Sociological Imagination, Research Findings and Filmmaking. Documentaries As Creative Public Interventions.

Engaging with wider audiences is a central challenge for sociological research. When sharing research questions and findings, the written texts remain dominant. How can we visually intervene in the public arena beyond our academic communities? Of course, this question is not new. However, it remains crucial in scenarios of public distrust of scientific knowledge and authority. Anthropology has dealt with this issue since its inception. Sociology at large still needs to grapple with the complexity of producing images (whether still or in movement) as tools for knowledge production and as means to challenge common sense. This session aims to focus on the making of documentaries dealing with sociological issues. They could be short or long films. They could be observational, participative, reflexive, performative, and poetic (among others). We welcome filmmakers addressing different topics. This session encourages textual and visual papers where authors could reflect on aspects of the process of making a documentary based on socio-anthropological research. For instance, they could address theoretical, methodological and ethical issues; explore challenges of its production and circulation; examine strategies to learn how to do a documentary; examine dilemmas involved in the translation of a research study into a film; and inquire technical difficulties of such an endeavour. This session aims at sharing experiences, affordances and dilemmas of doing a documentary while mobilising sociological imagination. This is an urgent task in times marked by a worsening of working conditions of academics, attacks on social sciences, and (paradoxically) growing technical opportunities to produce films.