Ffilm School, a programme supported by CO2RE, is now seeking applications from aspiring documentary filmmakers. Founded by filmmaker James R Price, one of the seven CO2RE Artists, the programme aims to challenge the culture of unpaid labour in screen jobs. The six aspiring filmmakers accepted onto the course will be paid £550 per week for the two residential weeks of the programme, which will take place in Elenydd (the Cambrian Mountains). The programme will run from January to June 2026 in the Dyfi area of Wales.
The teachers and learners who are part of Ffilm School will make this Land to come, a film examining how practices used to remove CO2 from the atmosphere will impact the land and the people who live in it.
With the Ffilm School programme, James intends to tackle inequalities in who gets to make documentaries:
“Only about ten per cent of UK filmmakers come from low-income, low-asset households. Add to that the way filmmaking clusters around Cardiff and London, and the employment crisis hitting doc-making hard, and it’s clear something needs to change.”
James’s doctoral research at Aberystwyth University reimagines documentary education, partly inspired by the Well-being of Future Generations Act.
“What happens if we put wellbeing at the centre of doc-making? Most courses promise the ‘skills to succeed in industry’ — but those jobs often don’t exist. We’re motivated by Ffilm Cymru Wales’ Film for Everyone plan, so we’re prioritising applicants from low-income households, Cymraeg speakers, the Global Majority, and Disabled or neurodiverse people — the people who rarely get the chance to tell their own stories.”
The residential part of the course will take place at Bwlch Corog, land cared for by the charity Coetir Anian, and neighbouring Cefn Coch Farm. Coetir Anian’s patrons include actor and former Aberystwyth Mayor Sue Jones-Davies and former Welsh Government Minister Jane Davidson, architect of the Well-being of Future Generations Act. The charity is restoring peatland and Celtic rainforest to the Cambrian Mountains.
Ffilm School receives its major funding from CO2RE. It also receives funding from Ffilm Cymru Wales’s Connector Fund, as well as the South, West, and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership as part of James’s PhD support. The six learners on the programme will be paid with the funds from Ffilm Cymru Wales, and not from CO2RE, in order to preserve their editorial independence.
Applications for a place on the Ffilm School programme are open until 30 November. Read more and apply here.
