Incorporating ecocritical perspectives into introductory film production pedagogy

Ecocritical perspectives on cinema, sustainable production methods and films about environmental concerns are not secondary subjects appropriate only for more advanced coursework, but rather they are critical elements of early film-making instruction. As emphasised throughout the extensive body of work on eco-cinema, all films produce material impacts on the world, new experiences of environments and new socio-material realities. Correspondingly, all film production pedagogy imparts specific models of resource consumption, environmental relationships and social relationships. Current models of film production are imbricated with extractive practices and entrench harmful ways of relating to the world. Beginning students’ film-making education by implicitly accepting these models of industrial film production builds problematic ways of sensing, feeling, thinking and acting into students’ foundational conceptions of cinema. This article works to disrupt this legacy by integrating ecocritical perspectives into introductory film production coursework. Introductory production courses present students with an opportunity to learn film-making as a relational, socio-material process, rather than as a set of predetermined craft skills or aesthetic concepts. Teaching film-making as a fluid, layered and communal encounter with fundamental questions about our ways of living and perceiving introduces students to film through challenges of perception, care and collaboration. Foregrounding these elements of film-making in early production coursework promotes social engagement, community building, political mobilisation and resilience.