‘Crossing the line’: addressing youth leisure, violence and socio‐geographic exclusion through documentary film‐making
This paper explores a documentary film‐making approach to leisure scholarship and practice. Two films – Crossing the Line (2007) and Crossing the Line: Northern Exposure (2008) produced by young people to address issues of violence and the politics of place – provide the specific focus of the paper. These films illustrate youth perspectives of neighbourhoods; both documentaries share the processes of their production, and both aim to spur discussion about overlooked socio‐geographical boundaries that lead to youth exclusion and violence. In the Crossing the Line films, the style of interactive, reflexive documentary film‐making presents opportunities to create dialogue, introduce young people to creative and expressive projects and new skills, and empower young people to speak out about the local issues that affect their lives and leisure. By framing some theories of documentary film‐making, the paper suggests that leisure scholarship also ‘cross the line’ to engage with broader concerns and participatory approaches.