Yesterday, Terry Hopkins announced his departure from the London Film School after 15 years of service. This makes the 18th departure of staff members of The London Film School since the direction changed. This announcement has prompted us to publish an open letter to the Chairman of The London Film School.

 

Dear Mike Leigh,

We are a group of alumni, members of the association of The London Film School, supported by other alumni and current students. We are writing to you out of concern regarding the management of The London Film School in the recent months.

 Despite our best efforts to establish a dialogue with both the leadership and the governors, our concerns have not been properly acknowledged.  Rather, they have grown more serious.  

We now address our concerns to you as the Chairman of the London Film School, hoping that you will promptly respond. The troubles the LFS is facing nowadays are very worrying and we believe it is urgent for you to acknowledge these issues and address them with care and great concern. We feel the people that made and are part of the LFS have already suffered a great deal due to the new policies and nothing has been done to stop these brutal attitudes. 

Since January 2016, it has come to our attention that at least 18 members of staff have left the school either by way of resignation or by their contracts being terminated and this in only 22 months. We are shocked and unhappy with the handling of many of these departures, particularly those of Alan Bernstein and Barry Salt. Their devotion to the School deserved greater respect.

These actions reflect badly on the LFS and we feel are alien to its ethos and traditions.

 Since the departure of Alan Bernstein the MA Filmmaking programme remains without a head of studies and all the more worrying is that the position hasn’t been advertised for.  More over Directing Strategies and Film History, courses given by Alan Bernstein and Barry Salt respectively, had a great positive impact on the reputation of the School. Not only did these respected teachers leave the school but they did so without any recognition of their significant influence on the good name of the LFS.  They were both subjected to disciplinary action and Barry Salt was put under investigation. The administration gave wrong and misleading information about Barry Salt’s situation, leading the students to think it was a case of illness, furthermore and very worrying is that he was manhandled out of the building before his hearing took place. None of these procedures are of the stature of the LFS.

As concerned alumni we have reached out to the current management and governors by ways of:

 

·      Letters to the Director that have remained unanswered

 

·      A petition signed by 330 current students and alumni, which was sent three times until it was acknowledged.

 

·      We attended the AGM where we were faced with the refusal to acknowledge the problems and evasive answers to questions and concerns.

 

·      Some of us asked for a meeting with the governors, during which the answers were all the more evasive and we were encouraged to ignore the past events.

 We are also aware that a petition was signed by 86 current students for the reinstatement of Alan Bernstein. This petition was never acknowledged.

We feel that there isn’t currently a vision for the School’s time ahead. Despite the constant promises of a good future, we are utterly concerned about the health of the School.  We have spoken to current students extensively and they believe there is a clear lack of continuity in teaching; a low morale within the student body and an overall disrupted education over the past months. 

 More over, there was talk at the AGM, and also prior and subsequent meetings with governors, in which 'a climate of bullying by the LFS management' has been raised. This is bullying both of staff and students, and we believe the governors have not addressed this properly. 

 The past events lead us to sense that the current leadership is out of their depth, that there has been authority misuse and unethical course of action. This is reflecting very badly on the LFS.

 It is out of our great love and respect for the School that we are writing to you.

Besides the bad management we have witnessed we feel there is a shift towards a school that is breaking with the traditions and ideals the LFS maintained throughout the years and built its reputation on. We know that some things had to change and adapt to current times and that the move has been crucial for the school over the past years,  however the changes and the new building do not justify the way people have been treated nor do they have to transform the essence of our world class Film School.  

 We would like to meet with you in person in order to further discuss these issues and address our concerns.  

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, we put our hope in your prompt reply and good judgement.

Yours Sincerely,

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