From SOUL BEAT AFRICA - where communication and media are central to AFRICA's social and economic development
In this issue of The Soul Beat:
* PARTICIPATORY VIDEO experiences and guidelines
* MORE INFORMATION on FILM AND VIDEO on the Soul Beat Africa website
* Videos as EDUCATIONAL AND ADVOCACY TOOLS
* SHARE YOUR STORIES of collaboration and partnerships
* Reaching out to audiences through MOBILE CINEMA AND PUBLIC SCREENINGS
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This issue of The Soul Beat newsletter looks at the role that film and video can play in bringing about social change in Africa. The newsletter offers a selection of programme experiences, strategic thinking documents, evaluations, and materials from the Soul Beat Africa website that look specifically at the use of participatory video, the role of film and video as educational and advocacy tools, and the use of mobile cinema and public screenings to support community development.
If you would like your organisation's communication work or research and resource documents to be featured on the Soul Beat Africa website and in The Soul Beat newsletters, please contact soulbeat@comminit.com
To subscribe to The Soul Beat, click here or send an email to soulbeat@comminit.com with a subject of "subscribe".
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PARTICIPATORY VIDEO
1. ICT Update: Film-making Farmers
"Film-making Farmers" is the theme of this edition of ICT Update, a bimonthly newsletter focusing on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in agriculture in developing countries. This issue from 2006 looks at the use of digital video - participatory and otherwise - in agriculture and rural development. The articles include "Camcorders, Cassava and Crude", an investigation of how farmers and fishers in the Niger Delta are using a combination of participatory video, mobile-to-web messaging, and online video sharing to take on the oil companies that are polluting their lands and waters.
2. Children’s Voices - Namibia
This project, run by the Namibian NGO Positive Vibes (PV), is designed to educate children about their rights by giving them the space and skills to express themselves through videos, photography, radio, and arts. According to Positive Vibes, at the core of the project is the philosophy that children should be seen AND heard. Children have voices and, in a world shaped by adults, the project equips them with the confidence to formulate their own views and needs. At the same time the project provides adults with the opportunity to better understand and respond to these.
Contact Positive Vibes info@positivevibes.org
3. The Valley Trust and InsightShare Participatory Video Project - South Africa
The Valley Trust, a centre for health promotion in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, collaborated with InsightShare, a United Kingdom/France-based organisation using participatory video as a tool for empowering individuals and communities, and the community of Inanda to use participatory video to draw attention to community development issues. One video focused on the lack of water in the community despite pipes being laid and was used as a lobbying tool, while others addressed issues such as alcohol and drug abuse and HIV/AIDS. Members of the community planned, directed, and filmed each of the short videos.
Contact Valley Trust info@vtrust.org.za OR Chris Lunch clunch@insightshare.org
4. Ethical Issues in Using Participatory Video in Addressing Gender Violence in and Around Schools: the Challenges of Representation
by Relebohile Moletsane, Claudia Mitchell, Jean Stuart, Shannon Walsh, and Myra Taylor
This paper, presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association in New York City in March 2008, discusses ethical and theoretical issues of conducting participatory research with young people. The report reflects the authors' work with boys and girls in rural schools in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, using participatory methodologies, particularly visual (photo-voice and video-documentaries), to examine the nature and impact of gender-based violence on the lives of young people, and explore possible strategies for intervention. The paper attempts to map out some of the key issues that the authors regard as critical to engaging ethically in research on gender-based violence in and around schools in South Africa, particularly when visual methodologies are used.
5. Insight into Participatory Video: A Handbook for the Field
by Nick Lunch and Chris Lunch
Written by the directors of InsightShare, a United Kingdom/France-based organisation using Participatory Video (PV) as a tool for empowering individuals and communities, this booklet aims to be a practical guide to setting up and running PV projects. Based on the authors' experience using PV in several countries, it offers an outline for facilitators to explore how to use video to encourage a lively, democratic process. Descriptions of games and exercises to introduce PV and case studies are illustrated with cartoons and photographs. A selection of video films made by local people and a training film are included in an accompanying CD-ROM.
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MORE INFORMATION ON FILM AND VIDEO ON THE SOUL BEAT AFRICA WEBSITE
If you are looking for more information on film and video and their role in development in Africa, go to the ALL SECTIONS section on the Soul Beat Africa website (located in the top of the left side navigation bar). This section gives you the full range of summaries on the Soul Beat Africa website from all knowledge sections e.g.: Programme Experiences, Evaluations, Strategic Thinking documents, Materials, etc.). Under Regions, choose a country or countries of your choice, and under Communication Tools select Film and Video and then submit.
The search results will include all summaries on the Soul Beat Africa website that deal with film and video.
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VIDEOS AS EDUCATIONAL AND ADVOCACY TOOLS
6. A Grandmother's Tribe: Documentary on HIV/AIDS - Kenya
Directed by Dean Easterbrook and Qiujing Wong and produced and distributed by Borderless Production, this is a 54-minute documentary film designed to increase awareness of the large numbers of grandmothers in Africa who struggle to care for orphans of HIV/AIDS. The film, which is available in Luo, Luhya, and Kiswahili with English subtitles, hopes to educate a wide audience of viewers, as well as raise funds, through public screenings. The project also developed a website and a discussion guide that allows people and organisations to take action and organise their own public screenings and fundraising activities.
Contact Qiujing Wong qiujing@borderlessproductions.com
7. The Silent Partner: HIV in Marriage
This 12-minute documentary was filmed and produced in Kenya by Population Action International (PAI). The film explores some of the complex realities of married women, and how the challenges of HIV prevention in this group defy simple solutions. According to the producers, the film urges a broader, integrated approach to preventing HIV, which includes confronting damaging social norms that put all people - men and women alike – at risk. It is designed to raise awareness of the risk of HIV transmission within marriage and illustrate the particular challenges facing married women.
8. Internews Peace-Building Films - Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda
Internews, an international media development organisation, produced a series of 12 documentaries designed as part of a peace-building project to help populations of Rwanda and Eastern DRC, as well as ex-combatants, their families, and soldiers still in eastern Congolese forests, better understand each other and therefore encourage peaceful coexistance. Since November 2008 the documentaries have been screened in public places and in the general media in the two countries.
Contact info@internews.fr
9. "Not Yet Rain" Documentary Film
Not Yet Rain is a 22-minute short film by Lisa Russell, produced in association with international health organisation Ipas, which explores abortion in Ethiopia through the voices of women who have faced the challenge of finding safe care. Through their stories, the documentary highlights the important role that safe abortion care plays in the overall health of women and their families. While a law enacted in 2006 marked great progress toward reproductive freedom in Ethiopia, Not Yet Rain shows that changing the law is just the first step and that much more needs to be done as women continue to die from unsafe abortions. The film explains ways that additional training for health workers and increased availability of care could save countless women’s lives in Ethiopia and around the world.
10. Grandmother to Grandmother: New York to Tanzania - Documentary
This documentary examines the lives of grandmothers on two continents who are living with the effects of AIDS in their families and communities. This film introduces two projects – one in the Bronx, one in Tanzania - and tells the stories of how partnerships work to transform situations fraught with confusion and fear into opportunities for renewal and hope. According to the filmmakers, the founders of these projects are finding simple and effective ways to support grandmothers who are raising grandchildren. A discussion guide is available to facilitate group viewing. The filmmakers' hope in making this film is that when people, individually or in groups, view the documentary, they will be inspired to do something similar in their own communities. Toward this goal, the filmmakers are in the process of preparing materials that will facilitate the replication of the programmes.
11. First Steps Video Series
This 3-episode video series highlights core early childhood development issues and messages in 3 countries: Brazil, Uganda, and Moldova. It was produced by the Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development (CGECCD), a global inter-agency consortium, in collaboration with Rockhopper TV. The series, which aired on the BBC in 2008 (but may be viewed online), is an advocacy tool highlighting the CGECCD's 4 "Cornerstones for Global Action" to secure a strong foundation for young children.
12. Rice Rural Learning Initiative - Africa
Initiated in 2005, this is a communication project by the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice, formerly called WARDA) designed to enhance farmers’ access to relevant technological and institutional innovations that help to improve agricultural performance and to create new linkages with other actors and service providers. The Rice Rural Learning Initiative builds on local innovations and on outcomes of participatory learning and action research to develop farmer-to-farmer videos. These are subsequently combined with mass media, working to stimulate learning on sustainable rice technologies related to land, water, crop, and post harvest management, as well as create awareness of the importance of collective action in natural resource management and marketing.
Contact Paul Van Mele p.vanmele@cgiar.org AND AfricaRice@cgiar.org
13. "Inspiration" Documentary Series - Africa
The African Environmental Film Foundation (AEFF) is an organisation that produces and distributes educational films about environmental issues in Africa, for the people of Africa, in their own languages. These films are designed to enable and inspire individuals and whole communities to make informed decisions about their own environment. In 2009, AEFF launched a new project which consisted of a series of half-hour films under the heading "Inspiration". Each film in the Inspiration series focuses on a particular individual (or small organisation) that is doing something positive for conservation and the environment with a view to improving their community’s quality of life and preserving biodiversity.
Click here to contact AEFF though an online form.
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SHARE YOUR STORY!
Soul Beat Africa has a new feature on the Soul Beat website called "CI Stories". It is an online place for Soul Beat network members to share details of any collaborations or interactions that have been sparked by the inclusion of their work on the Soul Beat Africa website or in our e-magazines. Click here to view existing stories and to submit your story.
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REACHING OUT TO AUDIENCES - MOBILE CINEMA AND PUBLIC SCREENINGS
14. Impact of FilmAid Programs in Kakuma, Kenya: Final Report
by Katherine Lee and Paul Bolton
This is an independent evaluation assessing the impact of FilmAid’s programme in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. FilmAid International (FilmAid) is a nonprofit organisation whose mission is to use the power of film to promote health, strengthen communities, and enrich the lives of vulnerable and uprooted populations. FilmAid seeks to offer programming that aims to facilitate social change by providing communication tools, information, and opportunities for people to come together to explore, debate, and express ideas. The purpose of this assessment, published in 2007, was to evaluate the impact of the FilmAid International programme in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kakuma, Kenya, which is the longest running of FilmAid’s programmes and serves over 90,000 refugees from nine African countries (as well as the local host community) in one of the largest camps in the world.
15. "Breaking the Silence" and Mobile Cinema - Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
Breaking the Silence is a documentary film about sexual violence and abuse of women in the DRC. In 2009, to raise awareness and encourage dialogue about sexual abuse in the country, the United Nations Hugh Commission for Refugees (UNHRC) and Search for Common Ground (SFCG) organised community screenings of the film through mobile cinema. Assessments conducted after the screenings of Breaking the Silence in South Kivu indicate some improvement in the way men regard and treat women as well as greater sympathy and understanding for the plight of victims of sexual violence.
Contact Lena Slachmuijlder lenas@sfcg.org AND click here to contact the UNHCR though an online form.
16. A Mobile Cinema Experience in Niger: Reach and Impact
By Dominique Thaly
Cinéma Numérique Ambulant (CNA) is a mobile cinema project operating in Benin, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso since 2001. The CNA project shows educational films and African feature films, and conducts related debates in rural public settings. The case study discussed in this article from 2008 is designed to assess the medium-term impact of the CNA project on a rural audience in Niger. It suggests that while there are some limitations, the CNA model has significant potential to convey information in these settings.
17. Cinetoile Project - Africa
The Cinetoile project is a film distribution and promotion programme initiated by Brussels-based Africalia, with funding from the European Commission, that works to strengthen the film industry in Africa. According to the organisers, promoting and distributing African cinema is a means of increasing awareness among the general public of films produced in Africa and of the social development issues that they tackle. Amongst other activities, the project involves taking films to communities in villages, schools, and informal video halls.
Contact Cinetoile Project africalia@africalia.be
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To view previous related issues see:
The Soul Beat 28 - Children and Youth: Participation in Media
The Soul Beat 8 - Film and Video
Click here to all view archived editions of The Soul Beat Newsletter.
