Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes – Part A: The Power of the Editor
10 minutes – Part B: Who Decides?
15 minutes – Part C: Case Study - In My Blood It Runs
25 minutes – Part D: Self-determination
10 minutes – Reflection

Part A: The Power of the Editor

In this section, students explore how film creators can make meaning using film techniques.

Step 1.

Start by showing one of these clips to your class.

Same Scene, Different Music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc6XO6e1r50)

Film language - changing meaning through video editing and sound (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ae6WxUU6VE)

Both explore how meaning and messaging can be changed using editing techniques. The first video focuses exclusively on music; the second explores additional features alongside the music, such as the speed of the clip and the colouring.

Step 2.

Ask students to form small groups and list some additional techniques that could be used to change the meaning of a clip once it is already filmed (e.g. written or visual language, sound, colour).

If students are unsure of where to start, you might want to ask more general questions:

What could you add to the clip we saw to change it?
What might you remove from the clip to change it?
How might you edit the existing content/features within the clip to change it?
How might you film the clip entirely differently to change it?

You might expect answers such as:

Adding a voiceover
Adding sound effects or visual effects (for instance, you might add explosion effects (both sfx and vfx) behind the running kid in the first clip)
Adding animation or drawings
Adding text-only slides
Removing the sound completely or replacing live noise with music
Recolouring (for instance, making the clip black and white).

Step 3.

Now present students with this scenario:

You’re filming a day in the life of one of your friends. Over the course of the day, you record them doing five different everyday activities:

Eating cereal for breakfast at the table
Walking to school by themselves
Rubbing out a mistake in their workbook
Accidentally tripping over another student during sports
Waiting to be picked up after school.

Each group should pick one of these events to focus on, and create a voiceover script that would add another dimension to the meaning of their friend’s actions.

If students need an example to get started, you might provide this example voiceover for the first clip:

“Tessa is eating the last of the Weet-Bix. She knows they are her little brother’s favourite cereal, and she could have picked a different one herself, but she decided to eat the last of the Weet-Bix especially to upset her brother. That would teach him to sleep late!”

Extension opportunity: Allow the groups to film some short footage representing their chosen activity. They can then create a version with their added voiceover.

Step 4.

Explain to students that editors can change the meaning of scenes (or a whole film) by how they present different events, but also by what they choose to show, and by what they choose not to show.

Step 5.

Ask students to imagine how they could add or eliminate footage from their imagined (or recorded) scene to change the meaning of the clip.

For example, if they chose the tripping scene, they could include a flashback of an argument between the main character and the person they tripped over. They could also remove the moment just before the trip happened so there is doubt as to whether or not it was an accident.

Part B: Who Decides?

Step 1.

Provide each group with a piece of butcher’s paper and markers, and ask them to draw a line down the middle of the paper. Have them write on the left, ‘Yes, because…’ and on the right, ‘No, because…’.

Step 2.

Pose this question to students and make sure they understand what it is asking (without giving away any answers):

Based on the activity you just completed, do you believe that when someone is being filmed they have control over how they’re presented in the finished product?

Step 3.

Invite students to take a marker and write down their opinions on the relevant side of the paper. Encourage them to provide supporting arguments and examples to back their ideas up. They can work together, reinforcing each other’s arguments by adding connecting lines between points.

Note: There isn’t necessarily one right answer here. You could argue that the person being presented gets to decide what they do and say, that they have control over their actions and responsibility for what they do. On the other hand, you could also say that filmmakers have so much power over how their subjects are presented that the subjects can’t ever really be presented on their own terms. Both of these positions are at the far ends of the spectrum - there are also plenty of positions in-between that are equally valid.

Step 4.

Invite students to share their responses with the class, and link back to conversations from the previous part of the lesson where appropriate.

Step 5.

Hand out the Student Worksheet and invite students to write a paragraph expressing their individual view on the following questions:

Is there a difference between the person telling a story and a person in a story?
Does the person in the story have power over what story is told about them?
How important is the relationship between documentary filmmakers and the people in their films?

Part C: Case Study - In My Blood It Runs

In this part, students explore the Project Approach set out by the In My Blood It Runs production team and how this approach supports First Peoples’ self-determination.

Note: It is vital that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have the agency to tell their own stories. This Project Approach is a case study created because those participating in the film requested these filmmakers support them to tell their story. It was designed in collaboration with the producers, a mixed Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal film team, and those onscreen. It drew from many models of collaboration that came before this film. Ensure that the students know that this model of co-creation is not new, but it is also not the status quo in documentary filmmaking.

Step 1.

Distribute the Project Approach to students as a case study of the way In My Blood It Runs decided to share agency with the people in the film.

Note: This collaborative approach is only one way to work with those onscreen. The filmmakers worked alongside Dujuan’s family and drew inspiration from the work of a long line of First Nations, artists of colour and minority groups, organisations and filmmakers to develop an approach appropriate for this film.

You can use the Screen Australia Pathways and Protocols, written by First Nations filmmakers in Australia, as an additional resource for this activity.

Step 2.

Ask students to read through the document in pairs, and highlight at least one way in which the filmmakers worked alongside the First Nations people and communities involved in the film.

Step 3.

Students should report back to another pair, and explain:

What measure they have identified
Why that measure might have been taken.

For example, under ‘Shared Ownership and Profit’, we learn that the participants in the film will receive an equal portion of the film’s profits to the director, as they are core partners in the film’s creation. That measure will have been taken so that they are compensated for their time and work, as well as their consultation on story, style and cultural nuances that cannot be understood fully by people who are not from Arrernte and Garrwa Country.

Note: Even if students aren’t familiar with any of the specific historic examples of this issue, they can infer from this text that the subjects of documentaries aren’t usually paid. For instance, there could be a scenario where somebody makes a documentary about others and keeps all the profit. When the people in documentary film are paid for their time and work, they’re treated as collaborators on the project - as co-creators - rather than as subjects who get filmed so that the filmmakers can make money.

Step 4.

Explain to students that the next clip is the opening shot of the film. Ask them to think about what kind of message is being communicated to the audience by using this opening shot - where Dujuan, the ‘subject’ of the film, becomes the storyteller.

Step 5.

Play this clip from In My Blood It Runs:

In My Blood It Runs (documentary) - 'Which one do you love?' (clip 01) (https://vimeo.com/437699471/39ccdcb387) Closer Productions, 2019.

Lead a class discussion using the following prompts:

Who is filming? What does this communicate to the audience?
Who is the film about?
Who is telling the story?
What story is being told?
How does this opening scene reflect the Project Approach?
Why do you think it is important for people in a film to have a say in how they are represented?
Why might it be critical that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have agency to tell their own stories?

Possible answers: The film shows that Dujuan is in charge of telling his own story by having the first shot of the film be from his perspective. He is literally holding the camera, implying that he’s in charge of what you’re seeing throughout the film. Where typically we might expect a divide between who is in the story and who is telling the story, here the film is telling us that the person in the story is also telling it. Dujuan is telling his own story, from his own perspective.

Step 6 (optional).

As an optional extra, you might compare this scene from In My Blood It Runs, where Dujuan talks directly to the audience. He claims ownership of the film and tells the audience what he thinks.

In My Blood It Runs (documentary) - 'They use to cry for their mummies' (clip 08) (https://vimeo.com/437698571/bea6f5cf11) Closer Productions, 2019.

Part D: Self-determination

Step 1.

Invite students to work in small groups to create their own definition of the term ‘self-determination’.

Step 2.

Provide students with this definition from the Cambridge Dictionary:

Self-determination is “the ability or power to make decisions for yourself, especially the power of a nation to decide how it will be governed.”

Ask them to discuss with the class how this definition compares to the one they created.

Step 3.

Show students this statement from the Australian Human Rights Commission and read it together:

“The right to self-determination has particular application to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia’s first peoples.

Self-determination is an ‘ongoing process of choice’ to ensure that First Nations communities are able to meet their social, cultural and economic needs. It is not about creating a separate Indigenous ‘state’.
The right to self-determination is based on the simple acknowledgement that Indigenous peoples are Australia’s first people, as was recognised by law in the historic Mabo judgement.
The loss of this right to live according to a set of common values and beliefs, and to have that right respected by others, is at the heart of the current disadvantage experienced by Indigenous Australians.
Without self-determination it is not possible for Indigenous Australians to fully overcome the legacy of colonisation and dispossession.” (Source)

Additional Notes: Depending on your class’s understanding of the legacy of colonialism, you may need to spell out some of the implications more explicitly. It will be worth considering the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students in your class here - they might well be struggling with this legacy in a very personal, intimate way. As noted in the teacher content information, we expect that before beginning these lessons, you will have consulted with parents or guardians of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and ideally will have undergone the relevant cultural competency training with either Stronger Smarter Institute or Narragunnawali.

Step 4.

As a class, create one sentence that describes why it is especially important for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to have the ‘right to self-determination’. This activity is important in establishing whether students fully understand the meaning of self-determination, and how important it is for Australia’s First Peoples.

Possible answer: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been unfairly disadvantaged by European colonisation; so it is important, moving forward, that they are able to make decisions for themselves so that they can overcome some of these disadvantages and meet their own needs and goals.

Step 5.

Play this clip from In My Blood It Runs:

In My Blood It Runs (documentary) - 'Be like them' (clip 05) (https://vimeo.com/437697885/911dd02933) Closer Productions, 2019.

Invite students to report back on:

Who is in the story
Who is telling the story
What the story is about.

Note: This scene is actually a little complicated as there are two sets of voices present. We recommend you begin unpacking this scene using the second part of the clip, where the British man is speaking over the footage. In that instance:

The people in the story are Aboriginal children
The person telling the story is a white man
The story is about a white perspective on the assimilation of Aboriginal children into a European-centric culture and what white people thought was best for them.

You could highlight this quote: “The children are being gently led towards our culture so that in time they will take their place in the Australian community, thinking as we do.”

After this, you could then return to the start of the clip, where Dujuan speaks over the footage. In this instance:

The people in the story are Aboriginal children
The person telling the story is an Aboriginal child
The story is about Dujuan’s perspective on what white people did to Aboriginal people and Dujuan shares his ideas about what is best for him and his future.

Step 6.

Play this clip that was filmed at the national cinema release in Alice Springs, where several members of the audience were participants in the film:

Hidden Valley Towncamp Premiere, Alice Springs (https://vimeo.com/399837756)

Invite the class to identify any examples of self-determination that they see in the clip.

Possible answers:

Bianca Turner welcomes the audience to the premiere
Carol Turner speaks in language
Cultural performance by the children
Megan Hoosan (Dujuan’s mother) speaks about being an Aboriginal mother
Dujuan speaks about the film and thanks the audience. He later says “everyone around Australia” should watch the film.

You could also use this clip as an alternative:

2018 Garma Key Forum - Truth Telling Session - William Tilmouth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE3uJ5AudeY)

Reflection

Invite students to write an individual response to the following prompt:

One of your peers comes to you excited about a new film project they have been invited to work on. They’ve been invited to shoot a documentary in an Aboriginal community on any topic they choose. What advice would you give them about how to include self-determination in their film?

Differentiated Learning

Extension - Students could consider this question: with advanced technology (such as CGI), filmmakers have increasing editorial powers. Do you think this is a good thing or do you think it could lead to broader ethical problems?

Provisions for Learning Support - Think about how you assign students to groups. There will be some students who know a lot about the themes and topics in this lesson, and others who know very little. Mix up these students to get the best outcomes. Make sure not to rely on your Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to be spokespersons on the topics, but also empower them should they want to speak.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching practice today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

In My Blood It Runs - Self-determination

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