Community Filmmaking Research Articles

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

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.

Community Film Making and innovative direction of rural art (An ethnographic study on a Sri Lankan community film 'Walapane Satana')

'Community film' is an attractive new term that has been emerged over the past few years. Though Sri Lankans are familiar with 'Community radio', the phrase 'Community film' is still a novel idea. But, it has been recognized by the world that community filmmaking is a broad concept that can be understood and produced in different ways, such as participatory community filmmaking and non-participatory community filmmaking. This study focuses on 'participatory community filmmaking' and tries to understand how it works, why it is made, what the benefits are, and how we can use it as a tool to achieve something positive. Under the qualitative research approach, an ethnographic study was performed. Films have been classified under various criteria, and it helps to understand what type of film it is. Primary and secondary data were collected. Preliminary data was collected through participatory observation and interview methods. Since the film, 'Walapane Satana' was the only film found from Sri Lanka and easily fit into the criteria to call it a community film, it was used for the study. The research revealed a solid socio-cultural background behind the making of this film. This particular community film has influenced the development of the place and individuals of this village in many ways. Almost all the villagers have participated in this film to attend and make, teach, learn, present, promote, judge, support, and span many artistic disciplines. Most importantly, some people have given up their lifelong bad habits to become a part of this film, and at the end of the film, they have entirely dumped those habits and have started effectively leading their lives. Furthermore, being a part of this film has added value to their lives, and it has empowered and educated them to become worthy citizens. These findings led the researcher to conclude the study with a strong opinion on community filmmaking as a powerful driver for social change.

Roma people of Turkey re-write their cinematographic images

The historical construction of the Roma image in Turkey, via both official and unofficial narratives, has constituted a derogatory repertoire. Their portrayal in the mainstream Turkish cinema and TV in particular has contributed to the predominant imaginary in circulation which essentially is based on common binaries and stereotypes. In order to challenge prevailing stereotypes about the Roma, we have conducted a transformative action research project with the Roma people of the Sıra district in İzmir, Turkey, who volunteered to make their own films. This article provides an account of this community filmmaking project. Locating the Roma in the conceptual framework of subalternity, we ultimately investigate whether it is possible to talk about agency in regard to the Roma people of Turkey.

Not just surviving but thriving: Practices that sustain a new generation of Latin American community media makers

Abstract Over ten years ago, two community media initiatives were founded by young people in their early twenties in Bogota, Colombia and Quito, Ecuador. While the Colombia-based collective, Ojo al Sancocho, has struggled to build bridges among urban and migratory communities uprooted by an entrenched, decades-old armed conflict, the Ecuadorian group, El Churo Comunicación, has fostered audiovisual autonomy and resistance among indigenous, feminist and ecological social movements that have had to defend their rights even though they were supposedly guaranteed by a so-called progressive government. Despite formidable challenges, each has fulfilled a long-held dream - a community movie theater, and the expansion of a radio-based practice to a multiplicity of practices that include community filmmaking, cyberfeminism and capacity-building of communities across Ecuador and Latin America. Together with other collectives, Ojo al Sancocho and El Churo are building a network of community filmmakers across Latin America. Using each organization’s 2017 annual gathering as a point of departure, and subsequent meetings in 2018-2019, this article analyzes the characteristics that have led to innovation and sustainability in diverse contexts. It also indicates key challenges they face. This is an engaged, ethnographically-based, scholarly work.

New Ecuadorian cinema: Small, glocal and plurinational

Abstract This article conceptualizes New Ecuadorian cinema as small, glocal and plurinational. It makes the case that it is a propitious time to study this emergent cinema. However, while it is a heterogeneous film scene, this article argues that it is still traversed by long-standing ethno-racial, class and regional inequalities. After inserting Ecuador’s largely unknown film history into regional trends, different spheres of production are analysed, including mestizo fictionalized narratives, activist documentaries, indigenous and community filmmaking and coastal ‘guerilla’ filmmaking. The article looks at both the accomplishments of the sector and current challenges. It proposes that more state and private funds invest in fostering plurinational and regional initiatives, and cultivating diverse makers and audiences.

Rethinking cultural diversity in the UK film sector: Practices in community filmmaking

Academic, policy and industry debates have tended to focus on the mainstream film sector when discussing cultural diversity. One of the persistent challenges for the sector has been how to diversify cultural representation and participation. This article suggests that participatory modes of community filmmaking make an important contribution to cultural diversity. Drawing on an evidence base derived from qualitative research conducted in three English regions, the article shifts the spotlight away from the mainstream and onto the margins of the film sector in order to explore more ‘bottom-up’ approaches to cultural diversity. It examines how community filmmakers interpret and engage with questions of cultural diversity and how this connects to the participatory and business practices that they adopt. The findings highlight the significance of processes of practice in how mediated cultural diversity manifests itself and the value of community filmmaking in contributing to wider cultural diversity debates and practices.

Community filmmaking as research: (re)considering knowledge production through the camera's lens

In southern Chile, Mapuche Indigenous communities are using video and digital filmmaking to collectively reflect on and communicate knowledge. This article shares their experience, arguing that with the increasing accessibility of information and communication technologies, we should be rethinking and broadening the acceptable ways to generate and convey knowledge about development. Acknowledging the diverse ways of knowing and communicating knowledge, this article suggests that video can be a powerful tool for self-representative knowledge-sharing by Indigenous communities. Only by expanding our debates beyond written media can we engage equitably with a plurality of knowledge-holders to resolve development challenges.

'Don't forget to look into the camera!’: Peter Watkins' approach to acting with facts

ABSTRACTThis article will examine the work of radical docudrama director, Peter Watkins (director, Culloden and The War Game). In many ways, Watkins is the father of modern docudrama. Working at the BBC in the early to mid 1960s, he pioneered the concept of dramatised productions shot in a documentary vérité style which would prove hugely influential to a generation of docudrama makers such as Ken Loach. Throughout his career, however, Watkins consistently preferred to work with non-professional actors using a form of ‘community filmmaking’ with the public where, increasingly, as his career progressed, performers were encouraged to undertake extensive on-set improvisation. Based on the author's first-hand observations of the director at work on the set of his last major production, La Commune (Paris 1871), this article will explore the strengths as well as some of the potential pitfalls of Watkins' distinctive approach to ‘acting with facts’.