"Out Here, It's All About Our Hustle": Cellphilms Redefining Film Production

• In Event: What Is a Cellphilm? Integrating Mobile Phone Technology Into Participatory Arts–Based Research and Activism

Abstract

Set on Christmas Eve in Hollywood, California, Tangerine (2015) follows two transgender sex workers, Alexandra and Sin-Dee Rella. Shortly after her release from prison, Sin-Dee learns that her pimp and boyfriend, Chester, has been cheating on her with a cisgender woman (female assigned female at birth). To get to the bottom of the rumour, the best friends set out on mission through the underworld of L.A.

This feature length film was shot entirely on three iPhone 5s smartphones. Joining the likes of Olive (2011) and Cats and Dogs (2013), Tangerine is part of a growing number of films that rely exclusively on mobile technology. Feature length films like Tangerine share characteristics with both conventional movies as well as participatory research using community-driven cellphilms. In a recent radio interview (Chatapati, 2015) Sean Baker, the film’s director, discussed the practice of clandestine shooting of scenes in public spaces in the midst of drug use, violence, and people simply going about their daily lives. Feature length cellphilms are produced for popular consumption and they can make visible non-mainstream populations and experiences, often without industry protocols, professional actors and high production costs.

Cellphilms in research are promoted as an egalitarian and emancipatory approach for working with underserved communities. Media studies scholars (e.g. Dockney, Tomaselli, & Hart, 2009; Simons, 2009) highlight the ways in which technological limitations of the cell phone lead to distinctive characteristics such as low sound quality, reliance on close shooting, and a lack of image stabilization, which create particular aesthetics. Tangerine, is named, not for the content of the film, but for the particular hyper-realistic orange hue created by the cell phone camera filter. As technology continues to improve at a rapid rate ordinary people are able to make work that is refined, more closely approximating that of traditional movie cameras. This suggests the continued central role that technology itself plays.

Cellphilm festivals are becoming more numerous, as is evidenced by international platforms such as iPhone Film Festival, Mobile Film Festival, Mobifest, and the Festival Pocket Film, and feature length cellphilms are gaining critical acclaim. The development of this genre raises a several questions about the development of cellphilms as a research methodology: How does the popularity of cellphilms and the use of cell phones in motion picture production influence participant production in a research context? How have the ethical responsibilities of the cellphilm producers shifted? Given the influence of the cellphilm cinematic genre on the production of cellphilms for research, what does this mean for how participation is constructed? How do notions of democratic participation in the cellphilm research process entwine with the movie industry?

This paper is a theoretical exploration of developments in cellphilm methodology through a close reading of Tangerine. This paper will explore questions regarding emergent cellphilm media and its implications for the areas of education, research, and entertainment.

Author

• April R. Mandrona, McGill University