The Project
Participants use fundamental documentary filmmaking and photography techniques to share their immigration stories and voice their concerns. Emphasis is placed on documentary film, integrated with photography. Still, they learn about essential research concepts and techniques such as scriptwriting, shoot planning, lighting, filming, sound recording, and ultimately, editing and exporting their projects.
At our program, we value the unique experiences and voices of our participants. We encourage them to talk about themselves and conduct interviews with peers, family, or community members to tell relevant stories. The space also emphasizes the significance of discussing their identities, backgrounds, and challenges to develop their inquiry and speculate about possible actions to address their issues as young immigrants.
Background
The project follows the principles of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR), a methodology that empowers young people to address social and economic barriers. This methodology engages youth in investigating their context, in this case, utilizing photography and documentary filmmaking techniques.
The YPAR methodology, which our program follows, has proven to be a powerful tool in facilitating spaces for young people to learn research methods and actively address issues that affect their lives. The participants take the lead in framing research questions, shaping study designs, collecting data, conducting analyses, presenting results, and transforming the findings into actions to address the issues affecting their lives. This not only empowers them but also promotes critical thinking, research and analytical skills, communications skills, leadership and agentive identities, teamwork, community and civic engagement, and socioemotional learning and well-being through the identification and expression of their emotions.
The participants lead in framing research questions, shaping study designs, collecting data, conducting analyses, presenting results, and transforming the findings into actions to address the issues affecting their lives. One of the methods utilized in YPAR programs is arts in general and visual arts in particular. Beyond empowerment, the use of art-based methods in YPAR is effective in promoting social and personal transformation. YPAR utilizing art-based methods has shown to be effective in promoting:
- Youth critical thinking
- Research and analytical skills
- Communications skills
- Leadership and agentive identities
- Teamwork
- Community and civic engagement
- Youth socioemotional learning and well-being through the identification and expression of their emotions
- Collective identification by promoting bonding and a sense of belonging