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Co-Creation Models For Inclusive Film Productions

WHAT: This brand new course offers you sessions delivered directly from artist-filmmaker Steven Eastwood, filmmaker Chloe White and the Stims Collective team. It is aimed at film professionals or those already within the industry, to gain skills and knowledge for the creation and delivery of co-creation and collaborative projects, and insight into how to create, programme and finance inclusive film projects.

WHERE: In-Person, UCL East, Stratford, London.

WHO: Run by Steven Eastwood (Autism through cinema), Chloe White (Whalebone Films) and Stims Collective: Georgia Bradburn, Sam Chown-Ahern, and Lillian Crawford.

WHEN: February 16th – March 23rd 2026

COMMITMENT: Varying number of hours per week (Please see schedule below for breakdown)

WHAT YOU GET: 7 sessions with film professionals from across production exhibition, to gain a thorough grounding in non-fiction film activism and advocacy, the mechanisms of inclusive working environments, and case studies of film aesthetics and structures.

HOW MUCH: General: £450 | Concession: £375

DEADLINE TO SIGN UP: TBD.

AGES: 18+

From the team that created The Stimming Pool (2024) the course will provide a thorough grounding in the essential tools, practices and strategies for developing and exhibiting collaborative and inclusive productions. Sessions will include collaborative activities and discussions to inform future producers, production managers, exhibitors and film professionals, on how to contribute to an industry that supports inclusive methodologies and practical applications of inclusivity, particularly for neurodivergent and disabled communities. The course will involve break-out activities where participants are encouraged to explore and troubleshoot potential co-creation projects of their own.

Intended Learning Outcomes:

• Develop potential co-creation projects, meet potential collaborators
• Learn how to embrace the IP complexity that inevitably and necessarily arises from co-creation projects, and how the rights of artists and contributors can be better defined and enshrined in contracts, ownership models, roles and sign-off mechanisms
• Workshop how potential subjects might become collaborators/co-authors.
• Explore a number of films that have used distinct concepts, aesthetics and structures to more accurately represent subjects
• explore how inclusive and co-created film productions can partner with arts organisations and exhibitors to run relaxed screenings and will also consider how funders could be more accessible.
• Study non-fiction film activism and advocacy in the context of disability, through case study films

Indicative course outline:

Session 1:

Monday February 16th – DOCUMENTARY AND DISABILITY (6:30PM-8:30PM)

With Steven Eastwood

This introductory session explores changes in nonfiction film practices in the context of the disability rights movement, surveying disability documentary film activism and advocacy through case study films such as Crip Camp, Yes, We Fuck!, Patrice the Movie, Is There Anybody Out There?, Unrest, Gallivant, and others, looking at disability film festivals such as Oska Bright, and the work of FWD-Doc.

Sessions 2 + 3:

Saturday February 21st 

AM PARTICIPATORY / CO-CREATION METHODS

With Steven Eastwood

Using The Stimming Pool (2024) as a case study film, the session will provide an overview of how film production can adopt shared authorship structures, examining both the challenges and insights of such an approach. The session will reference the innovative work of the Project Art Works collective and draw upon the ground-breaking MIT publication Collective Wisdom. We will look at other films that work from a participatory method, including Holloway (2024), The Work (2017). There will be break-out activity where participants are encouraged to explore and troubleshoot potential co-creation projects of their own.

PM THE FORM OF RADICAL NON FICTION / THE AUTISTIC CAMERA

With Georgia Bradburn & Steven Eastwood

How can the form a film adopts be more reflective of its content? The session will explore a number of films that have used distinct concepts, aesthetics and structures to more accurately represent subjects, communities and worlds, for example in the work of the Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab, and in ground-breaking fact-fiction hybrids such as The Arbor (Barnard), and Dahomey (Diop). The session will then focus on the concept of the ‘autistic camera’ and how it was used in the making of The Stimming Pool.

Session 4 + 5:

Saturday March 7th 

AM (10:30-12:30): FUNDING PROJECTS THAT USE PROGRESSIVE PRODUCTION MODELS

With Steven Eastwood & Chloe White

In this session we will go over in detail how innovative and inclusive projects often involve bringing together very different funding, for example from research councils, arts funders, equity finance, through crowd sourcing, or via in-kind support. How can the expectations of each of these sources be aligned? The seminar will look at forming SPVs (special purpose vehicles), embracing the IP complexity that inevitably and necessarily arises from co-creation projects, and how the rights of artists and contributors can be better defined and enshrined in contracts, ownership models, roles and sign-off mechanisms. In small groups you will discuss potential funding and ownership structures.

PM (1:30-3:30): MAKING ACCESSIBLE AND INCLUSIVE PRODUCTIONS

With Steven Eastwood, Chloe White & Sam Chown-Ahern

Using The Stimming Pool (2024) as a case study film, this week will describe the things that can be put in place to ensure that a production has considered and provided support for the many different needs and requirements of collaborators, contributors and crew. This will involve the role of specialist advisors, disability riders, decision-making processes, how to draft accessible call sheets, veto rights and consent mechanisms and more, and how shared authorship requires inclusion across all aspects of production, post-production and exhibition. There will be break-out activity where you workshop how your potential subjects might become collaborators/co-authors.

Session 6:

Monday March 16th (6:30PM-8:30PM)

FIXING FILM ENVIRONMENTS

Led by STIMS COLLECTIVE: Georgia Bradburn, Sam Chown-Ahern, Lillian Crawford

The sessions will explore how inclusive and co-created film productions can partner with arts organisations and exhibitors to run relaxed screenings, and will also consider how funders could be more accessible.

Session 7:

Monday March 23rd (6:30PM-8:30PM)

HOW TO MAKE SURE THAT FILMS ARE IMPACTFUL  

With Steven Eastwood

The concluding session in the series explores how to make sure that documentaries are impactful following primary release via festivals, cinemas and streaming platforms. This will involve exploring social media strategies, running influencer events, hosting activities with community and charitable partners to fully understand and harness the impact potential of a film. We will also discuss how parallel initiatives, such as expanded/gallery exhibition, toolkits, and publications, can diversify and maximise impact. This will include case study projects such as STIM CINEMA (the parallel artwork to The Stimming Pool) and The Interval and the Instant (the parallel artwork to Eastwood’s documentary ISLAND)

NC team on set for The Stimming Pool.

This course offers bursary places. Please check our Terms and conditions to see if you are eligible to apply.

If you still have other questions relating to a specific course or request, please get in touch with us via emailing shortcourses@opencitylondon.com

Image Credit: Still from The Stimming Pool 2024

What is UCL’s section of Public Anthropology?

Public Anthropology is a subsection of UCL’s Anthropology department. It hosts the short course programme, Open City Documentary Festival, and several graduate degree programmes.

The two main strands within Public Anthropology are media and creative and collaborative enterprise, which both merge industry expertise with academic research agendas.

Graduate degree programmes based in the Public Anthropology section include:

• Audio Storytelling for Radio and Podcast MA

• Creative Documentary by Practice MFA

• Creative and Collaborative Enterprise MA

• Designing Audio Experiences: Art, Science and Production MA

• Ethnographic and Documentary Film (Practical) MA

• Immersive Factual Storytelling MA

Public Anthropology houses London’s global non-fiction film festival, Open City Documentary Festival. Open City Documentary Festival produces an annual film festival, the bi-annual journal Non-Fiction and screening projects throughout the year.

Public Anthropology runs short courses in filmmaking, audio, virtual reality, film theory, practical camera training and film editing.