Re‐imagining suburbia, feeling the future

Reflections on Collaborative Ethnographic Filmmaking

Bibliographic Data

ID6017078
AuthorsJess Nikitina‐li (0009-0005-5014-0110, Independent Researcher Melbourne VIC Australia, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume36
Issue3
Pages475-492
Publication date2025-11-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Australian Journal of Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1035-8811 • E-ISSN: 1757-6547
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/taja.70038
OpenAlexW7106820127
LanguageEN
References cited24

Amalgam: On Feeling the Future is a visual anthropology project that culminated in a three‐part ethnographic film series created in close collaboration with three artists living in the South‐East suburbs of Naarm (Melbourne). Grounded in feminist and decolonial methodologies, and drawing from a lineage of POC (People of Colour) and Indigenous ethnographic filmmaking, Amalgam explores how art practice mediates diasporic belonging, identity, and agency for young POC (People of Colour). Drawing on concepts of assemblages and relational knowledge production, it positions filmmaking as both method and praxis—rejecting extractive modes of representation to instead embrace co‐creation, collaboration, shared authority, and the privileging of process over product. Through this, Amalgam responds to the neoliberal ‘arts‐washing’ and multiculturalism that proliferates arts and cultural activity in contemporary neighbourhoods. This paper reflects on the methodological implications of the project, specifically the way artistic practice—both represented in the films and enacted through their making—becomes a tool through which to negotiate identity, collectivity, and power

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