Empowering climate action through participatory filmmaking

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This PhD project will use community-based participatory documentary filmmaking to engage publics in the interpretation and representation of the climate crisis, tracking over a fixed period how these activities shift perceptions and facilitate changes in attitude, behaviours and practices. The PhD will map out a framework for how to achieve creative and personally relevant approaches for understanding climate change, bringing together theoretical research and empirical study within an artistic context.Research contextVisual media play a central role in shaping understandings of the climate crisis. Documentary representations of environmental issues have been on the rise in recent years, from mainstream film and television productions to more marginal experimental cinema and activist video projects. However, despite the proliferation of climate communication methods, it is unclear to what extent knowledge gained from these productions leads to meaningful action and significant changes in attitude and behaviour. In the context of climate art, there is a tension between practitioners seeking to create personally meaningful representations versus a more instrumentalised approach that seeks to deliberately effect change in attitudes and behaviour.Whilst shock, anger and fear are frequently leant upon in messaging techniques around the climate crisis, recent research has shown that these emotions have a complex - and sometimes counterintuitive - role in tackling long-term challenges. Deep and transformative change requires strong collective will, active participation and momentum to sustain itself. In contrast to the one-way flow of information typical of traditional messaging around climate change, participatory production involving communities may nurture greater agency by harnessing relatable stories and relevant lived experience.