Paper short abstract:

This paper will talk about the process and challenges when academics work with non-academic artists, and how we can support collaborative, feminist, green, and ethical filmmaking.

Paper long abstract:

sava saheli singh worked with filmmaker Lesley Marshall to produce #tresdancing (https://www.surveillance-studies.ca/projects/screening-surveillance/tresdancing), the fourth short near future fiction film in the Screening Surveillance series (https://www.screeningsurveillance.com/). singh was keen to hire a poc and queer cast and crew, and approached Marshall because of her approach and commitment to diverse, green, and feminist filmmaking. in this presentation, we will discuss how we approached the filmmaking process, how we created a compassionate and supportive film set, how we tried to be as green as possible, and the challenges we faced given institutional limits and expectations, while trying to be fair to cast and crew. We will offer guidance to those in academic institutions on how to ensure fair and safe working conditions for collaborations outside of the academy.