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Contribution short abstract:

Experimental filmmaker and researcher Sam Firth will share techniques used in her recent film “The Wolf Suit’ using the process of filmmaking both as method and metaphor for analysing how we construct individual and shared memories and the impact of trauma of conflict and trauma these.

Contribution long abstract:

Sam Firth is primarily an experimental filmmaker she is also based at the University of the West of Scotland where she is exploring what it means to undertake creative practice as research. Her work has screened at film festivals around the world and won numerous awards. She was recently recognised with a BFI Chanel Filmmaker Award. In this roundtable she will share the techniques she used in her recent film “The Wolf Suit’ which uses the process of filmmaking as both method and metaphor for analysing how we construct individual and shared memories and the impact of trauma of conflict and trauma on these. The process of writing, filming (and re-filming) dramatic reconstructions (within a constructed world) and shaping these into narrative (within yet another world of the film) through editing is exposed within her film as auto-ethnographic research into the construction of identify, personal and shared family narratives. Those who watch the film are forced to consider the constructed element of their own memories and engage philosophically with the question Firth considered when making her film. One of the outcomes of this ongoing study into how we construct narratives and experience the world has been new insight into the impact of personal media making, which is now wide-spread, on our life stories.