MSTA

“WHY WE DO IT” is a documentary film that compares and contrasts collaborative teams from different artistic backgrounds. This documentary film uses narrative inquiry, case studies and experiential storytelling to illustrate the connection between collaboration and art.

The documentary film answers the question, “why collaborate?” and the data gained through this project is used to draw a correlation between collaboration and collective experience.

On a broader scale, this research project aids in the understanding of how collaboration works in the creative industry by looking at the roles, responsibilities and individual lived-experiences of team members within active collaborations. 

Most of the research surrounding the project is situated on the methodology of “narrative inquiry” which involves extracting knowledge and information from the act of story-telling and experience. The main influences surrounding the development of narrative inquiry in the project have been Jill Sinclair Bell, Sondra Perry, Zacharias Kunuk and Ian Mauro.

The legitimacy of narrative inquiry as a research methodology is proven through York University faculty, Jill Sinclair Bell’s journal article “Narrative Inquiry: More Than Just Telling Stories” (2002) [1].

Constructing a narrative comes with a wide set of ethical challenges. How narrative is used is an important subject that WHY WE DO IT takes into consideration. Bell talks about the formation of narratives and their overall purpose in their journal article. Bell states, “Narratives allow researchers to present experience holistically in all its complexity and richness. They are therefore powerful constructions, which can function as instruments of social control (Mumby, 1993) as well as valuable teaching tools (Egan, 1988)” (209).

In Bell’s writing, the importance of a well-constructed narrative is emphasized and demonstrates the possibilities of how narrative inquiry can be used to convey a particular narrative on a subject. Bell also writes that narrative inquiry is a key method in understanding the experiences and cultures that exist within groups and challenge one’s own assumptions by understanding stories told by others. The article also mentions the use of narrative inquiry in a practice beyond just storytelling and how narrative inquiry can be used for analytical examination in order to gather information from any underlying insights within stories that are told (Bell 208).

In the case of WHY WE DO IT, narrative is primarily a learning tool, providing useful insight into collaboration. It is less about swaying the viewer to believe collaboration is good for creative individuals, but more to show the realities of collaboration (both positive and negative) and its effect on the collaborators.

Sondra Perry’s work reflects how narrative inquiry can be abstractly represented through the medium of film and audio. “IT’S IN THE GAME ‘17” (2017) [2] is a great example of a project that utilizes film and narrative inquiry to describe the issue surrounding the corporate exploitation of Black American men and their likeness for basketball video games. Narrative inquiry is used in this project through stories told from her brother, who’s appearance and likeness were exploited by Electronic Arts (EA) and used within a video game released by them. Her brother was included in a class action lawsuit against EA and this inspired Sondra Perry’s project. The information gained from her brother’s stories is the direct influence for the visuals that accompany the story told by her brother. This project is a good example of letting the issue you are trying to address tell the story and have visuals only serve to aid the progression of the narrative you wish to tell.

Within context of WHY WE DO IT, Sondra Perry’s video installation provides a dynamic way of incorporating visual storytelling with audio narrative. Her work was especially useful when identifying the key points of the documentary that I wanted to have strong visual representation in. I found that identifying significant points within the stories I gathered through my interviews I could construct a narrative that had relevant and attention-grabbing visuals that allow for the viewer to remain engaged to both the audio and visual segments of my documentary.

Zacharias Kunuk and Ian Mauro’s 2010 documentary film “Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change” [3] uses narrative inquiry as a means of explaining the effects of climate change through the eyes of Canadian Inuit people. By intervie+wing Inuit people, the documentary addresses the effects of climate change on their livelihood and how evident climate change has become for them.
This documentary film emphasizes the importance of storytelling and knowledge transfer as a cultural aspect for the Inuit people. In regards to climate change, storytelling from Elders revealed how information about the climate could be gathered from particular aspects of Inuit life. There is a lot of data that can be extracted from stories and experiences and only by engaging in dialogue would this knowledge be able to be passed on.

In the planning stages of WHY WE DO IT, it was crucial to analyze the context in which responses from interviewees would be displayed and whether the responses would be relevant to the overall narrative of the project. Kunuk and Mauro’s work served as a guide for the kind of responses I had hoped to evoke with my interviews. I gained insight from the interviews I conducted and like this film, my research plays a role in the transferring of knowledge that can only be gained by using narrative inquiry as a methodology. Through understanding the experiences of creatives within collaborations my documentary film provides an insight into cultures that exist within collectives.

WHY WE DO IT was influenced not only by the written and creative works of others, but was also guided by the advisement of faculty staff at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. While there was heavy emphasis on the methodology of research throughout the project, there were other very careful considerations made throughout the creation process of this film. Assistant professor at OCAD University, Immony Men [4], assisted in the development of WHY WE DO IT from a abstract visual art piece to a documentary film.

Men is an artist, educator and community-based researcher in Toronto, Ontario. Men’s practice as an artist is rooted in the fields of interactive installation, interdisciplinary performances, social artworks, and community-based research projects. Having exhibited work nationally and internationally, Men is a professional artist and holds significant credibility; having been a part of numerous creative projects in Toronto’s art community.

From initial conceptualization, Men provided a strong foundation of research projects and ideations in which to based my narrative structure around. Men assisted me in conceptualizing how to visually represent ideas of recollection and memories within in the film through the use of other film mediums; including the use of amateur home-video style film techniques. Through Men’s guidance, I was able to incorporate the idea of “remembrance” through the visual mediums used and was able to provide a change in structure to my, otherwise, linear narrative. Men also assisted me in understanding the possibilities of film being used outside of its traditional form; exploring ideas of film and video within a new age context. Men introduced me to the works of Sondra Perry, who ultimately became the influence for my interest in abstract visuals and non-traditional film-making. It was with the advice and guidance of Immony Men that WHY WE DO IT stands within the context of a documentary film.