Drawing on Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and the concept of “propaganda by the deed,” this talk explores documentary practice as a form of pedagogy enacted through action. Using examples from youth-produced and participatory documentary, this presentation examines how acts of recording, circulating, and co-creating media function as pedagogic deeds—interventions that do not simply represent the world but actively shape political understanding, collective memory, and civic possibility. The talk traces how documentary practices outside formal institutions—cell phone videos, community media, feminist and youth-led production—operate as sites of co-intentional learning, ethical struggle, and mutual humanization. At this moment of political crisis and contested truth—from the rise of authoritarianism to immigration disappearances—documentary emerges as a mode of public education that teaches through its very doing, mobilizing affect, risk, and responsibility. The lecture invites educators and scholars to reconsider the humanities classroom, the screen, and the street as interconnected pedagogical spaces where interpretation, action, and accountability converge.

Speaker

Angela J. Aguayo is an Associate Professor of Media and Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. A scholar-media artist, Aguayo’s work explores the transformative power of documentary in public culture. Her most recent book, Documentary Resistance: Social Change and Participatory Media (Oxford University Press, 2019), provides a critical framework for understanding the political impact of documentary film and its role in mobilizing social movements. Aguayo’s documentary shorts have been featured in community engagement campaigns, exhibited at Anthology Film Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago, and Harvard University, and showcased at festivals worldwide. As founding Director of the Illinois Community Media Project, she creates opportunities for communities to develop media production skills and tell their own stories. She is currently working on her next book, Collective Matters: Youth Media Production in the United States.

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