An original Documentary Series

Fieldnotes

What has made you.. you?

Fieldnotes is a creative research project that explores the stories, experiences and conversations that help us understand how society is lived and experienced. Through conversations about identity and belonging, the project connects personal stories with the broader social, cultural and political factors that shape them.

Fieldnotes is supported by the University of Technology Sydney (Australia) and the University of Liverpool (UK).

Behind the Scenes

In this installment, field observations examine how linguistic heritage and family names carry memory across generations, revealing quiet negotiations of local authority.

View Dialogue

Selected Dialogues

An archive of quiet encounters

The Syntax of Home

Inherited Names

Reciprocal Authority

Exploring how diaspora communities create space through language and shared memory across urban margins.

Examining what occurs when personal identity meets institutional forms, recording stories of silent friction.

A study of neighborhood collectives claiming institutional empathy through grassroots research.

Research Practice

Documentary as empirical enquiry

Fieldnotes bridges academic sociolinguistic research and public film practice. By placing recorded dialogues within their physical environments, the series honours participants as primary experts of their lived experience.

Filmed without rigid scripts or artificial lighting, each episode captures unhurried reflections on identity, migration, and the subtle mechanics of social inclusion.

Propose a Screening

Bring Fieldnotes to your institution

Host a film screening, keynote panel, or collaborative dialogue exploring themes of institutional empathy and cultural belonging.