Movies, movements and moving moments: connecting film, user involvement and student learning.

Abstract

This chapter develops thinking about participation in different but connected initiatives concerned with mental health, the arts and humanities. These are located in a university community engagement context developed with participatory action research methods. Particular themes at play include: the filmic depiction of madness and its relationship to wider social representations; the motivating zeal of service user participants and the potential for this to be understood as part of a wider movement for change; and the extent to which these can touch or move an audience of learners. We will draw on participant accounts arising from the course of the action research project and a number of purposeful focus groups and interviews relevant to the experience of (i) developing and managing a mental health film festival and (ii) participating in a mini-project to produce video/re-usable learning objects, in effect service users making their own films to support practitioner education. These participant experiences arise from within the Comensus initiative, involving service users and carers in the University of Central Lancashire (Downe et al 2007, McKeown et al 2010).