Lead Faculty: Erica Halverson

In this project, we explore the process and products of youth filmmaking. Led by Erica Halverson, we examine youth filmmaking as a designed experience, that is, youth learning to make films through their participation in a learning environment geared toward teaching filmmaking. We view the filmmaking process as dramaturgical in nature, involving the telling, adapting, and performing of personal stories. We are interested in how youth learn this process, what they come to understand about film as a medium for communication, and how this process interacts with their emerging sense of who they are in the world. Our research grows out of Halverson’s earlier work with theatre as a powerful medium for exploring issues of identity (Halverson, 2005), understanding the dramaturgical process (Halverson, 2007) and its value in allowing youth to construct a positive social identity while coming to understand the function different narrative representations serve in the construction of personal and community identity (Halverson, under review, in progress).

This project takes the insights from Halverson’s work with theatre and applies it to film. Given the increased importance of digital literacy for youth in becoming successful citizens (Jenkins et al., 2007) and the documentation of youths’ engagement with digital media (including film) a mechanism for self-expression and literacy play (see, for example, the Digital Youth Research project, http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/), it is equally important to understand what youth are learning through their participation in designed experiences around film.

Many organizations across the country (and the world) are working with youth to produce movies as a means to teach media literacy, give youth a voice, and explore their creativity, there is very little research around what these youth are making films about and how this content is shaped by the organizations in which they participate. The goal of this research is to document what youth are making movies about, to understand the role of organizations in shaping the theme and subject of these movies, and to start to theorize about the types of filmmaking processes that support the construction of identity-related films. In this project, we will explore these ideas in three ways:

• A meta-analysis of youth-produced films: By tapping two publicly available online clearinghouses of youth-produced films, we will analyze the content and structure of over 300 short films, looking specifically at the subject, theme, and genre of the films.
  
• An analysis of organizational missions: We are analyzing the mission statements of the organizations that worked with youth to produce the films found in the online clearinghouses to understand the stated purpose of the spaces in which youth do their work.
  
• Ethnographies of organizations that work with youth to make films: The bulk of our work consists of working with four organizations across the country who work with youth to make films. We are in the process of documenting the filmmaking processes in these organizations through observation and collection of artifacts of their process throughout. In addition, we are interviewing organizational leaders and participating youth to understand their work processes, what youth learn as they engage in these processes, the relationship between organizational leaders and participants, and how all of these factors impact the final products.
  

References

Halverson, E. R. (2005). InsideOut: Facilitating gay youth identity development through a performance-based youth organization. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 5(1), 67-90.

Halverson, E. R. (2007). Listening to the voices of queer youth: The dramaturgical process as identity exploration. In M. V. Blackburn and C. Clark (Eds.), New directions in literacy research for teaching, learning and political action. New York: Peter Lang.

Halverson, E. R. (under review). From one woman to everyman: The reportability paradox in publicly performed narratives. Submitted to Narrative Inquiry.

Halverson, E. R. (in progress). Detypification as identity development: The dramaturgical process and LGBTQ youth. Manuscript in preparation, to be submitted to Journal for Research on Adolescence.

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