Participatory Documentary and the City_Final Report

What is the role of the filmmaker when they are
challenged with working outside of their traditional
boundaries?
To guide the process the following points have emerged
during the research, they are primarily borrowed and adapted
from Katerina Cizek’s filmmaker in residence manifesto. Which
aims to challenge the conventional notions of documentary
practice and forms of story telling:
01.
Ideas should be developed in an open collaborative
context with the community and other parties involved.
06.
Work closely with the community
partner, but respect each other’s
expertise and independence.
07.
The social and political goals – and the process itself —
are paramount. Ask yourself every day: why are you doing
this project?
02.
The process is often as important as the final product.
08.
The documentarian should be free to use any forms of
media, photography, sound recording, video depending
on the context even just pen and paper. It can all be
documentary.
03.
Break stereotypes. Push the boundaries of what
documentary means.
09.
Cross collaboration between different disciplines
should be encouraged and can enrich the process.
04.
The filmmaker’s role is to
experiment and adapt
documentary forms to the
original idea.
10.
Track the process, the results and spend time
disseminating what you’ve learned with multiple
communities: professionals, academics, filmmakers,
media, general public, advocates, critics and students.
05.
Use documentary and media to “participate”
rather than just to observe and to record.
Filmmaking is not an AV or a PR department.
Always tell a good story....