FilmCrit: Using Cinematic Critical Race Counter-Storytelling as Critical Race Feminista Methodology

• In Event: Critical Race Feminista Methodologies in Educational Research

Abstract

Objective
This paper provides an abbreviated overview of a praxis-oriented methodological framework called FilmCrit, and the development of a critical race method expanded to filmic form called Cinematic Critical Race Counterstorytelling. This work is informed by Critical Race Feminista Praxis and draws on a Critical Race Theory in Education framework, as well as Chicana Feminist theories and epistemologies to bridge theory and praxis in qualitative filmmaking-based research towards producing transformational and accessible scholarship.

Theoretical & Praxis-Oriented Frameworks
FilmCrit is a framework developed by a trained filmmaker and educational researcher. Recent work by scholars such as John Jackson Jr. have pushed academic researchers to seriously consider filmmaking as an important and significant form of scholarship (2014). FilmCrit answers this call and moves to define and explore the potential for filmmaking based qualitative research that is rooted in Critical Race and Feminist frameworks--CRT in Education (Solórzano, 1998), Critical Race Feminista Theory and Praxis (Delgado Bernal, Perez Huber, & Malagón, 2019), and Chicana Feminist Theories and Epistemologies (Delgado Bernal 1998; Anzaldúa, 1999). The development of FilmCrit is driven by the perspective that critical approaches to filmmaking as academic research can play a significant role in bridging gaps for communities who have historically been denied access to academia, namely People of Color. Despite having meaningfully contributed to the progress of research (often without having access to the process itself) as traditions of ethnographic research have historically produced studies on marginalized populations rather than with them. A FilmCrit approach moves to bridge this gap and is informed by the merging of filmmaking techniques and qualitative research processes which have the capacity to speak to one another in parallel in order to engage in the co-creation of filmic scholarship that can be more readily accessible to communities the research is meant represent. Many filmic methods will continue to emerge from the exploration and development of the FilmCrit model. One such method is Cinematic Critical Race Counterstories.

Methods
Cinematic Critical Race Counterstories (CCRC) expand on Critical Race Counterstories (Solorzano & Yosso 2002; Yosso 2006) to produce filmic scholarship. CCRCs can be biographical, autobiographical, and composite stories and can operationalize various genres and film conventions to produce non-fictional, and fictional films. This paper will detail the process of co-creating CCRCs after the completion of 21 hours of life history interviews with seven Women of Color MFA film students. Braiding together platicas (Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016), testimonio (Benmayor, 2012; Latina Feminist Group, 2001), and cinematic critical race counterstorytelling to produce anonymized composite counterstories, this paper contributes to a growing body of qualitative research that moves to reclaim narrative, reject notions of objectivity and individualism, and push to validate the scholarly significance of fictionalizing research to protect anonymity and include audiences in the meaning-making process.

Findings & Scholarly Significance
FilmCrit and filmic methods to emerge from this model offer significant contributions to interdisciplinary scholarship. This paper offers overviews of multiple FilmCrit studies that demonstrate the scholarly and pedagogical value of critical, participatory filmic approaches to research for Students and Communities of Color.

Author

• Brenda Y. Lopez, California State University - Fullerton