'Right now I want to scream!' Using participatory film with communities in Haiti and Brazil in order to expose state violence and make connections across countries.

Cahal McLaughlin; Siobhán Wills

doi:10.61014/UtopiasSustainability/McLaughlinWills

'Right now I want to scream!' Using participatory film with communities in Haiti and Brazil in order to expose state violence and make connections across countries.

Cahal McLaughlin
, Siobhán Wills^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Arts, English and Languages

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

72 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We have produced two documentary films on the use of militarised violence in policing operations against marginalised communities in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We use participatory practices as a methodology to collaborate with survivors of state violence as they tell their stories of violent raids, inadequate medical support, criminalisation by the media, and exclusion by authorities in addressing the injustices inflicted by states. The connections between state violence in both countries and working collaboratively over time with these communities allow an investigation that offers sustainability in perspective and representation.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Utopias of sustainability - the sustainability of utopias
Subtitle of host publication	A Mulitmodal Intervention
Editors	Christine Hämmerling, Alexander Koensler, Marion Näser-Lather
Place of Publication	Berlin
Publisher	Morlacchi Editore
Pages	142
Number of pages	148
ISBN (Electronic)	978-88-9392-604-1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.61014/UtopiasSustainability/McLaughlinWills
Publication status	Published - 08 Jul 2025

Bibliographical note

Cahal mclaughlIn is Chair of Film Studies at Queen’s University Bel-fast and Director of the Prisons Memory Archive. His most recent films are We Never Gave Up (2022), on the legacy of apartheid, made in part-nership with the Human Rights Media Centre, Cape Town; Right Now I Want to Scream: Police and Army Violence in Rio – the Brazil Haiti Connection (2018); It Stays With You: Use of Force by UN Peacekeep-ers in Haiti (2018); and Armagh Stories: Voices from the Gaol (2015), on the female prison during the conflict known as the Troubles in the North of Ireland. His publications include, Challenging the Narrative: Documentary Film as Participatory Practice, Anthem Press (2024).
Siobhán WIlls is Director of Ulster University’s Transitional Justice Institute. She is a member of the International Law Association Glob-al Health Committee and of the UN Antiracism Committee, which was established in 2021 to work with the UN Expert Mechanism on Racial Justice in the context of Law Enforcement. From 2014–2018 she was a member of the International Law Association Committee on the Use of Force. Since 2015 she has been using participatory film practices, in collaboration with Prof McLaughlin (QUB), to research the impact of police violence on marginalised communities in Cité Soleil in Haiti, and the Manguinhos, Maré and Alemão favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

Human rights
violence
Haiti
Brazil

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Arts and Humanities(all)
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Law

Access to Document

10.61014/UtopiasSustainability/McLaughlinWillsLicence: CC BY-NC-SA

Right now I want to scream Using participatory film with communities in Haiti and Brazil in order to expose state violence and make connections across countries.
Copyright 2025 the authors.   This is an book chapter distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction for non-commercial purposes, provided the author and source are cited and new creations are licensed under the identical terms.  
Final published version, 291 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-SA

1 Other contribution

It Stays With You (Portfolio)
McLaughlin, C. & Wills, S., 19 Jun 2017, UK : Multi-component portfolio.
Research output: Other contribution

Cite this

McLaughlin, C., & Wills, S. (2025). 'Right now I want to scream!' Using participatory film with communities in Haiti and Brazil in order to expose state violence and make connections across countries. In C. Hämmerling, A. Koensler, & M. Näser-Lather (Eds.), Utopias of sustainability - the sustainability of utopias: A Mulitmodal Intervention (pp. 142). Morlacchi Editore. https://doi.org/10.61014/UtopiasSustainability/McLaughlinWills

McLaughlin, Cahal ; Wills, Siobhán. / 'Right now I want to scream!' Using participatory film with communities in Haiti and Brazil in order to expose state violence and make connections across countries. Utopias of sustainability - the sustainability of utopias: A Mulitmodal Intervention. editor / Christine Hämmerling ; Alexander Koensler ; Marion Näser-Lather. Berlin : Morlacchi Editore, 2025. pp. 142

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abstract = "We have produced two documentary films on the use of militarised violence in policing operations against marginalised communities in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We use participatory practices as a methodology to collaborate with survivors of state violence as they tell their stories of violent raids, inadequate medical support, criminalisation by the media, and exclusion by authorities in addressing the injustices inflicted by states. The connections between state violence in both countries and working collaboratively over time with these communities allow an investigation that offers sustainability in perspective and representation.",

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McLaughlin, C & Wills, S 2025, 'Right now I want to scream!' Using participatory film with communities in Haiti and Brazil in order to expose state violence and make connections across countries. in C Hämmerling, A Koensler & M Näser-Lather (eds), Utopias of sustainability - the sustainability of utopias: A Mulitmodal Intervention. Morlacchi Editore, Berlin, pp. 142. https://doi.org/10.61014/UtopiasSustainability/McLaughlinWills

'Right now I want to scream!' Using participatory film with communities in Haiti and Brazil in order to expose state violence and make connections across countries. / McLaughlin, Cahal; Wills, Siobhán.
Utopias of sustainability - the sustainability of utopias: A Mulitmodal Intervention. ed. / Christine Hämmerling; Alexander Koensler; Marion Näser-Lather. Berlin: Morlacchi Editore, 2025. p. 142.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

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McLaughlin C, Wills S. 'Right now I want to scream!' Using participatory film with communities in Haiti and Brazil in order to expose state violence and make connections across countries. In Hämmerling C, Koensler A, Näser-Lather M, editors, Utopias of sustainability - the sustainability of utopias: A Mulitmodal Intervention. Berlin: Morlacchi Editore. 2025. p. 142 doi: 10.61014/UtopiasSustainability/McLaughlinWills

'Right now I want to scream!' Using participatory film with communities in Haiti and Brazil in order to expose state violence and make connections across countries.

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Research output

It Stays With You (Portfolio)

Cite this