On the 8th of March, at a TEDx event in Brussels, InsightShare's Director Chris Lunch discussed the power of participatory video to shift awareness, galvanise communities and unleash hidden energy for positive individual and collective change. The title of the talk "This is not a video camera" takes inspiration from surrealist artist Rene Magritte's painting: Ceci n'est pas une pipe, as he asks us to re-look at what we think we know about video as a technology. Here you can read the script of the talk.
'Standing in the middle of a scorched savannah in Oltepesi, about 40 miles southwest of Nairobi, Benson K. Letuya, a youth leader from the Maasai community, holds a microphone in the searing sun. He stands next to a zebra, dying of thirst during the devastating drought that hit Kenya in 2009.' This article by MediaGlobal give an overview of our work as part of the Conversations with the Earth partnership since the launch of the programme since 2009.
InsightShare offers training in Participatory Video for Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E). Participatory Video adds value, encourage iterative learning and explore qualitative data often missed through traditional M&E methods. This article describes how we facilitate M&E projects by combining Participatory Video with the Most Significant Change Technique.
Climate change is seen by many as being perhaps the greatest and most urgent threat to the culture, environment, livelihoods and spirituality of indigenous communities around the world. Over the past 3 years InsightShare supported the development of an unique network of autonomous community media ‘hubs’ in eight different communities; fueled by the dedication, passion and energy of extraordinary individuals, who have organised and facilitated projects with hundreds of people within their regions and beyond. It is their words that are quoted in this article and their perspectives on climate change and related issues that are represented by the CWE project.
Soledad Muniz, InsightShare Associate, has contributed with two articles in the PLA 63 How wide are the ripples? From local participation to international organisational learning: 'Western Balkans Green Agenda, local storytelling through participatory video making', in the section 'Making Sense'; and 'InsightShare's global network of community video hubs' in the section 'Structures, mechanisms and spaces'.
This animation explains the process and ethos behind the Participatory Video methodology, as practiced by InsightShare in its various projects around the world. Using simple drawings, reminiscent of the storyboards created by participants, the process of community authored video for change is detailed from conception to creation and beyond.
On the 29th October 2009 Soledad Muniz gave a talk about InsightShare´s work and the ´Conversation´s With the Earth´ project at CUiD (Cambridge University International Development). This article reviews her talk and concludes that she provided the audience with a convincing yet self-critical account of participatory video methods which was powerfully demonstrated in the 'Indigenous Voices on Climate Change' project.
InsightShare’s experience in the field shows us that when it comes to ideas for community development, local people are often the real experts. Unfortunately, although they know many of the solutions to their problems, they are rarely listened to, or empowered to act for themselves. We think there has been quite enough talk on this issue, but what can be done to change it?
