Community Filmmaking and Cultural Diversity: practice, innovation and policy

This research aims to contribute to the debate around community filmmaking and cultural diversity by exploring how cultural diversity intersects with community filmmaking. It will examine the results of this intersection in terms of representations and identities, as well as practices and innovation. In addition, the research will develop a better understanding of the role of cultural policy in supporting this intersection, by examining how cultural organisations and policymakers work with community filmmakers and how the role of innovation in this context is understood.

The project recognises the complex set of cultural, economic and social relationships and engagements in community filmmaking. Therefore, our research will adopt a complexity framework to take a wider perspective to this object of study. Whilst the focus is on creative practitioners (community filmmakers), we aim to consider the cascade of connections which are behind their engagement with communities and partners, industries and audiences and which may impact on the cultural product and experience delivered as well as in urban/local development.

Applying complexity thinking to this field of investigation allows us to consider the role of cultural experiences and cultural identities in community filmmaking practice by taking into consideration five important dimensions by which these interactions can be mediated: representation and identity, the role of film as media, the tensions in filming practices between arts and commerce, the knowledge and innovation dynamics and the roles of intermediaries, policy and place. Complexity theory offers us the possibility to explore and understand these five different dimensions of community filmmaking but also to explore their interconnections in a more holistic way.

Community filmmakers will be the key agents considered in this complex system where practice, innovation and policy will be explored at different scales of interaction: micro, meso and macro levels. Across these levels, we will explore how different communities (through interaction, feedback, cooperation) share the work of filmmakers and vice-versa. At another level we will consider how community filmmakers are themselves embedded in a cultural field that is inhabited by major institutions (such as the British Film Institute (BFI)), other filmmakers, venues and associations, funders (such as Arts Council England) and how these shape and influence both their work and their decision-making.

Our research will be developed and carried out in collaboration with a range of community partners in three different UK regional settings (Birmingham, Southampton and London), each with different roles within this cultural field. These include Lighthouse, City-Eye and WORLDwrite, all of whom have expressed support for the project. We also have the support of the BFI who says that the 'Community filmmaking and Cultural Diversity' project will enrich the organisation's 'own knowledge and contact with this area of film culture' (BFI Letter of Support). This is significant because we hope to be able to take this research collaboration further in relation to its potential impact on film sector policy at both the national and sub-national levels.

The research project's contribution to the AHRC Connected Communities programme will be twofold. Firstly, it will gather a better understanding of community filmmaking and diversity within the context of community engagement, representation and participation, considering the role played by arts and media (through film) in shaping and involving communities. Secondly, it will look at community filmmakers as being themselves part of a knowledge and practice community and consider what kind of learning, sharing and collaborative approaches are used to foster creation and innovation and how these can feed into the wider film ecology.

Our impact strategy rests on 1) working with our community partners and community film makers 2) making the whole research project part of a networked conversation and 3) generating a wide range of dissemination materials including online platforms, policy briefings and academic analysis. The research team itself is rich in impact-generation expertise and will work closely to sustain momentum through online media and other engagement activities. Our ambition is for this work to provide a reference point for evaluations of community filmmaking in culturally diverse contexts and its relationship with the wider film ecology.

To achieve this, we need to make the process part of an ongoing dialogue with key stakeholders recognising the cross-disciplinary nature of the problems we address. To this end, we have budgeted for a series of face to face conversations across the whole project and in relation to the five dimensions of the project outlined. These exchange sessions are paralleled by our online dissemination strategy which will aim to make the project a key node in national and international 'Connected Communities' research. We will begin this strategy by inviting collaborating partners to contribute to a 'Community Filmmaking and Cultural Diversity' blog; a blog will allow us to document responses from our 'audience'.

First, we have carefully selected partners who provide direct channels of impact, each with different roles within this cultural field, and in three different geographical regions. These include Lighthouse, City-Eye and WORLDwrite. Our work with WORLDwrite for example, will have a direct developmental impact upon the scale and potential of its operation. Documenting its innovative processes around community filmmaking in relation to the idea of the 'learner-volunteer' and 'citizen television', will provide a motivational illustration of what can be achieved by an informal community of creative citizens; this aspect of our work could be influential in communities which lack strong connections to mainstream media and indeed higher education. We also have the endorsement of the BFI for our project; significant because we hope to be able to take this research collaboration further in relation to its potential impact on policy. One of the objectives of the project is to support cultural organisations in how they reflect on their own practice around community filmmaking and in how diverse practitioners are engaged.

The second aspect of our impact strategy is to produce a range of outputs with utility in different sectors. Our media platform and policy briefing will find users throughout the emergent network of local/national organisations supporting connectivity in communities through innovative community filmmaking practice. The workshop and conference will provide fora for community filmmakers and organisations to make their views heard and their contributions felt. The events will provide an opportunity for academic and non-academic users to share knowledge about the scope of and issues around community filmmaking culture in current culturally diverse contexts and the role of innovation here. This potential will be sustained after the events through the development of a mailing list of all attendees which will serve for further communication about the project.

Among the impact tools we expect to deploy are the following:
- a website & embedded blogging platform, targeted at other relevant communities of filmmakers and support organisations;
- academic papers, targeted to academics & policymakers;
- an edited scholarly book, summarising the research findings in comparison with other research and experiences, targeted to policymakers, academics & practitioners;
- a policy briefing paper, targeted to communities, practitioners & policymakers;
- one workshop event, targeted to communities, academics & practitioners;
- a closing conference, targeted to communities, academics & practititioners.