The Story Behind the Story: Accounts of Youth Cellphilm-Makers on Their Experiences of the Pandemic

This chapter maps out a study that explores young people’s experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a qualitative participatory arts-based framework, the authors describe a cellphilming process that seeks to give youth a voice to express the issues they have faced during the pandemic and how they have dealt with them. This chapter describes the progress through the workshops and how discussions unfolded to show that “the story behind the story” of the cellphilms had great significance. By asking questions such as “why did you create this cellphilm in the setting that you did?” and “what creative choices contributed to your message?”, the authors could go deeper into the discussion and access pieces of the story that the cellphilm alone did not. The authors are particularly interested in learning how young research participants choose to shape and narrate their stories in their cellphilms.