BFI FAN Rip It Up: Sid and Nancy Workshop

BFI FAN Rip It Up: Sid and Nancy Workshop for 18-25 Year Olds
Wednesday 26 August, 10.30am–1.30pm
FREE

Sid and Nancy: Myth, Media & the Punk as Product

The angle here is almost the inverse: not how ideology captures the vulnerable, but how the music industry and media manufacture the rebel image.

The workshop will focus on the gap between the historical record and the film, and what that gap reveals. Students will receive a set of primary and secondary source materials, including interviews with contemporaries, press clippings, Sex Pistols promotional imagery, and record company correspondence.

Students will then identify where Cox's film romanticises, distorts, or mythologises the story, and how it achieves this through cinematic language. Then comes the bigger question: why does that myth exist, and who does it serve?

Each group will take one scene and write a 60-second “alternative cut” description. What would this scene look like if it were honest rather than mythic?

The outcome is about understanding how punk was commodified, even as it claimed to reject commodity culture.

Sid and Nancy: Outcomes

Ability to interrogate the gap between historical record and dramatised myth

Understanding of how commercial and media industries construct and commodify counter-cultural identity

Skills in close textual analysis and source comparison

Critical thinking about authenticity, rebellion, and cultural co-option across different eras

About the Tutor

Matthew Harris is an accomplished filmmaker and educator with 25 years of award-winning experience in video production and media. As the founder of The Blah Blah Company, he combines creative vision with practical expertise to deliver results.

Matthew holds a BA Hons in Video Production and, more recently, an MPhil in Screen Media and Culture from the University of Cambridge. His extensive teaching background spans multiple positions in Further and Higher Education, where he has provided students with both technical skills and artistic insight.

His recent film, A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies, has garnered international recognition, showcasing at festivals worldwide and earning an official selection at Norwich Film Festival 2024. This practical industry experience informs his teaching approach, offering students relevant, current perspectives on filmmaking craft.

With a passion for innovation and a commitment to nurturing emerging talent, Matthew brings both academic rigour and real-world production knowledge to his role as a practical filmmaking tutor.

Programmed in partnership with the Sir John Hurt Film Trust.

These workshops have been funded by the BFI Film Audience Network and the National Lottery.