Participatory Workshop for Teenagers – within the frame of the Erasmus Traineeship at Sigmund Freud University Vienna

On the 15th Oct. and the 5th Nov. 2022, Erzsébet Fanni Tóth (researcher, SFU) and Klára Trencsényi (documentary filmmaker) organised a participatory video workshop for teenagers as a pilot for the Artistic Research Project on Social Memory and Trauma (Erasmus Traineeship 2022/23).

During the 2 x 240 minute-workshop the following was applied:

  • Klára Trencsényi’s participatory video methodology developed in previous workshops with similar target groups and curricula held in Budapest between 2017-2020. Klara Trencsényi has been the tutor for participatory courses for teenagers as well as for young adults who had previously experienced displacement.
  • Erzsébet Fanni Tóth`s methodolody on talking about a difficult family past, published in the book “BeszÉLJ! – Hogyan tárjuk fel a családi múltat” (co-authored with Ildi Vibók in 2021). Erzsébet Fanni Tóth has been researching social trauma and its narratives since 2007, and has offered workshops and lectures to various audiences, including school groups, in the past decade.

The participants of the workshop were 11–14 year-old teenagers living in Vienna, willing to explore their own family stories and to experiment with tools for innovative visual storytelling.

The workshop consisted of:

  • Introduction to visual methods – aesthetics of classical personal documentary films and contemporary visual tools
  • Basics of interview making – hands-on training and ethical considerations
  • Screening of short clips from classical / innovative / interactive documentaries
  • Practical exercises

Contact for more information:

Dr. Erzsébet Fanni Tóth, MA
Faculty of Psychotherapy Science
erzsebet.toth@sfu.ac.at