Fri 7 Nov 13:00-14:00
In venue:
Pervasive Media Studio
And online: Live stream on Youtube.com
This is a free event. Tune in wherever you are, online. If you want to take part in venue you need to book in advance.
In this Lunchtime Talk, Mandy Rose revisits Video Nation, focusing on the short films that made the project famous.
Video Nation became a household name, praised by audiences, critics, and academics. Journalist Polly Toynbee said the participants “leave us with a feeling of warmth and empathy,” while media scholar Jon Dovey called it “a television experiment showing both connection and fragmentation in modern life.”
As co-producer of Video Nation (with Chris Mohr), Mandy will reflect on its legacy and share reactions—from early reviews to its influence on Adam Curtis’s 2025 series Shifty. Thirty years later, with TV transformed and personal video everywhere, how do these stories resonate now? And in a time of divided identity and public debate, what can Video Nation teach us about media and community today?
About Mandy Rose
Mandy Rose is Professor of Documentary & Digital Cultures at UWE Bristol. She is Co-Investigator of the UKRI MyWorld programme. She was Co-I on Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters and co-convenor of i-Docs. During 20 years at the BBC she oversaw award-winning participatory and interactive media initiatives including Video Nation and the Capture Wales/Cipolwg ar Gymru digital storytelling project. Mandy is co-editor of i-docs: the evolving practices of interactive documentary (2017) . Her recent writing appears in Studies in Documentary Film, Convergence and the Intellect Handbook of Documentary (2025).