Voice, autonomy and utopian desire in participatory film-making with young refugees

Abstract

This article is a reflection on what reflexive documentary scholars call the ‘moral dimension’ ( Nash, 2012 : 318) of a participatory film-making project with refugee young people who wanted to make a film to support other new young arrivals in the process of making home in Scotland. In the first part, we highlight some of the challenges of collaborating with refugee young people, in light of the often dehumanizing representations of refugees in mainstream media and the danger of the triple conflation of authenticity–voice–pain in academic narratives about refugees. In the second part, we show how honouring young people’s desire to convey the hopeful aspects of making home emerged as a key pedagogical strategy to affirm their expert position and encourage their participation in the project. Revisiting key moments of learning and interaction, we demonstrate how young people’s process of ‘finding a voice’ in moment-by-moment film-making practice was not a linear, developmental process towards ‘pure’ individual empowerment and singular artistic expression. Their participation in shaping their visual (self-)representation in the final film was embedded in the dialogical process and pragmatic requirements of a collaborative film production, in which voice, autonomy and teacher authority were negotiated on a moment-by-moment basis. We conclude that it is vital for a reflexive practice and research not to gloss over the moral dilemmas in the name of progressive ideals, for example, when representations are co-created by project film-makers/educators, but to embrace these deliberations as part of the ‘fascinating collaborative matrix’ ( Chambers, 2019 : 29) of participatory film-making.

Arts, language and intercultural education

“…When a group comes together to rehearse and perform a play, present an exhibition, choreograph a dance, or create an arts festival then the focus is on the intrinsic value of the art form (more akin to ‘learning in’) but the potential benefits in terms of building community engagement, developing language competence, and, depending on the group and the context, promoting intercultural dialogue, are considerable (more akin to ‘learning through’). Frimberger and Bishopp (2020) describe a project with young refugees who were making a film to support other young arrivals in Scotland. They highlight the complexity of the moral challenge and rightly point out the dangers of making too many generalized claims about the impact of such work (for example in relation to claiming that participants are ‘empowered’) but the detailed description of the project conveys a strong sense of its impact brought about by engaging in an art project with a common focus.…”