Telling our stories is powerful, for ourselves and for our audience. This project brought together two filmmakers, practitioners in community arts and creative health, and older participants, to make short films and then share what we learned from doing that with others who run arts-based community groups.
We held six workshops across two participant groups in different areas of Bristol, making eleven short films to celebrate positive individual stories. Then there were two half-day workshops with practitioners exploring how using film could work for their groups, what film could add to their own practice and how it might support the work of their organisations.
Participants had fun and appreciated the value of their stories being visible to others. One said ‘Looking at yourself, picking yourself up, was powerful’. Practitioners developed their skills, built the communications capacity of their organisations, and met others working in the same field. ‘It was delightful to find connections and a shared story as we got to know each other’
We want to share our creative work and what we learned together from this project. As well as watching the films, if you are a community arts or creative health practitioner, you can find a downloadable leaflet which draws together our thoughts on running film workshops with groups, and you can also find some useful resources that can be used in those workshops.