The Pacific Community Filmmaking Consortium: producing pacific community-based films by Pacific filmmakers

Abstract

ABSTRACT This case study will discuss the impact pathways associated with a practice-led impact and engagement project based in the Pacific through the establishment of The Pacific Community Filmmaking Consortium. The project aims to support community-based and participatory media production as a creative and credible approach to influencing policy and communities in relation to gender inequality and gender-based violence in the region. The project commissioned and produced a slate of eight films, Film4Gender, by Pacific filmmakers on the theme of gender-based violence, gender inequality and Pacific responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. The project aims to give visibility to and build capacity amongst a network of Pacific community-based filmmakers and organisations whose work with communities addresses gender inequality in vernacular terms, with local participation and frames of reference. Supporting their work opens up alternative routes to understanding and influencing gender inequality in the Pacific. The Consortium’s approach to practice aims to foreground the potential impact of processes of production and distribution of Pacific-made films on individuals, institutions and communities. Drawing on interviews with the filmmakers, this paper demonstrates how some of the project’s first-year impact pathways reflect broader concerns of sustainability of practice and development in the region.