Short documentaries can be a powerful means of engaging people with social issues at the same time as challenging assumptions and prejudices, a new study has suggested.
The research assesses the impact of a film that resulted from a participatory food research project that aimed to explore creative methods to better understand the food experiences of vulnerable communities.
Food: On the Margins in Plymouth was produced by the University of Plymouth and media company Fotonow CIC, with support from the University's Creative Associates programme.
Originally developed in 2019, it captured the voices of six individuals who were experiencing food insecurity and documents the dilemmas they were facing on a daily basis.
It also heard from frontline workers, in food banks and other emergency food providers, who were tirelessly supporting vulnerable people to provide them with food at times of crises.
Writing in the journal Sociological Research Online, the study's authors say they film illustrates the realities of food insecurity to those with the ability to catalyse food system change.
In reaching a wide public audience, it continues to be used regularly as a knowledge-exchange resource by public health practitioners, educators and non-governmental organisations alike.
Against a backdrop of ever-rising food prices and household bills, they say the messages within it - and the challenges highlighted - are perhaps more relevant now than ever.
Dr Clare Pettinger, Associate Professor in Public Health Dietetics at the University of Plymouth, has spent many years examining how food poverty is impacting vulnerable people across Plymouth. She developed the vision for Food: On the Margins in Plymouth and is the lead author of the new study.
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