Paper short abstract:

The paper focus on the triangulation between ethnographers, filmmakers and research participants in TRANSGANG project, reflecting on the ongoing filmmaking process in Catalan fieldwork, where documentary becomes a space for training, exploration of the self and collaborative cinematic representation

Paper long abstract:

This paper aims to share the experience of triangulation between ethnographers, filmmakers and research participants in the framework of TRANSGANG, an ERC project focused on youth street groups as agents of mediation. The project involves three filmmakers in the production of documentary films linked to the ethnographic research. This responds to different aims: to build counterhegemonic representations of stigmatized youth groups; to match young people’s familiarity with audiovisual language; to complement ethnographic knowledge through cinema and to speak to a wider audience. The paper focus on the work developed in Catalonia by filmmaker Andrés Duque and a group of young migrants. Some of them trained in cinema in their home country and want to develop a professional practice; the filmmaking process thus becomes a space for training, exploration of the self and collaborative construction of a cinematic representation. The director plays the role of a catalyst, trainer and creative driver, while young participants are involved both in front of and behind the camera, actively taking part in the creative process. Here different visions arise concerning self-representation and cinema, while it’s challenging to find a mediation between culturally diverse aesthetic sensibilities, also in view of the film's ownership and distribution. Yet, this collective dimension is inherent to cinematic practice (especially documentary), as films require an ongoing exchange between different creative and technical roles. Issues raised during the filmmaking process, started in October 2020, will be addressed, articulating the first reflections around collaboration, authorship and aesthetics in this ethnographic and cinematic experience.