Camcorders in Activists’ Hands:
August 1, 2001
Tools for Change
Communication for Change
Activists often do not have the resources or the time to produce, edit, and distribute documentaries. However, they continue to use video cameras in their struggles for change. Activists have found that video can influence behavior and keep the opposition on their toes. They want to demonstrate to their adversaries that they can reach a large audience with powerful video images. Video is a potent tool for advancing campaigns and building social movements. The following examples illustrate how a video camera can be a valuable, non-violent tool.
1) Cameras Protect Activists
Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) (www.wildrockies.org/Buffalo) is an activist organization dedicated to the preservation of America’s last herd of wild buffalo. They send video cameras out with activists on all of their campaigns. Sometimes these activists put themselves in dangerous situations, for example, locking themselves on cattle catchers as a way of impeding law enforcement efforts to capture or kill buffalo. In these heated situations, they find that the cameras help keep the law enforcement officials on their best behavior.
“Cameras help to protect our protesters.” —Pete Leusch of BFC
Pete Leusch reports that their videographers are targets for arrest and that ungrounded seizure of their tapes sometimes occurs during these arrests. To deal with this problem, BFC appoints a “runner”. Once something valuable has been recorded, the runner gets the tape out of the area quickly to avoid confiscation by the police.
2) Video Gives Leverage to Victims of Violence
Aklima Begum lives in a village in Western Bangladesh. She is a member of Banchte Shekha, a community development organization that provides video training, access to credit, and health services. Aklima learned to operate a video camera and document cases of domestic violence and dowry abuse. Her tapes are used to educate and to advocate for just settlements in traditional village hearings. Recently, the threat of making a video about a woman’s case was enough to motivate the woman’s husband to negotiate a settlement. The husband did not want to be embarrassed in front of his neighbors. Banchte Shekha leaders assert that the video campaigns serve as a deterrent to abuse and violence. Read more about Banchte Shekha.
3) Video Prevents Police Harassment
“One time the police told Cop Watch to stop shooting because we didn’t have a permit. I said, ‘We aren’t making a movie so we don’t need a permit.’” —Monifa Bandale of Cop Watch. Photo by Heather Haddon, NY Independent Media Center
Across the country, groups are monitoring police activities in their communities. These groups bring video cameras on their foot patrols. At Cop Watch, a project of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in Central Brooklyn, they believe that having a camcorder along on their patrols enhances their ability to prevent and document cases of police abuse. Often when police stop people in this neighborhood, it does not lead to an arrest. Being frequently and unnecessarily stopped and interrogated by the police is viewed as a form of harassment. Monifa Bandale of Cop Watch says, “Typically, once we start taping, the police leave.”
Internationally, police watch groups and other human rights groups are using media to document and prevent police brutality. Nonprofit organizations such as Witness provide police watch groups with media tools, training materials, and help with video distribution. Their recent manual, “Camcorder Training Tips and Technique” is practical and easy to use.
4) Cameras Going Undercover
In the late 1980’s video activist pioneer Sam LaBudde went undercover as a cook on a tuna fishing boat in order to videotape dolphins caught and dying in tuna nets, inspiring a new generation of undercover video activists. His film “Where Have All the Dolphins Gone?” influenced tuna fishing practices. [Read more about this in “Do Environmental Films Help the Environment?”] Undercover videotaping is a controversial strategy which many activists are understandably reluctant to publicize. Activists need in-depth background information on the situation that they are entering as well as a strong organization supporting them. These approaches are not to be taken lightly because while activists commonly face danger, going undercover poses grave risks. Despite these risks, hidden cameras are being used to expose sweatshops, to document neofascists, and other extreme groups as well as to shed light on many environmental wrongs.
Activist media strategies often turn mainstream advertising thinking on its head. There are other ways to measure the success of a work than by audience size or production values. For activists, there are times when providing media tools and training is enough to alter the balance of power in a community. For example, in Bangladesh, village women who were trained as videographers, as well as those who weren’t, described themselves as more confident because now they were part of an organization that is so important it has a video camera. The process of making the video can become more important than the finished product. These strategies are simple, low-cost, and effective ways to use media for social change.
