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Communities

The same questions, everywhere

One profile per community I meet: what people do there, how it is organised, what I understood, and what I did not.

No profiles yet, and that is as it should be

I have not met anyone yet. Writing a profile before going anywhere would already be deciding what I am going to find there.

What does exist already is the method. It is written down, it is public, and it will not change along the way. Here it is in full.

How I approach people

The order matters

Taking out a microphone on day one closes doors that do not open again. So the equipment comes third, never first.

  1. Arrive and ask for nothing

    Introduce yourself, explain why you are there, listen. Two or three days without any equipment at all.

  2. Ask

    Explain what happens to the recordings, where they will be shown, and what will not be done with them.

  3. Record

    Ordinary conversations first. Set interviews come afterwards, if the agreement is there.

  4. Give it back

    Show what was recorded to the people concerned when that is possible. Then send them, on my return, what was made of their words.

What I never do:

  • Film a religious or funeral practice without an explicit invitation
  • Photograph a child without the agreement of a responsible adult
  • Promise something in return that I am not sure I can deliver
  • Publish the exact location of a place that lives on being left alone
The interview framework

Nine questions, asked in every community

They are not asked in order, and certainly not one after another. This is not an interrogation: they slip into conversation, over several days. They are there to check the ground is covered, not to lead the exchange. Without that common ground, I bring back anecdotes instead of groundwork.

  1. What does an ordinary day look like here?
  2. Who decides what, and how do you settle it when you disagree?
  3. What has changed since the oldest people here were children?
  4. What works better here than elsewhere, in your view?
  5. What does not work, and what would you like to change?
  6. What connects you to the land, to plants, to animals?
  7. What do you pass on to children that is not taught at school?
  8. What do you need that does not come from here?
  9. What would you like people to understand, back where I come from?

The last one is the one I care about most. It is the only one where I am not the person asking.

One rule holds all of it

No publication should be able to embarrass the person who appears in it

No face, no name, no place published without explicit agreement. That is the only filter needed, and it is enough. The communities I am going to meet will one day read what was written about them — I write as though they were already reading.