Film as research method in African politics and international relations: Reading and writing HIV/AIDS in Tanzania

Abstract

This research note reflects on the use of film as a method in researching politics and international relations in African countries. It is based on the experiences of producing a feature-length drama about the everyday risk of HIV/AIDS, using real people and their stories in Tanzania. The intent of the film, Pili, is to challenge international aesthetics of HIV/AIDS in film and how people understand the complexities and structural politics of disease. It is argued that the film itself is not the only outcome or contribution to knowledge. The external narrative or process of how the film was made, the method of doing, also produces new ways of thinking about ethics, collaboration, and navigating the state in conducting research. The research note makes this argument by first reflecting on the origins and debates of visual method, and then exploring what film as a research method reveals about structure and agency, research collaboration, ethics, and the state.