Abstract
Big Stories, Small Towns is a transmedia participatory documentary series that commenced production in 2008 and has facilitated the telling, recording, archiving and dissemination of more than 500 auto/biographical narratives in Australia, Cambodia, Hungary, West Papua, Malaysia and Indonesia across thirteen towns. Big Stories is based around professional media makers living in a town, as filmmakers-in-residence, and creating stories with local people. This chapter reflects on, from the perspective of a practitioner, the processes of working with small communities and non-professional media makers to facilitate creative documentary work and key theories and practices that have supported this work. There will also be a discussion of theoretical and practice-based developments of participatory modes of engagement with the media, examining production processes in the light of culture and technology, in particular projects that have influenced the multi-year, multi-site Big Stories, Small Towns project. Through case studies from Big Stories, Small Towns this chapter will explore the process of professional and non-professional media makers co-creating stories.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Carpentier, N. (2009). Participation Is Not Enough: The Conditions of Possibility of Mediated Participatory Practices. European Journal of Communication, 24(4), 407–420.
Chambers, R. (2005). Critical Reflections of a Development Nomad. In U. Kothari (Ed.), A Radical History of Development Studies: Individuals, Institutions and Ideologies. London: Zed Books.
Cizek, K. (Director) & Flahive, G. (Producer). (2005–2007). Filmmaker in Residencefilmmakerinresidence.nfb.ca/ [Cross-Platform and Online Documentary]. Canada: National Film Board of Canada.
Cleaver, F. (2001). Institutions, Agency and the Limitations of Participatory Approaches to Development. In B. Cooke & U. Kothari (Eds.), Participation: The New Tyranny (pp. 36–55). London: Zed Books.
Crocker, S. (2008). Filmmaking and the Politics of Remoteness: The Genesis of the Fogo Process on Fogo Island, Newfoundland. Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures, 2(1), 59–75.
Evans, G. (1991). In the National Interest: A Chronicle of the National Film Board of Canada from 1949–1989. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Ewald, W. (1985). Portraits and Dreams: Photographs and Stories by Children of the Appalachians. New York: Writers and Readers Publications.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.
Fuchs, C. (2010). Alternative Media as Critical Media. European Journal of Social Theory, 13(2), 173–192. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431010362294.
Illich, I. (1979). Tools for Conviviality (2nd ed.). London: Fontana.
Lambert, J. (2002). Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community. Berkeley: Digital Diner Press.
Lambert, J. (2007). The Digital Storytelling Cookbook (2nd ed.). Berkeley: Center for Digital Storytelling/Digital Diner Press.
Low, C. (Director). (1968). Introduction to Fogo Island [Documentary]. Canada: National Film Board of Canada, Challenge for Change Program. Retrieved from http://www.nfb.ca/playlists/michael-brendan-thomas-waugh-ezra-winton/challenge-for-change/
Low, C. (1972). The Fogo Island Communication Experiment, Report to National Film Board of Canada. Toronto: National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved from http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/medias/download/documents/pdf/1972-Fogo-Island-Communication-Experiment.pdf
Low, C. (1984). Grierson and ‘Challenge for Change’. In The John Grierson Project, John Grierson and the NFB (pp. 111–119). Toronto: ECW Press.
Lunch, N., & Lunch, C. (2006). Insights into Participatory Video: A Handbook for the Field. Oxford: Insight. Retrieved from www.ids.ac.uk/ids/particip/dbdocs/PVhandbook.pdf
Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) Co-creation Studio. (2017). Definition of Co-Creativity [MIT Co-creation Studio Website]. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute for Technology. Retrieved from https://cocreationstudio.mit.edu/symposium/#Definition
Nemtin, B., & Low, C. (1968). Fogo Island Film and Community Development Project, Report. Toronto: National Film Board of Canada. Accessed http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/medias/download/documents/pdf/1968-Fogo-Island-Project-Low-Nemtin.pdf
Newhook, S. (2009). The Godfathers of Fogo: Donald Snowden, Fred Earle and the Roots of the Fogo Island Films 1964–67. Newfoundland and Labrador Studies, 24(2), 171–197.
Potter, M. (2014). Big Stories, Small Towns; a Participatory and Web-Based Documentary. PhD Thesis, Flinders University, Adelaide. Available at https://www.academia.edu/11786257/Big_Stories_Small_Towns_a_participatory_and_web-based_documentary_and_exegesis_www.bigstories.com.au_
Quarry, W. (1984). The Fogo Process: An Interview with Don Snowden. Interactions, 2(3), 28–63.
Rouch, J. (1974). The Camera and the Man. Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication, 1(1), 37–44.
Rouch, J. (1978, 2003). On the Vicissitudes of the Self: The Possessed Dancer, the Magician, the Sorcerer, the Filmmaker, and the Ethnographer. In S. Feld (ed.), Cine-Ethnography: Jean Rouch. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Ruby, J. (1991). Speaking for, Speaking About, Speaking with, or Speaking Alongside: An Anthropological and Documentary Dilemma. Visual Anthropology Review, 7(2), 50–67.
Spurgeon, C., Burgess J., Klaebe H., McWilliam K., Tacchi J., & Tsai M. (2009). Co-creative Media: Theorising Digital Storytelling as a Platform for Researching and Developing Participatory Culture. ANZCA09 Communication, Creativity and Global Citizenship. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland. Retrieved from http://eprints.qut.edu.au/25811/
Sturken, M. (1984). An Interview with George Stoney. Afterimage. Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester. Retrieved from: www.experimentaltvcenter.org/interview-george-stoney
Sussex, E., & Grierson, J. (1972). Grierson on Documentary: The Last Interview. Film Quarterly, 26(1), 24–30. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1211408
Thumim, N. (2009). ‘Everyone has a story to tell’: Mediation and self-representation in two UK institutions. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 12(6), 617–638. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877909342494
Turner, T. (1991). The Social Dynamics of Video Media in an Indigenous Society: The Cultural Meaning and the Personal Politics of Video–Making. Kayapo Communities in Visual Anthropology Review, 7(2), 68–76.
Wearing, G. (1992–1993). Signs That Say What You Want Them to Say and Not Signs That Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say [Photo Series]. London: Tate Gallery. Retrieved from https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wearing-signs-that-say-what-you-want-them-to-say-and-not-signs-that-say-what-someone-else-66092
Williamson, T. (1989). The Fogo Process: Development Support Communications in Canada and the Developing World. AMIC-NCDC-BHU Seminar on Media and the Environment. Singapore: Asian Mass Communication Research and Information Centre. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10220/895
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Potter, M. (2019). Local Content Producers: Co-Creating Communal Stories and Community in the Big Stories, Small Towns Participatory Documentary Project. In: Batty, C., Berry, M., Dooley, K., Frankham, B., Kerrigan, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Screen Production. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21744-0_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21744-0_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-21743-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-21744-0
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)