Exploring home and belonging through video
Participants are invited to create short videos that express their personal understanding of home and belonging. They can capture places, objects, people, or symbolic elements that represent these ideas. Once completed, all videos are brought together into a collective short film, reflecting the diversity of experiences within the group. The activity encourages self-expression, storytelling, and dialogue, while building a shared narrative around what home and belonging mean to each participant.
THEME
Belonging, identity, self-expression
COMPLEXITY
Beginner/Intermediate
GROUP SIZE
5-10
participants
AGE
15+
TIME
150+
minutes or can be done during a longer period of time
Step-by-Step Instructions:
- Introduction (10 mins):
- You can ask the participants to bring beforehand an object that represents home to them and everyone will introduce themselves and share about their object and why it is important to them. In this way you start exploring the topic of home/belonging and how the participants relate to it, what does it mean to them.
- Mention that anything can be meaningful, there is no wrong or right answer. If the participants feel shy to open up, you can start as a facilitator or give examples.
- Exploring and filming (30-40 min)
- Invite the participants to go around the neighbourhood and take 2 short videos (10-20 sec maxim) of something that represents home to them and brings them the feeling of belonging to a place. They would have 20-30 min to do this, depending on how big the area is.
- This part can be extended to a few days, if you are working with a group for a longer time and you can invite them to document their everyday life and the moments they feel like home or like belonging to a place.
- Watching and analysing the videos(20-30 min)
- When the participants come back, ask them to send you all the videos to a common DRIVE or transfer them with a USB cable to your computer and project them in a random order.
- Watch the videos together firstly without any comments asking the participants to think in silence what they think the author wanted to share. They can take notes here, but not speak.
- Watch the videos a second time, this time asking the authors to share their thoughts and the rest of the participants their interpretations.
Invite the participants to avoid words saying if they like it, if it is a good material or not, we are not concentrating on this, but rather how it makes them feel, what do they see and what do they think it represents.
- Creating a film together (30-60 min)
- Invite participants to think about how they want to tell a story of belonging or “home” that represents their group, using the videos everyone has shared.
- Divide participants into small teams to plan the video. Each group can focus on:
- Story/script – Decide the order of the videos, what message they want to communicate, and whether they want to cut or add any parts. You can provide a simple video script template, or let them plan it more organically depending on the group.
- Music and sound – Choose appropriate music or sounds that fit the story.
- Technical editing – If someone in the group has the skills, they can edit on a phone using apps like CapCut or iMovie (iPhone). On a computer, they can use CapCut for desktop, Adobe Premiere, or Canva. If no one has editing experience, you can do the technical part while following the group’s instructions: they decide the order of clips, any cuts, transitions, and music.
- Once the video is finished, watch it together on a big screen. Use this as a starting point for debriefing and evaluation.
Debriefing and Evaluation:
Reflection Questions:
- How did you find the process of filming and identifying what home represents?
- Was it easy or difficult?
- How was the process of editing the video? How did you make the decisions?
- Are you satisfied with the final result? Do you feel it represents your feeling of belonging?
- What would you do differently?
- Close the activity asking each participant to say one word that represents their experience. (Alternative, if you have magnetic words, ask them to choose one word from there and put them together)
Tips for Facilitators:
- Create a welcoming and non-judgmental atmosphere.
- Tell the participants that anything can be identified as home, there is no wrong or right answer and give some examples such as the blue sky, a flower etc
- If working with youngsters with a migrant or refugee background, don’t conduct the workshops at the first meeting with the group and observe the room at the intro activity for any signs of distress and triggers.
- If it is difficult for the participants to identify a place that represents home or belonging, you can suggest looking for places that feel safe or inspire safety.
Variations and adjustments:
- One of the two thematics can be chosen (home or belonging) or a new one that is chosen by the facilitator depending on the purpose of the workshop and needs of the group.
- The workshop can be developed during a longer period of time, allowing the collection of more video moments and creating a longer video
- Could include a separate 2 sections about how to film and how to edit videos, if the facilitator has the skills to deliver these topics. For the present version, this is not needed, as the objective is not having a perfect result, but the process, however a basic knowledge of filming and video editing is needed.
- Besides videos, they can also take some photos and mix videos and photos in the final product.
Disclaimer:
The topic of belonging, home and identity could be triggering for certain groups and individuals, especially those that had to leave their home due to war, conflict, persecution etc, but also those that come from dysfunctional and violent families.
MODULE 1 NEEDS ANALYSIS
Needs analysis activities
MODULE 2 MUSIC AND MOVEMENT
Contact
Iuliana Adriana PAVEL (project manager)
iuliana.pavel@a4action.ro
A4ACTION – Antim Ivireanu Culture House, Islaz Alley, Ghermănești, Snagov, Ilfov District, Romania, 077170
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the ANPCDEFP. Neither the European Union nor the ANPCDEFP can be held responsible for them.
The project is conducted by the following organisations: A4ACTION (Romania) – coordinator, Udruga Delta (Croatia), InterAktion (Austria), Asociación Espacio Rojo (Spain) and GAIA Museum Outsider Art (Denmark).