Wielding the Camera Pen: Teaching Sociology through Filmmaking

Abstract

This paper describes the philosophy, structure and results of a course, Visual Sociology, in which students are taught sociology through filmmaking. Students develop a sociologically aware visual literacy from discussing documentary films that inquire into issues of social justice and inequality. After thinking through problems of sociological narrative and of research methods, students make their own films and write about their research process. Students address, in their films and papers, research issues such as a) the development of a research question, b) ethics of filming, c) problems of rapport with persons filmed, d) interviewing techniques and e) editing raw footage into a sociologically meaningful story. With the groundwork laid by this course, students have gone on to make sociological films for their capstone thesis. Student work is evaluated to discover the quality of sociological understanding resulting from experiential learning through filmmaking.