‘Caution will get us nowhere’: manifesto writing as collective practice with a diverse film-making class

This article puts forth a number of ideas on co-creation with film-making students, which can both enhance their own practice and critically situate it within the wider film, television and creative industries. In the case study presented here, students on a second-year module called Independent Filmmaking Practices at the University of Greenwich in 2021 wrote a collective manifesto, titled the ‘Dismantle-festo’. The case study presented here is partly for educators seeking in-class exercises which depart from mainstream thinking about the film and television industries. However, in presenting and analysing both the exercises which led to the manifesto, and the manifesto itself, this article is also partly a record of the concerns and hopes of this cohort, condensed within the radical format of the manifesto.