duration: 1.39. Digital.

Mary Navis (2018) Duration: 2.53. Digital.

Mary Sea Light Navis (2018) Duration: 2.52. Digital.

Mary Gaze (2018) Duration: 0.42. Digital.

Mary Lode (2018) Duration: 14.22. Digital.

Mary Mildse (2018) Duration.2.44. Digital.

Ourselves the Water (2018) Duration 1.21. Digital.

Mary Pilot (2018) Duration: 1:16. Digital.