Fostering collaboration, challenging stereotypes and shaping attitudinal change: Griffith Film School and Bus Stop Films' Inclusive Filmmaking Elective

The underrepresentation of people with disabilities in the screen industry remains a pressing concern in Australia, despite recent improvements. With nearly one in five Australians living with a disability, ensuring their visible representation in screen stories, and fostering accessibility within the industry are paramount. Data from The Everyone Project (2019) and Screen Australia’s Seeing Ourselves Project 2 (2023) reveal that while people with disabilities make up 18% of the population, they only account for 6.5% of on-screen roles and 5.3% of crew roles. Achieving accurate cultural representation and inclusion in the screen industry remains a distant goal. National initiatives like Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Taskforce (2017-current) mandate that industry producers and directors, including film school graduates seeking funding, must demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusion in their projects. While initiatives such as these may appear to set the stage for exploring innovative approaches to addressing these disparities, industry-wide practices, challenges with access, and a general lack of knowledge and exposure to inclusive filmmaking continues to hamper significant progress. This research investigates the impact of an inclusive filmmaking elective currently offered through the Griffith Film School (GFS), where mainstream students collaborate with students with disabilities from Bus Stop Films’ Filmmaking Program. The Elective provides a fully supported environment where mainstream students are exposed to inclusive teaching practice frameworks while working alongside and collaborating with students with disabilities to co-create a short film. The study seeks to examine whether this collaborative experience can instigate a substantial attitudinal shift among Griffith Film School’s mainstream students towards diversity and inclusion in their future work. By steering away from the autocratic auteur model and promoting the co-production of screen-based stories across diverse cohorts, real-world outcomes may be achieved by breaking down barriers. This shift from away from segregation of learners based on perceived differences in ability and capacity has the potential to promote and elevate the place of people with disabilities in the screen industry, challenging outdated assumptions and unconscious biases. The benefits of on-set diversity, inclusion, and collaborative practice cannot be overstated, with the program evidencing marked shifts in mainstream film students’ views about disability and the capacity of their peers with disabilities.