In response to Dr. Shaw’s feedback on my academic sources, I decided this week to find an article that explores why scholars might choose to make a documentary film from a feminist lens. I was very excited to find this article, “‘My parents never read my papers, but they watched my film’: documentary filmmaking as feminist pedagogy,” because it gives voice to the many of the reasons I wanted to make a documentary about the Starbucks Labor Union.
Hess & Macomber, paraphrasing Rice et al., write that “digital forms of storytelling are especially relevant in our time-compressed culture and are effective tools for challenging dominant narratives” (2021). I am very familiar with this from my time interning for Detroit Public Television and WHYY. Hess & Macomber write that part of the effectiveness of documentary filmmaking lies in the fact that storytelling in a documentary film “[reveals] personal experiences in intimate ways” (2021). Viewers are encouraged to connect with the people depicted on the screen, especially when paired with “carefully facilitated discussions” meant to prompt viewer engagement with the material (Hess & Macomber, 2021). Hess & Macomber also touch on the ease of sharing films, titling their piece after student feedback about the class: “my parents never read my papers, but they watched my film” (2021). Documentary films are an accessible way to share information as they mainly require a platform to watch them on (e.g. YouTube, available for free on most smartphones) and an understanding of the language used in the film. Something Hess & Macomber touch on throughout the article is the potential for community building through documentary film-filmmakers collaborate with each other as well as larger community members (2021). I’m wondering how I can facilitate conversations around unionization through my own documentary and am considering creating a facilitation guide to go along with my documentary to encourage greater engagement with my film.
While Hess & Macomber’s article mainly focuses on the making of documentary films as a tool to create feminist classrooms, their article makes many salient points as to why documentary films are effective educational tools in and out of the classroom. Even though they focus more on teaching the documentary film process, this article helped me verbalize the exact reasons I was drawn to make a documentary film in the first place. Their article also inspired me to create a facilitation guide to go along with my documentary film. I think a facilitation guide would enhance engagement with my film and hopefully provide a way for my film to more deeply resonate with my viewers.
Last week, I met with Kristina DeVoe and she helped me find some great resources for my paper. One of the challenges I’ve encountered is my desire to use Marxist thought in my paper (Marxism is central to many organizing philosophies), but being intimidated by reading the entirety of Das Kapital. Kristina told me about a source that explains the larger concepts of Das Kapital but is significantly shorter than the original work. I also reconnected with my Starbucks Labor Union source and plan on going to a meeting during October. Finally, I was able to secure my first committee member: Yvonne Latty in Journalism. Yvonne is my boss at The Logan Center and I have worked on several projects, including a documentary, with her. She gave me fantastic advice in planning my documentary: when storytelling, what are we seeing? This was part of the reason I wanted to go to the Starbucks Labor Union meeting-to begin plan out what my viewers will be seeing in my film.
Works Cited:
Hess, A. & Macomber, K. (2021). ‘My parents never read my papers, but they watched my film’: documentary filmmaking as feminist pedagogy. Gender and Education, 33(3), 306-321. DOI: 10.1080/09540253.2020.1763921