Reclaiming agency through film education.

Abstract

Previously conducted research considers how learning practical filmmaking skills could contribute to addressing the social and emotional needs of displaced youth. It argues that learning practical filmmaking skills offered an avenue for young people to cope with displacement by serving as both a coping method as well as a method to acquire non-film-specific soft skills that may be useful growing up in the uncertain context of displacement. This paper focuses on a key theme that emerged from that research: agency and how learning practical filmmaking skills can help youth to develop and/or reclaim this. By examining two case studies, this paper argues that learning practical filmmaking can facilitate opportunities to develop and reclaim displaced youth’s sense of agency by offering the opportunity to reclaim a sense of control through creative visual expression, as well as take ownership of their new environments and the future of their communities through activism.