We begin again our BAIS PGR bursary prize winners blog post series. Each year we ask our bursary prize winners to write up a short post on how they spent their bursary funds. This year we begin with Simon Aeppli (University of Brighton), for whom the BAIS bursary supported the development of his practice-based PhD:

As part of my PhD studies, I am creating an essay film that explores the haunting legacy of black propaganda and psychological operations (psyops) during the early days of the Troubles. Beginning in my childhood home of Carrickfergus, the film references a 1973 news report about an alleged satanic ritual. From this lurid report on bloody black masses and sacrifice, the film journeys through the lanes, roads, and archives to uncover a place filled with strangeness and horror.

The BAIS bursary award has allowed me to collaborate with Belfast-based documentary film editor Stuart Sloan to take the film to its final editing stage. In my film practice, I typically film and edit my own work. However, this bursary has provided me with the opportunity to work alongside an experienced editor to develop the storytelling, structure, and rhythm of the film. This collaboration has been an extremely valuable process as I approach the completion of the project.

In June 2024, I presented a version of the film and research as a live documentary lecture at Docs Ireland 2024. It was an incredible experience to share my work with a Belfast audience at the Queens Film Theatre. The event was sold out, which was encouraging, but more importantly, how my retelling of Colin Wallace’s witchcraft operation through the lens of folk horror resonated with an audience. After the talk, I met with folk horror enthusiasts, documentary filmmakers and others who had come to the talk because of an interest in the legacy of the Troubles.

I returned to Northern Ireland’s folk horror landscape in November 2024 to present the talk at the Full Moon Film Festival in Newcastle, Co. Down. Coincidentally, the local newspaper reported on satanic rituals in and around the town in 1973. The award helped with a field trip before the festival to shoot a sequence about this strange story, which will be included in the final film.

The BAIS bursary not only enabled me to work towards finishing my PhD film but also to reframe it as a performance lecture, creating new avenues and opportunities for disseminating my research. Overall, the award allowed me to dig deeper into the buried histories of the 1970s Northern Irish conflict and landscape.

Simon is a PhD student at the University of Brighton, and a Senior Lecturer in Film Production at UCA. His practice based PhD uses a range of disciplines, theories of haunting, folk horror, folklore and documentary to explore the disinformation techniques used by the Information Policy Unit (IPU) in Northern Ireland during the early 1970s. This research focuses on the coordination of fake satanic rituals throughout Northern Ireland to create terror and confusion across the province.