Embedding impact in collaborative filmmaking processes: a case study

ABSTRACT

Working with two community partners, Barnet Mencap and Why me? (a restorative justice provider), we were invited, with our students from the BA Film programme at Middlesex University, to participate in a knowledge exchange project. The aim of this project was to make the processes of restorative justice more accessible to individuals with learning disabilities and/or autism. We produced and delivered four short educational/campaign films, which are now available online, including on our partners’ websites. While the anticipated impact of the films was clearly defined, positioned from the outset of the project and will be monitored over time, we wish to shift our focus in this article away from the outcomes and explore the notion of impact in relation to the process of making these films. We worked collaboratively with our students, challenging hierarchical assumptions both in an educational setting and in the context of a filmmaking crew. Most importantly, the collaboration also entailed working with a group of neurodivergent actors, who contributed, apart from their acting, through improvisation and interventions to the script. In this context, our project provides for an insightful framework for thinking about impact in relation to a more accessible and inclusive filmmaking process.

KEYWORDS:

• Impact
• neurodiversity
• knowledge exchange
• collaborative filmmaking
• restorative justice
• process

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all those who created the project alongside us. Our gratitude first goes to the five actors who interpreted and acted out their roles with great dedication: Louisa Bell, Natasha Mangat, Nicholas Athanasiou, Hamid O’Toole and Aeren Fitzpatrick. We extend out thanks to the Fixation Academy, especially Academy Director Laura Davitt and actor Amy Dilworth-Johnson. Reshma Hirani and Carole Dukes from Barnet Mencap provided training and advice on learning disabilities, autism and disability hate crime and Mark Smith from Why me? provided training on restorative justice. Our co-creators on the production, from Middlesex University BA Film programme are: Fran Christie, Sara El Sibai, Marcel Ruizendaal, Cliona Shepard, Menhal Salah and Ellie Farnell. We also thank other students who took part in the project: Max Hayes, Eric Chingchi Hu and Jei Dylan Georgiadis. In the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries we thank Dr Kene Igweonu for financial support, Peter Beverstock for studio support, Lisette Metcalfe for location assistance and Nayomi Roshini, for production management support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Link to the four films: https://vimeo.com/652680499.

Additional information

Funding

The project was funded by Middlesex University’s Higher Education Innovation Fund in the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries.

Notes on contributors

Helen Bendon

Helen Bendon is Associate Professor in Film and Media. Helen teaches on the BA Film programme, and is also Academic Lead on the Changing the Culture Initiative (CCI): Shifting attitudes, values and behaviours and creating more inclusive and tolerant communities. She coordinated the Media Department's involvement in No Home for Hate, funded by the HEFCE Catalyst Fund, in 2017/18. Helen’s work with CCI embeds EDI into the curricula to increase student engagement, awareness and partnership in ways that are valued and transformative. She has lead knowledge exchange partnership projects with the Violent Crime Prevention Board, Safe4Faith with the Metropolitan Police, and ThriveLdn for World Mental Health Day.

Vesna Lukic

Vesna Lukic is Lecturer in Film Production (Documentary) at Middlesex University in London, and teaches on the BA Film programme. Her work focuses on film as a mode of interdisciplinary research, and more recently she has been involved in a number of projects that explore ways of bringing together (practice) research and teaching. She published her work in the Journal of Contemporary Archaeology (2018), Journal of Media Practice and Education (2019) and Screenworks (2019) and presented in a number of academic conferences.