What are essen­tials to a sen­si­tive approach to film? How does rela­tion­ship-build­ing in film­mak­ing influ­ence the whole expe­ri­ence for all par­tic­i­pants? What does col­lab­o­ra­tion really mean in a prac­ti­cal sense within film­mak­ing? How can one involve the co-cre­ators in the process and how can one carry the weight of decid­ing? What does col­lab­o­ra­tion entail when it comes to ques­tions of author­ship? 

Making films with and about people involves a realm of nego­ti­at­ing rela­tion­ships, sen­si­tiv­i­ties, power dynam­ics, and deci­sions. When asking ques­tions of a pri­vate or crit­i­cal nature, that is, when asking people to share with a wider public no less than “pieces of them­selves”, numer­ous eth­i­cal ques­tions surely arise.  

In this work­shop, we will prac­tice and apply the par­tic­i­pa­to­ry, col­lab­o­ra­tive, and autoethno­graph­ic approach­es to doc­u­men­tary film­mak­ing while also dis­cussing it togeth­er. Par­tic­i­pa­to­ry col­lab­o­ra­tive film­mak­ing meth­ods hold the poten­tial to make doc­u­men­taries and films more authen­tic by redesign­ing power rela­tions between the director/facilitator and the pro­tag­o­nist­s/­co-cre­ators. By the end of the work­shop, we will have pro­duced short films using these meth­ods incor­po­rat­ing per­son­al archive mate­r­i­al from voice mes­sages over phone-filmed videos in our prac­tice of film­mak­ing.  

This work­shop is suit­able for film­mak­ers, researchers, anthro­pol­o­gists, and anyone inter­est­ed in explor­ing new and inno­v­a­tive approach­es to doc­u­men­tary film­mak­ing. No prior knowl­edge of visual anthro­pol­o­gy or autoethnog­ra­phy is required, as the work­shop aims to make the con­cepts acces­si­ble and applic­a­ble to a wider audi­ence. The only thing required is ded­i­ca­tion and pas­sion from you to unlearn and learn the meth­ods to dis­rupt the nor­ma­tive film­ing approach­es and to reflect on your ‘self’ in the field. We nav­i­gate with all those present through ques­tions relat­ed to bound­aries, friend­ship, deci­sion-making and account­abil­i­ty. 

Humad Nisar is show­ing the debut film HOME SWEET HOME in this years’ edi­tion of the stu­dents’ plat­form. Humad Nisar is also giving the work­shop on Queer­ing Visual Anthro­pol­o­gy – irri­ta­tion, con­fronta­tion, find­ing home. 

Humad Nisar (any pro­noun) is a visual anthro­pol­o­gist based in Ger­many, born and raised in Pak­istan. Cur­rent­ly, Humad is work­ing on con­duct­ing queer and migra­tion film work­shops for the BIPOC youth in Ger­many. Humad Nisar con­ducts film work­shops to make film­mak­ing acces­si­ble for every­one by pro­duc­ing films shot on their mobile phones. Humad uses par­tic­i­pa­to­ry col­lab­o­ra­tive and autoethno­graph­ic film­mak­ing meth­ods in art activism to decolonise nar­ra­tive film­mak­ing when sto­ries are told by the BIPOC/Queer people them­selves. Queer dis­place­ments, kin­ship, and iden­ti­ty are research themes in the artist’s work. Humad’s debut film, HOME SWEET HOME, explores how queer people of Pak­istani origin relat­ed to the idea of ‘home’. It is a semi-autoethno­graph­ic, par­tic­i­pa­tive col­lab­o­ra­tive the­o­ret­i­cal and media project. 

Sabah Jal­loul is a writer, jour­nal­ist and film­mak­er from Beirut, Lebanon. She is cur­rent­ly fin­ish­ing her MA in Visual Anthro­pol­o­gy, Media and Doc­u­men­tary Prac­tices at WWU Mün­ster in Ger­many and work­ing on ques­tions relat­ed to the affec­tive response to the eco­nom­ic col­lapse in Lebanon since 2019 and nor­mal­iz­ing the death of “life as we once knew it”. Sabah has screened her debut film SHEDDING SKIN IN LATE JUNE in the stu­dents’ edi­tion of Freiburg­er Film­fo­rum 2021. The film, shot in only three days, por­trays an encounter between Sabah and Alia before her return­ing to Lebanon. It is a col­lab­o­ra­tive film project which refers to the high poten­tial of friend­ship in film­mak­ing, as well as its limits. 

The Work­shop will be held in English.