Description
The visual and aesthetic turn in International Relations (Bleiker, 2001) has been echoed in military studies where increasingly creative methods examine wicked and intractable problems (Cree, 2023). Participatory filmmaking presents an underexplored methodology that resonates with a critical feminist standpoint (Friedman, 2024, Pruit, 2021), although at present, remains limited in its application to the military community. Building on Caddick et al.’s recent study co-creating films with veterans to disrupt hegemonic narratives about transition (2025), our pilot study formed a small and diverse women-only film crew with women veterans to engage in participatory filmmaking. With participants unaccustomed to research, the complexity and potential inaccessibility of what we were doing became apparent as the formalities of university ethics procedures met with the realities of research literacy. Further, we quickly learnt there was insufficient space to explore our collective understanding of critical military studies research. This required subsequent negotiation to sustain a critical conversation, especially when the camera itself represented an authority that we found influenced the narratives shared. This paper reflects on our initial learning about the application of participatory filmmaking with military communities whilst honestly reflecting on some of the challenges we encountered.
