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Two New Initiatives from WITNESS: Media Archive and Video For Change

Published on September 19, 2005

Can video really impact change?

Can it encourage policymakers to pay attention to human rights?

MediaRights' partner WITNESS answers affirmatively to both questions. As a nonprofit human rights organization that trains human rights defenders to use video as a tool for advocacy, WITNESS not only believes that video can impact change and foster appreciation for human rights, it also proves it, with examples in international justice cases, legal battles and the creation of national legislation conducive to human rights.

WITNESS offers two new resources that will enable independent filmmakers and advocacy groups to harness the power of video to fight for human rights.

This fall, we launch two new resources that will enable independent filmmakers and advocacy groups to harness the power of video to fight for human rights.

The Media Archive

WITNESS footage has been utilized by investigators for the International War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and has been screened at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to uncover rights violations in psychiatric institutions. Footage was also used widely in a grassroots campaign, which highlighted the suffering of the Burmese under military dictatorship and ultimately led to the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act in 2003. The act bans all imports from Burma, freezes the regime's assets, and ensures that Burma's dictatorship cannot receive IMF or World Bank loans.

These are, however, only three of many instances in which WITNESS footage has played a key role in decision-making. Another prime example is the film Bought and Sold, which documents the growing international sex trade and worldwide network of trafficking in women. WITNESS partnered with the Washington, DC based human rights group Global Survival Network in 1997 to assist in the production of a film, which documented the expanding traffic of women and children from Russia and the former Soviet Republics into Europe, Asia and the United States for forced prostitution.

By operating undercover through the guise of a dummy company purportedly interested in importing women into the United States as escorts/entertainers, the human rights defenders at Global Survival Network gained entry into the underground operations of international trafficking. The organization then received training and assistance from WITNESS to produce a film that documented the conditions and stories that the filmmakers were uncovering in this dangerous network.

WITNESS enables its partners to document human rights stories that are not being told by mainstream media. Photo courtesy of WITNESS

Produced in 1997, Bought & Sold was featured worldwide on the BBC, CNN, ABC News and on other national broadcasts. It was after seeing the footage on ABC that President Bill Clinton issued an Executive Order allocating $10 million to fight violence against women, with a special emphasis on trafficking. The film has also been utilized as a training tool by the U.S. Department of State, Department of Justice, the INS and Embassy and Consular officials worldwide and has helped to publicize the issue of trafficking in women, which has today become a major human rights issue among NGOs, governments and inter-governmental organizations worldwide. Through the positive aftermath of this film, WITNESS offers a clear example of the power of video in promoting human rights.

These important images and many many more are now available to the public and to independent filmmakers, we launch the Media Archive and online database.

Purportedly one of the most diverse collections of human rights video, the WITNESS archive contains over 2,000 hours of video, including documentary productions and original raw footage from human rights activists, much of which is rare or politically sensitive media. Given the age and frailty of many of the original tapes, the race against time continues. We present this archive as a means of preserving a living record of human rights violations.

The Media Archive is searchable by subject, geography and a variety of other criteria via an online database. Independent filmmakers seeking footage on particular topics can search the Archive and apply for licensing rights. WITNESS archival footage is available for licensing in news reports and documentaries with a sliding scale fee based on intended usage, distribution plan, licensing period and other factors.

Requests for footage may be made online, via e-mail at archive@witness.org, or by phone at (718) 783-2000 ext. 313.

Video for Change

In October 2005 WITNESS launches its new strategic guide to using video in advocacy - Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism, published by Pluto Press and distributed in the USA by University of Michigan Press. The book will be available starting in mid-October in bookshops and as a free download at www.witness.org.

WITNESS' work is grounded in partnerships with human rights groups around the world. Our current partner organizations focus on issues including child-soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, juvenile prison reform in California and vigilantism on the US-Mexico border, massive displacement and human rights abuses in Burma, slave labor in Brazil and torture and impunity in Mexico. We work with these groups on specific advocacy campaigns for periods of one to three years. In each case, we work with them to identify how video can bring a unique and critical component to their campaigns for change.

WITNESS documented the suffering of Burmese under military dictatorship and helped to pass the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act in 2003.Photo courtesy of Burma Issues and WITNESS

With WITNESS' assistance, these partners prepare and make use of video in ways that complement - not replace - other more traditional forms of advocacy. The partners clearly identify the audiences they need to reach through their individual stories and voices. They draw on video's unique power to bring these stories as well as the visual "evidence" of a situation, directly to a human rights decision-making body, a government policymaker, a community or the global public in a tactical and effective manner. We then share these experiences and best practices as broadly as possible among our partners and other networks of social justice mediamakers and users.

The Video for Change book grew out of a series of training materials that we developed for our partners and our growing interest in finding ways to make these available to a broader audience through our "Seeding Video Advocacy" initiative. This initiative provides short-term trainings to networks of human rights advocates and facilitates the development of knowledge and tools that can be shared broadly to help encourage more people to use video in advocacy.

The chapters of the book are written by a range of outside writers as well as by WITNESS staff and draw on the inspiring real-life experiences of social justice video advocates worldwide �- both groups that have worked WITNESS, and a range of other well-known and lesser-known figures in the activist universe �- to walk the reader through the process of video advocacy.

Throughout the book you'll find an emphasis on the emotional and empathetic aspects of video and on its humanizing ability to communicate across boundaries. We also stress the need for collaboration within organizations and among outside allies to more successfully facilitate the production and use of video. We place value on foresight and planning to ensure that video builds on other complementary activities and helps to achieve a common goal. We don't make the assumption that a television broadcast is necessarily the aim of most video productions. In fact, we show the challenges that the reader will likely face in trying to get your video broadcast and fill you in on alternative methods for effective distribution.

Read Video for Change to learn how to effectively tell a story and demand justice through video.Photo courtesy of WITNESS

We don't make any assumption of prior experience with video or activism for readers of the book; we only assume an interest in making video an effective, fulfilling dimension of their social justice work.

Some highlights of the book include:

A step-by-step guide to how video fits into your advocacy work, illustrated by WITNESS Executive Director Gillian Caldwell's work pioneering a campaign against the global trafficking of women
An in-depth exploration of the ethics and practicalities of safety and security when doing social justice-related filming; advice on where you need to consider a range of potential risks not only to yourself, but also to the people you are working with and filming; this section features activist anecdotes from the Philippines, Burma, Colombia, the USA and much more, and was written by acclaimed filmmaker Katerina Cizek

A chapter on storytelling and pre-production that explains how you can create a story that will move, engage, persuade or shame a given audience into action

A section demystifying the production process with instruction on how to shoot, featuring practical tips from former Amnesty International producer Joanna Duchesne and Concordia University Film Professor Liz Miller

A section on how filming decisions reverberate through to the edit, the technical process of editing and the particular constraints you will face as an ethical filmmaker and activist dealing with issues of consent; an exploration of how style and substance can contradict or reinforce one another; an analysis of the use of violent or disturbing imagery and its potential impact on you and others

An overview of the pitfalls of using video in legal contexts and inspiring examples of when it has made a difference

Police and the military can be held accountable when their actions are recorded on tape.Photo courtesy of WITNESS and CAJ

A guide to strategic distribution to audiences who count by Thomas Harding, author of the Video Activist Handbook and the cofounder of Undercurrents; Harding emphasizes the need to choose the right tactic for your intended audience, and he paints various scenarios for using your video in the office of a legislator, on public television, or in community screenings, all of which can have a cumulative, multiplying effect

Appendices including the time-tested WITNESS Video Action Plan template, and helpful glossary and sample releases

The stories we tell in the book by no means cover all the creative uses of video, nor the wide variety of groups using video in effective, transformative ways. But we do hope that the innovative work discussed will inspire defenders of social justice issues to embrace the use of media in their work. Since video advocacy is an ever-evolving field, we encourage people to share their experiences on our online Forum at www.witness.org/forum.

Visit WITNESS in October to order your copy of Video for Change.