During the pandemic lockdown in 2020, when we shifted our teaching online, I worked with undergraduate and MA students on the Film programme at Lancaster University to set up an online student-led film journal, Cut/To. My idea was that it would allow the film students to maintain social contact while they were scattered around the world, studying remotely. I also hoped that it would encourage them to keep writing and thinking about film, and also develop some new skills as they took responsibility for planning, editing and designing the journal. Some of the initial plans for the magazine – including a regular podcast and submission of video essays – have proved to be a little overambitious, but I’m really impressed and proud to see they have kept it going now even though we have returned to in-person teaching this year. The third issue was published last week, and a fourth is already being planned, and it is a beautifully designed, substantial publication, running to 75 pages. It is fascinating to see both the extent to which our teaching feeds into their writing, and also how varied their tastes and approaches are to writing critically about cinema.

All issues of the journal can be downloaded from the Cut/To website here.