aemi recommends: Introduction to 16mm film with Emily McFarland, 23-24 May
Published date: 18 May 2026
Tutor: Emily McFarland and Helena Gouveia Monteiro
Date: Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th May 2026 (two-day workshop 11am-6pm each day)
Participants: 8 max
Level: intermediate
Cost: €200 all included
Booking: to book a space please contact [email protected] with a short description of your arts practice and a link to your work.
An introduction to 16mm filmmaking for visual artists who would like to experiment with photo-chemical moving image in the context of their practice.
You will have a hands-on opportunity to learn the technical aspects of 16mm shooting with Bolex H16 and Krasnogorsk K3 cameras, developing the film in the darkroom using a hand processing lomo tank, splice editing, and preparing the film for projection.
This is an intermediate workshop; some basic knowledge of celluloid and 16mm formats will benefit participation.
The course will be divided into four parts over two full days:
Introduction and conversation on different approaches to film, focusing on Emily McFarland’s practice;
Technical overview and shooting with a 16mm camera as a group (each participant
will film approximately 30sec. of footage);
Processing the film in the darkroom (black & white reversal film);
Viewing, editing, preparing projection, and discussing the results.
Areas covered:
We will look at types of cameras and film stock, cover the essentials for film shooting in different conditions, using the developing equipment and chemistry, and preparing the film for projection and/or digital transfer.
During the workshop, you will learn:
- How to load and operate spring wound Bolex and Krasnogorsk cameras
- Metering and exposure
- Frame rate and shutter speed
- Optics and the effect of f-stop on the depth of field and exposure
- How to feed the film into the lomo spool and tank
- How to prepare the chemistry and process the film
- Basic editing and splicing
- How to project and/or view the film
Requirements:
To bring ideas for shooting and some props, costumes, or objects you would like to include in your film. All materials are included. You will be shooting collectively so relatively simple ideas that are not too time consuming work best and allow you to try out different technical aspects.
To be familiar with moving image and interested in exploring it within your arts practice. Previous experience with analog materials or darkroom photography is an advantage, but not a requirement to attend the course.
About the Tutors:
Emily McFarland (b. Tyrone) is an artist working predominantly in film and sound. Grounded in documentary forms, her work considers how shared cultural, social, geological, and ecological narratives are constructed, narrated, and retold over time. Recent work forms part of long-term polyvocal research into the shifting terrain of the Sperrin Mountains under the shadow of global capital’s extractive imperative.
Recent exhibitions and screenings include Pollanroe Burn (solo), Void Art Centre, Derry; EcoFutures, Videotage, Hong Kong; Mother Tongue, The MAC, Belfast; Last of the Visioners, The Model, Sligo; Belfast Film Festival; How Did We Get to Know, Golden Thread Gallery; AEMI Online (solo), Dublin; Docs Ireland; The Complex Seer (solo), Centre for Contemporary Art, Derry; WRO Biennale, Wrocław; Glasgow International; and Akureyri Art Museum, Iceland, among others. She was previously selected for the 39th EVA International, Platform Commissions, Limerick, and the inaugural Freelands Artist Programme with PS2 and the Freelands Foundation, London.
McFarland co-founded Soft Fiction Projects, an artist-run publishing imprint based in Belfast, and was a co-director of Catalyst Arts.
Helena Gouveia Monteiro is a visual artist and experimental filmmaker. At Fire Station Artists’ Studios she manages the Media Studio and the recently launched Dubh Film Lab.
She has extensive experience with analog film materials both in her own practice and working with other artists and filmmakers and is a member of L’Abominable Navire Argo (Paris) and Filmwerkplaats (Rotterdam) cooperative film labs.
DUBH Film Lab
https://www.filmlabs.org/labs/dubh-film-lab/
https://www.firestation.ie/news/coming-soon-dubh-film-lab-at-fire-station-artists-studios/