An ecology of relationships: tensions and negotiations in documentary filmmaking practice as research

Documentary studies as textual analysis is often predicated on providing ways of looking at and thinking about documentary practice. Filmmaking as research can be conceptualised as a petridish: rich with possibility; it can afford a consideration of documentary practice in a way that intersects with issues around pedagogy, sites for knowledge-making as writing and filmmaking as ways of thinking through theory. However, while filmmaking as research can redefine and reframe practice, it can feel laboured in terms of a constant concern for theoretically positioning the artefact and the making processes. In such instances, this can stymie the unselfconscious nature of making and raise the question of whether the production of a film artefact is at odds with a process-driven methodology. In exploring this relationship, this article takes the form of a dialogue where we discuss our respective documentary practices as sites for complex tensions and negotiations within an academic context. In particular, we discuss our shift from an independent practice-based paradigm which prioritised the production of an artefact to a practice which is knowledge-based. We discuss a selection of our respective film projects; some of which were made as research and others which were theoretically 'retro-fitted' as practice-based research.