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  • Find a PhD Supervisor

Find a PhD Supervisor

Dr Michael Holly

School of Arts, English and Languages
Dr Michael Holly

Dr Michael Holly

School of Arts, English and Languages

My research focuses on the development of nonfiction and documentary filmmaking methodologies and creative participatory practices, with a particular focus on rural and agricultural communities on the island of Ireland. I am also interested in experimental and localised distribution networks for community based film and artist video.

Contact info

  • View Academic Profile
  • m.holly@qub.ac.uk
  • 07353088264

Research Interests

Open to PhD applications in the fields of:

  • Experimental Documentary Practices
  • Collaborative and Participatory Documentary
  • Video Installation and Immersive Media
  • Non-human film practices

Make a PhD enquiry


Public outreach & key achievements

Michael has exhibited extensively as a visual artist, often working in video installation of nonfiction films, including at Tulca Festival of Visual Arts (2024 & 2022), PUBLICS, Helsinki (2024), Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre (2022), South Tipperary Arts Centre (2022), Riverbank Arts Centre (2018), Nieuwe Vide, Haarlem (2017), Roscommon Arts Centre (2015), and Y Galerii, Tartu (2015).

Since 2018 he has worked in collaboration with artist, filmmaker and sheep farmer Mieke Vanmechelen and her production company Fierce Quiet Films. Together they have co-directed two feature documentaries, 'Hungry Hill' (2023), an ethnographic-style film on the tensions between the agricultural community and ecological fragility of the Beara Peninsula of Co. Cork, 'IMMRÁM', about a community of Gaelic culture revivalists in Ireland who follow the teachings of the enigmatic mystic and philosopher John Moriarty, and a short film, 'Like a mouse' (2021) about the ecologist Dr Rory Hodd, who discovered a rare fern in Killarney National Park.

Michael is a long-time collaborator with the art, publishing and curatorial organisation Askeaton Contemporary Arts, run by Michelle Horrigan and Sean Lynch. He has worked with ACA on several projects, including eight short films and a book exploring the systematic destruction of historical and folkloric objects on the Irish landscape, 'Men Who Eat Ringforts' in 2019.


Discover More

  • Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
  • School of Arts, English and Languages
  • I am an organiser and committee member of the Centre for Documentary Research at QUB: https://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/cdr/ 
  • https://mickholly.co.uk 

Postgraduate research
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