Collaborative Filmmaking: How Short Films Created Major Impact

Have you ever watched a video or movie and suddenly felt the urge to start a new routine, change your diet, or find the courage to face a challenge? You wouldn't be alone: research confirms that film can have a powerful influence on people.

For us, the short films made by comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) teachers in the Haute Matsiatra region, produced through a collaborative filmmaking methodology, held an unexpected surprise. Originally designed as an innovative research tool, these films ended up making a major contribution to the success of our national scale-up.

What's Collaborative Filmmaking?

Collaborative filmmaking (CFM) is an innovative, participatory visual research method. It allows teachers and community members to document and tell their own realities through short creative films, then share their findings through screenings and discussions.

We used this process to pinpoint exactly how CSE, when taught as a standalone subject by trained, dedicated government teachers, can positively transform a school community.

As part of this research process, 10 CSE teachers (“Mpanabe JL”) — each working in a different rural public middle school in the Haute Matsiatra region of Madagascar — were trained in the CFM methodology.

Turned researcher-filmmakers, they each made a short film of under five minutes to answer the research question from their own perspective, drawing on their lived experience and what they'd observed in their own schools.

A Mpanabe JL teacher sharing her storyboard during a CFM training workshop.

They then presented their finished films to their school communities and gathered viewers' perceptions and ideas. The community's response to the films was overwhelmingly positive — the films seemed to build and strengthen a sense of community ownership and pride, both for the CSE teachers and for the program itself.

But what we didn't know yet was that these films were about to serve another, equally important purpose.

How? I'll explain!

The films become a key training tool for 1,600 teachers.

While preparing the initial training modules for a new cohort of Mpanabe JL, we were conscious that these new teachers had a lot of questions: How would delivering CSE actually play out in their middle school? How would the community receive them, and this new subject?

That's why we designed a session called "Advocating for CSE within the community." The module is meant to ease their worries about possible pushback, while giving them practical, proven strategies for anticipating and defusing misconceptions about the program.

We decided to screen several of the CFM films during this training session, to show these future Mpanabe JL teachers what it's really like to take on this role in their school and community — how students, teachers, parents, and the community actually responded to the teachers and to CSE, and the impact it had on them.

Because after all, film captures a richness that text and other formats simply can't: the context, the motivations, the relationships that really bring it all to life.

The result?

Future Mpanabe JL teachers responded very positively. Several said they couldn't wait to start teaching their classes, having seen the positive reactions and engagement from students and school communities in the films.

Thanks to these films, they gained awareness and confidence. They no longer saw the program's delivery, or the values taught in the training, as some kind of myth.

Laura, our Director of Program Strategy and Impact, shared her experience from the first training session with these teachers in Antsirabe:

"The teachers watched the films closely, often breaking into spontaneous smiles. During one film, a clip showed a young Mpanabe JL playing football with students; one teacher turned to the person next to him and said, 'That'll be me. I'll be that person too.' In the group discussions after the screenings, teachers most often pointed to the close, caring relationships shown between students and their Mpanabe JL, along with the support from school directors and colleagues, as what moved them most. Interestingly, some of the more reserved, shy participants said the films helped them realize they didn't need to be the most outgoing or the best public speakers for their work as a Mpanabe JL to be understood and successful."

What's next!

Who would have guessed that films made for research would become such a powerful tool to shape and launch a positive experience for hundreds of new CSE teachers?

The next phase of our CFM initiative will pick back up when the school year starts in September, and we can't wait to test out new ideas for how to use the films. Lights, camera, action!

Want to learn more about the CFM methodology and our research findings? Check out our report.

A collaborative analysis session with the filmmaker-researchers and PJL team.