POSITION, PRIVILEGE AND THE EPISTEMIC POWER OF THE GAZE: TOWARDS NARRATIVE POSITIONALITY
14:00 - 14:50 Thursday 19th Mar 2026 / 50 min
Born at the fertile intersections of critical theory, activism and film criticism, narrative positionality or positioning is one of a continuum of interconnected notions and practices such as curatorial justice, curation as care, documentary accountability, cultural safety and narrative sovereignty, all of which have been the subject of intense debate and sometimes scandal in fiction and nonfiction film circles.
Devised and led by racialised, global majority and marginalised film workers, these terms were ideated and implemented in response to a variety of ethical concerns around the dynamics extraction, appropriation, authenticity, safety, restorative justice and harm that can occur when filmmakers create works about communities to which they do not belong. Like all these other terms, narrative positionality is motivated by a desire to create new frameworks for films to be understood, created and curated as cultural artefacts which have the power to shape human behaviour and not as artforms which somehow transcend it. In doing so, these new frames of reference focus, in particular, on the real-world effects of films not only on their audiences, but also on those individuals and communities whose images are captured by the camera. In its simplest form, narrative positionality begs the very question of whether a film creative has the right to tell a story and, if so, invites the filmmaker to reflect on how their proximity, distance or, more generally, their relationship to the subject matter and those filmed will affect their storytelling and those seen on-screen through their lens. In a nutshell, it constitutes a questioning and a challenging of the epistemic power of a filmmaker’s gaze.
From objectifying gazes, to reductive tropes, racist imagery, transphobic narratives, stigmatisation and the hypersexualisation of women’s, queer and racialised bodies, image-making powered by creatives from dominant groups, from the global north, colonial perspectives and by cisgender men, has had a complex relationship not only with onscreen subjects, but also with cultural workers and audiences who handle, curate, receive and consume those images.
Narrative positionality as a practice consequently goes against the grain of the acquired conventional wisdom of the film industry which, under the guises of universality, artistic freedom and cultural exchange, has encouraged everyone to feel entitled to everyone else’s stories, without taking into consideration the power dynamics at play in these encounters. In doing so, it brings into focus the questions of cultural ownership, allyship, reciprocity, co- creation and restorative justice when making film about another community, and isn’t an injunction against intercultural filmmaking, rather more of a call for a greater reflection and care around how such films are made.
Despite a growing awareness across the board, familiarity with the concept still varies greatly from territory to territory, yet across the eco-system from funders to curatorial spaces, narrative positionality is now becoming embedded in the policies and decision-making processes of film organisations, institutions and other bodies. Involving a resonant filmmaking case study as well as stakeholders from a funder, a talent support programme and a researcher, this conversation will seek to define the contours of narrative positioning and explore how it can inform the creative processes of documentary filmmaking.
This session can only be purchased as part of the full afternoon bundle.
