Documentary Filmmaking: A New Pedagogy for Justice Educators

Filmmaking is an unconventional, but supremely rewarding career path for criminal justice educators. The author chronicles his career as he transitioned unexpectedly from a traditional path involving legal analyses and policy research to the very unusual enterprise of documentary filmmaking. Each of his film projects emanated directly from his teaching or research experiences, experiences that might just as appropriately have culminated in articles for publication. But he chose a different mode for disseminating his research and insights. The author reviews the myriad challenges he faced as a filmmaker-both inside and outside of the film industry, itself. Throughout, he describes-and outlines his efforts to overcome-the staunch resistance by the academic community to filmmaking by faculty who reside outside traditional departments of theatre and film. He also urges colleagues to consider the path for themselves.