Paper short abstract:

The collaborative filmmaking experience of "Lala", a hybrid film made with a community of paperless Roma teenagers in Italy, became the context in which a process of recognition of "othering" gaze dynamics and the invisibility erased from our society were collectively articulated.

Paper long abstract:

Integrating the documentary genre-specific approach with material archive and the use of staging, the film "Lala" investigates the grey areas of the laws regulating Italian citizenship for second generation Roma children. The attempt of staging a fiction film, becomes the pretext for involving a group of teenagers in a collective reflection on lack of citizenship rights and invisibility. The material archive related to the story of a paperless girl trying to obtain her documents in the passage to 18 years old, shot about ten years ago in MiniDV format, represents the red thread that holds the fictional elements sewn together with the issues addressed by the documentary material. Through the exploration of Boal's theatre of the oppress "forum" and the construction of Brechtian mechanism of dismantling of the "third wall", the film builds the relationship with the viewer on a familiarization/defamiliarization mechanism. This process is aimed at creating a displacement that reproduces the experience disorientation of those seeking to obtain documents in a bureaucratic labyrinth, at the same time, it becomes a disclosure of "othering" gaze dynamics and an experience of recognition of the invisibility erased from our society. The paper aims at discussing the ways in which this process took place collaboratively in the space of a 5-year project, how participation and co-writing dynamics were articulated and negotiated, how the challenges and the discoveries collected within in it were faced and integrated within the process.

Paper short abstract:

The authors used Collaborative Filmmaking in Nepal with 13 women, empowering them to record and share their menstrual traditions within their communities and policymakers. Authors will reflect on key lessons gained and how Collaborative Films can advance menstrual health discourse and action.

Paper long abstract:

Most women and girls throughout Nepal practice at least one menstrual restriction, which often leads to menstrual discrimination. The dominant narrative centers on the image of women being ‘confined to the cow shed,’ yet this ignores the complexities of everyday lived experiences. Collaborative Filmmaking – a visual, participatory research method in which participants are trained to create, analyze, and screen films - was used to engage 13 women in sharing their own experiences of menstrual restrictions, taboos, and solutions. They wrote, filmed, and directed their own films about menstruation, including writing and performing original songs.

Two films, a documentary ('8-day journey') and a drama (‘Stay Away’) were produced. One provides a detailed look into the lives of women’s practices and traditions whilst menstruating. The drama tells the story of a loved village grandmother who believes she has been cursed and fallen ill from being touched by a menstruating woman, wrestling with notions of purity and pollution ending with a powerful message for those still following menstrual traditions from Nepali women themselves.

While the films offer rich, emic knowledge regarding menstrual experiences in Nepal, they also serve as authentic advocacy tools and community engagement tools. To better understand how community-created films impact decision making, we held national-level and district-level film screenings for policymakers and key decision makers working on menstruation and gender issues. Through surveys and discussions with audiences, we generated a deeper understanding of the power of community-created films for advocacy and systemic change at various policy levels.

Paper short abstract:

This discussion introduces the Hantxa Kuin (Kaxinawá) terms, paxka (pashka), to share, and medabe (medabeh), to help, as an approach to collaborative research practice through a case study of the film, Yupumá, the creative ethnographic film that emerged from my fieldwork in the Amazon rainforest.

Paper long abstract:

This paper introduces the Hantxa Kuin terms, paxka (pashka), to share, and medabe (medabe), to help, as an approach to collaborative research practice through a case study of the film, Yupumá, the creative ethnographic film that emerged from my fieldwork during 18 months in the Amazon rainforest with the Huni Kuin (Kaxinawá) community.

Paper short abstract:

Dr Catherine Gough-Brady explores collaborating with the non-human in her film work. In doing so, she is re-imagining human relationships to place.

Paper long abstract:

Dr Catherine Gough-Brady explores collaborating with the non-human in her film work. This is influenced by Yolŋu elders from Bawaka, known collectively as the Gay’wu Women. In their explanation of their song spirals, the Gay’wu Women explore narrative as being created in concert with place, which is holder of knowledge, and through creating a story by adding together points of difference rather than seeking unity. As Gough-Brady explores ways in which she can connect with landscape, mediated by the camera, she has begun to challenge the idea of using the observational mode, a mode usually employed when filming the non-human. Instead she applies the interview, normally reserved for human participants, as a method for filming place. Doing this changes the type of footage Gough-Brady records, and how it is edited together, where different shots of a place combine to create answers. Place becomes, as the Gay’wu Women suggest, full of knowledge that can be shared. Through this interrogative mode, Gough-Brady listens to the landscape, as it becomes a participant in the filmmaking.