Background on the FMI

The UCLFMI was founded in 2007 by Vladimir Smith Mesa (PhD researcher in UCL Spanish & Latin American Studies and founder and curator of the British-Cuban Heritage Foundation for the Arts) to give UCL’s film students the opportunity to premiere their works at the UCL Bloomsbury Theatre. Vladimir hopes that it will help UCL “become one of the leading university events for the exhibition, interpretation and study of audiovisual culture”.

The UCL Festival of the Moving Image exists to promote the UCL film studies programme. It is our aim that The UCLFMI will become one of the leading university events for the exhibition, interpretation and study of audio-visual culture. It has been created to give film students the opportunity to present their works, for the first time, in a unique venue: the UCL Bloomsbury Theatre. The festival is offering free admission to everyone: from film societies and higher education learners to the general public united by their passion for the moving image. The festival encourages partnership work with cultural institutions, organisations and personalities at a local, national and international level, through a practical programme of film retrospectives, panel discussions and exhibitions. The UCLFMI brings together ‘the old and the new’ in filmmaking. Its 2008 film retrospective includes classic films by directors such as Vilgot Sjöman, Ken Loach, Alejandro González Iñárritu, among many others and motion pictures of rising talents such as those produced by the members of the UCL Film and TV Society and by the UCL Documentary Summer School EICTV-2008, organised by Prof Stephen Hart (UCL-Spanish and Latin American Department).

Vladimir Smith Mesa - Founder of the UCL FMI