The dignity lens: applying theory to participatory filmmaking in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon

In Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, where journalists, humanitarians, and researchers flock, refugeehood is commonly documented through vulnerability assessments and victimizing imagery. This paper considers the harms of normative refugee representation and presents the Dignity Lens—a framework that captures the complexity of human subjectivity and the agency-vulnerability interplay. In particular, the research team reflect on how theory was applied to participatory filmmaking, describing the co-creation of The Lens of Dignity (2024), a documentary made with three Syrian university students in the Bekaa. Short and long-term impacts emerge, from both the perspectives of the film participants and film audience. In fact, qualitative results from a pilot screening and workshop at the University of Lincoln suggest changes in UK students’ perceptions of refugees, as well as enhanced senses of solidarity. Although participatory filmmaking is recognized as an empowering methodological process, it is also critiqued for its inability to make change happen. Pathways towards impactful filmmaking are thus explored, emphasizing the importance of representation , product , recognition , and response . Overall, the authors offer a creative methodological tool for effectively recentering the gaze, strengthening the recent turn in migration studies.