An ecology of relationships: tensions and negotiations in documentary filmmaking practice as research

ABSTRACT

Documentary studies as textual analysis is often predicated on providing ways of looking at and thinking about documentary practice. Filmmaking as research can be conceptualised as a petri-dish: rich with possibility; it can afford a consideration of documentary practice in a way that intersects with issues around pedagogy, sites for knowledge-making as writing and filmmaking as ways of thinking through theory. However, while filmmaking as research can redefine and reframe practice, it can feel laboured in terms of a constant concern for theoretically positioning the artefact and the making processes. In such instances, this can stymie the unselfconscious nature of making and raise the question of whether the production of a film artefact is at odds with a process-driven methodology.

In exploring this relationship, this article takes the form of a dialogue where we discuss our respective documentary practices as sites for complex tensions and negotiations within an academic context. In particular, we discuss our shift from an independent practice-based paradigm which prioritised the production of an artefact to a practice which is knowledge-based. We discuss a selection of our respective film projects; some of which were made as research and others which were theoretically ‘retro-fitted’ as practice-based research.

KEYWORDS:

• Documentary
• documentary film
• practice-based research
• participatory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Kim Munro is a documentary maker, academic and PhD candidate at RMIT University, Melbourne. Her documentary interests focus on expanded, interactive and essay forms, practice-led research, participation and voice and listening. Kim is a co-founder of Docuverse – a forum for expanded documentary which run regular events and symposia.

Paola Bilbrough is a participatory documentary practitioner and widely published poet whose work focuses on the relationship between documentary practitioner and participant(s) and tensions between ethical representations and aesthetic freedom. Paola’s documentary practice-based research is informed by her work as a poet and by 15 years as a community development practitioner working with diaspora communities. She has a PhD in Cultural Studies and Creative Practice from Victoria University (VU), 2015, Melbourne, where she is an Honorary Fellow. She is currently completing a Master of Social Work at RMIT Melbourne.

ORCID

Kim Munro http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9214-4305

Paola Bilbrough http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5357-5156