I would like to appeal to those on this list to join-in a debate currently underway for the legalisation of community-radio in India. This campaign has been on since the mid-nineties, when the Supreme Court of India gave its landmark judgement saying that the airwaves are public property and should be listening to a diversity of voices. If interested in knowing more, kindly check up the archives below, or join the mailing list at the URL alongside: _______________________________________________ cr-india mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/cr-india
-- ------------------------------------------------------------------- | Frederick Noronha, Freelance Journalist | Goa India 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 | ---------------------------------------- | Email fred at bytesforall.org | Writing with a difference | ... on what makes *the* difference | http://www.bytesforall.org ------------------------------------------------------------------- CHECK OUT USENET http://www.algebra.com/~scig/approved/threads.html ------------------------------------------------------------------- Regards from Goa, FN http://www.creativevisions.org/videovols.htm#uptotop Video Volunteers Putting video into the hands of grassroots activists who are leading the fight against poverty. VIDEO VOLUNTEERS is a new program dedicated to spreading the use of video as a tool to alleviate poverty in the developing world. Volunteer filmmakers join non-governmental organizations (NGOs), initially in India, for two months to write, shoot and edit one short film for the NGO. They also train the NGO staff to make their own small videos and to use video to give a voice to the poor. Through the Video Volunteers Program, NGOs have a powerful tool for promoting their work and spreading their messages. THE TIME IS RIGHT In the 1990's, a World Bank survey asked thousands of the poorest of the poor to identify the biggest hurdle to their advancement. Above even food and shelter, the number one problem cited was access to a "voice". The Video Volunteers project is about giving a voice to the voiceless, and to the people who fight for them. Thanks to inexpensive video cameras and computer editing, the cost of producing videos is finally within the reach of the grassroots. For NGOs, videos can be a great addition to an education program and are an effective tool for policy action and awareness raising in the media. NGOs can also now start incorporating the video camera into their daily work. We teach them to use video for effective long-term project documentation. In addition to our documentary training, we will also teach them to edit simple sequences together quickly for promotional material, for example, or to stream personal testimonials from the community on the web. EMPOWERING PEOPLE Thanks to new digital technologies, anyone can make a film--you may not be able to write, but you can see and you can talk, and that means you can make your own video. In group brainstorming sessions, members of the community decide what messages the film will deliver, who the main characters should be and how the film will develop. Participants in the program are encouraged to get involved in all aspects of the filmmaking process, from the shooting to the interviewing to the editing. Why? Because if it's a film to educate the community in health issues, the community knows best what will resonate with its own people. If the intended audience is TV viewers a world away, the poor have a right to tell their own stories, and not be spoken for. DISTRIBUTION The goal of Video Volunteers is to help NGOs communicate better, and also to share vital information both within and beyond their local communities. The videos will be streamed on One World TV, the leading internet television station, which will become a hub for those using video in poverty alleviation. If the NGO desires, we will help distribute VHS copies of the videos to other organizations along with educational or other support materials. CURRENT VIDEO VOLUNTEER PROJECTS In autumn 2003, Video Volunteers successfully piloted the program at the NGOs of two Indian Ashoka Fellows (see www.ashoka.org .) VV made one promotional film for Akanksha, the Bombay slum children's supplementary education program. They also made an advocacy film for I-CARD, an Assamese NGO working to strengthen the cultural identity of the Mising tribe who live along the banks of the Brahmaputra. I-CARD was given video training and is now working on its own productions. CORE MEMBERS: Jessica Mayberry (Program Coordinator) - Jessica Mayberry was awarded a Fellowship by the American India Foundation in 2002 and spent nine months making films and conducting video trainings at the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in Ahmedabad. She completed a 30-minute film on women-led initiatives to combat drought, and shot and wrote a second film about the Gujarat communal riots. Video SEWA is India's most exciting grassroots video project: a cooperative of mostly illiterate women have shot, edited and conceptualized nearly a hundred training and empowerment films for poor women in Gujarat. Video SEWA's success prompted her to visit other Indian NGOs to investigate how their model could be replicated quickly and inexpensively. She became convinced that if films about poverty were made by those who'd dedicated their lives to fighting it, video could become a powerful tool in poverty alleviation. And thus was born the idea of Video Volunteers. Jessica worked in TV in New York after graduating from Oxford University in 1999, as an associate producer for documentaries at Court TV, and in production at the Fox News Channel and CNN. Jessica's interest in media began as an undergraduate at Oxford University, where she hosted a news program on college radio. Dominic Elliot - Dominic Elliot recently graduated with a Master's degree in Visual Anthropology from the University of Manchester where his research interests were focused on indigenous media and participatory film. He has made several documentaries, most recently in Malawi where he assisted street children in making dramatic re-enactments of their experiences of leaving home and living in the city of Blantyre. He is currently working with the support of several organizations to produce a film about the situation of the Batwa Pygmies in Central Africa. Since graduating from Oxford University in 1997 (Archaeology and Anthropology), he has also worked as a teacher in China and as a research analyst for a company specializing in waste recycling and green energy. Charlotte Buchen - Charlotte Buchen's interest in India began during a three-month visit to Mumbai in 1998 when she worked at the NGO Akanksha and continued back at Vassar where she wrote her thesis on the Hindu Nationalist political party the Shiv Sena. Since graduating, Charlotte worked and lived in Maine and Paris before returning to New York to work at InCite Pictures/Cine Qua Non, producing documentaries for television about bank robbers, small town Texas sexual politics, and other assorted projects. She most recently helped to edit and produce the video "Independent Media in a Time of War", a critique of the mainstream media and call for media awareness that is screening in international film festivals, including Rotterdam, and is being distributed by the Media Education Foundation. She can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Charlotte was a part of the pilot project of Video Volunteers this past fall, and helped to produce and edit a film about the NGO Akanksha which works to educate slum children in Mumbai. Julia Elias - Julia Elias has been working in documentary production since 1999. As a Columbia Journalism School graduate, she has gained her professional experience producing factual programming for The History Channel and CBS News Productions as well as collaborating on various A&E Biographies and Specials for The Learning Channel. Since 2001 her focus has shifted to working in and for developing communities. A trained anthropologist and travel-junky, she has successfully combined her background in journalism and her zest for social issues in her own not-for-profit organization called Understanding. Offering her knowledge through this communication-based vehicle to social projects and NGOs, Julia directs, shoots and edits herself, involving the local population on all levels for input and support. "Preserve to be Wild," an 18-minute documentary in Khmer to teach Cambodian children and teenagers about endangered animals and environmental issues, successfully illustrates this approach. Julia lives and works in London. FOR MORE INFORMATION If you're interested in being a Video Volunteer or in helping spread digital video in the development community, contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] At the moment, volunteers raise their own funds. See http://www.creativevisions.org/donations.htm to donate to Video Volunteers. ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
