The Change I Want to See

From Representation to Transformation: Reimagining Authentic Storytelling Through Decolonized Filmmaking

My journey through this MA has been about learning to sit with uncertainty. At first, that meant facing the discomfort of seeing my identity flattened in the media. Over time, it’s become a way of articulating the specific change I want to push for. In Project 1, I looked at how language and narrative structures – like the casual use of the n‑word in The Shield – can reinforce power dynamics even when they claim to critique them. Stuart Hall’s (2024) work on representation helped me see how language doesn’t just describe reality; it actively produces meaning. By Project 3, I began to see research itself as a creative act, and I realized that my positionality as an African American woman and international student isn’t just background context – it’s my most important research tool (Rowe, 2014).

The Change I Want to See  

The change I’m proposing for my major project is a shift in how filmmaking handles diversity. Right now, too much of it is surface‑level – a “tick‑box” approach that looks good on paper but doesn’t change the deeper narrative structures. What I want to explore is what I call Layered Authenticity: dismantling the Western gaze that simplifies minority experiences into digestible tropes, and instead creating space for BIPOC storytellers to design their own frameworks. Celis and Childs (2025) argue that representation must foreground intersectional heterogeneity rather than treating groups as monolithic, which resonates with my own experience. This change feels both possible and necessary, because the current system is failing both creators and audiences.

Stakeholders and Interventions  

The main stakeholders are independent production houses, film festival programmers, and audiences. Some organizations may resist, since surface diversity is easier to market and measure. My intervention is to develop a Decolonized Storyboard Toolkit – an action research project that applies Smith’s Decolonizing Methodologies (2012) to the pre‑production stage of filmmaking. By opening dialogue with these stakeholders, I want to show that embracing complexity, even when it feels messy or uncomfortable, leads to deeper audience impact. Salamon and Xie (2025) describe this as “communicative intersectionality,” where inclusion must move beyond symbolic gestures to systemic change.

Reflection and Transformation  

This project definitely pushes me outside my comfort zone. As an artist, I’m used to making work first and figuring out meaning afterwards. Here, I’m being asked to plan interventions in complex, shifting situations. The most intimidating part is the fear that critiquing dominant Western narratives might alienate the very industry I hope to enter. But I’ve learned from examples like The Sopranos ending that unresolved discomfort can be a productive space. Johnson, Bilovich, and Tuckett’s (2022) Conviction Narrative Theory helped me think about uncertainty differently – not as failure, but as a condition under which people still make choices and create meaning. If I can face that fear, I move from being a passive observer of the media to someone actively shaping change.

I’m choosing this for my MA because it brings together my technical skills as a filmmaker with the theoretical insights I’ve gained from intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991) and action research (McNiff, 2013). Alejandro (2026) emphasizes reflexivity as a cornerstone of high‑quality research, reminding me that reflection isn’t just personal but methodological. I’ve thought seriously about the outcome: if this change happens, the invisible systems that control representation will finally be made visible. That visibility can open the door to a more honest, layered, and impactful creative practice.

Bibliography

• Alejandro, A. (2026). The future of reflexivity in practice: building a collective methodological agenda. Nature Reviews Methods Primers.
• Celis, K., & Childs, S. (2025). “There is no such thing as ‘women’s representation’: intersectionality and second‑generation gender and politics scholarship.” European Journal of Politics and Gender, 8(3).
• Crenshaw, K. (1991). “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.” Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299.
• Hall, S. (2024). Representation and Encoding/Decoding in Media Texts.
• Johnson, S. G. B., Bilovich, A., & Tuckett, D. (2022). “Conviction Narrative Theory: A theory of choice under radical uncertainty.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 46.
• McNiff, J. (2013). Action Research: Principles and Practice. London: Routledge.
• Rowe, A. (2014). “Positionality in Research.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 17(3), 263–276.
• Salamon, E., & Xie, H. (2025). “Communicative intersectionality: advocating for equality, diversity, and inclusion in media industries.” Communication Theory, 35(3), 185–196.
• Smith, L. T. (2012). Decolonizing Methodologies (2nd ed.). London & New York: Zed Books.