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This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.This case study analyzes a filmmaking collaboration between a Midwestern university and New Orleans culture-bearers. We collaborated with the Black (Mardi Gras) Indians to produce three documentaries on this legendary Black parading tradition. Community-engaged service and research collaborations with traditionally marginalized communities risk becoming extractive (McHugh et al., 2024). Filmmaking projects designed to give voice to those communities carry under-recognized risks of harm as well. We describe a 13-year trajectory during which our goals and methods evolved alongside theories of best practices in community-engaged activity. We categorize the project as the type of improvisational engagement facilitating the adaptive learning that is required of the 21st century university (Ramaley, 2016) and chart an arc during which we “unlearned” a pedagogy of whiteness (Mitchell, 2012) and developed new appreciation and methodologies for engaging responsibly, building trust and democratizing knowledge production (Brady, 2019; Cruz, 2016).