ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the uses of film in community-oriented research and how they relate to power inequalities both within and beyond projects with a particular focus on engagement and participation. It suggests that film is a valuable tool that affords opportunities to view the world differently, to make meaning with young people and to carry strong messages across domains. The chapter explores genealogies with a focus on participatory film and focuses on unpacking our relationship to that field, drawing on the reflexive turn within ethnographic research from Bourdieu and Waquant to explore field of practice. It draws on the detail of research projects that employed film as a participatory method and involved engagement processes in order to analyse what is going on when children and young people, together with artists, filmmakers, ethnographers and everyday life, are tangled up together on screen.
