Convenors

These are the people with overall oversight of the network and responsibility for ensuring everything is ticking over okay. This person is often the first point of contact for folks within/outside the network. They moderate the mailing list, look after the website (including Directory of affiliated groups), liaise with annual RFN conference organisers and do all the general administrative stuff that’s no one else’s responsibility.

Country coordinator

A person who is the point-of-contact for RFN-related stuff in that country/region. This person connects radical film groups in their area with the network (i.e. gets them on the RFN mailing list and social media and makes sure the group has a page in the Directory), and feeds stuff coming out of the RFN to other networks in their area.

Communications coordinator

This person ensures all relevant content that’s posted to the RFN mailing list (the primary way folks in the RFN share info) is transferred over the RFN Facebook Page and Twitter feed. Other jobs here could include making sure all groups in the Directory are on the mailing list (there’s a lot of gaps here atm despite the 700+ people already on the list) or ensuring as many groups as possible mention the RFN on their own sites and link back to the network.

Convenor of the Exhibition Working Group

Film festivals and exhibitors constitute just over half of all groups in the network. The RFN Exhibition Working Group is a collective of practitioners who organize and support radical film screenings around the world. We meet regularly to discuss existing challenges in the distribution and exhibition of radical films and come up with potential solutions. Our goal is to connect filmmakers, venues, and communities so that politically and formally radical films can travel, be seen, and spark conversations in more places. We are especially determined to use cross-regional events and collaborations to expand and sustain the network. Please feel free to contact us at exhibition@radicalfilmnetwork.com if you would like to join the group or if have any questions or suggestions. 

Distribution/RFN Vimeo channel

The RFN Vimeo channel was set-up in 2016 as a platform to help promote and share work produced by filmmakers in the RFN. Clive Myer has since taken responsibility for this and has really built it up over the past year, and is interested in developing the distribution capacity/activity of the network.

Film education/marginalised voices

This role is yet to be defined but was suggested by members of the steering group in response to the significant number of film educators in the RFN.

Artists film and video (UK and US)

As with country coordinators, but with a focus on experimental filmmaking by progressive/leftist filmmakers/groups. The ‘radical’ in the RFN was always meant to be about form as much as content, and to foster a closer relationship between the experimental and activist film communities, but so far the former has always been much less well represented within the RFN. Because the RFN is most established in the UK and US, it seems sensible to have people in each area that are well-connected in the experimental film communities to develop this part of the network.

Subtitling group

This is a small group of multilingual RFN members that was initiated as a way to support the international circulation of particular films.

Doc/Fest liaison

This person liaises with Sheffield Doc/Fest when they provide the RFN with a limited number of discounted passes each year – something which requires a fair amount of administration/communication with RFN members and Doc/Fest. They also make sure relevant announcements from Doc/Fest throughout the year get fed through to the mailing list. 

Advisors

This is a smaller group of people within the Steering Group with which the convenor/s can communicate on a more regular basis about any issues that don’t necessitate contacting the all folks on the steering group. This is designed to a) make sure the convenor doesn’t have sole responsibility for decisions that should be shared; b) spare unnecessary email traffic for the wider group; and c) speed-up decision-making (i.e the group won’t have to wait for 20+ responses/opinions each time the group has to deal with something).

Strategy/management/decision-making

In practice, decisions about larger issues – the longer-term aims of the network, needs of radical film/media culture etc. – are discussed as and when they arise on the mailing list or at the annual conferences. However, this probably isn’t clear to new members of folks less familiar with the network. So, once or twice a year the Steering Group will convene a meeting that is open to all members of to discuss these bigger issues. Kind of like an AGM…