Understanding Film and Video as Tools for Change: Applying Participatory Video and Video Advocacy in South Africa

The purpose of this 245-page dissertation, published by Stellenbosch University, was to examine the phenomenon of participatory video and to examine this strategy within the context of a participatory video project initiated as part of the dissertation in the informal settlement area of Kayamandi, South Africa. The overall objective of the study was to consider the potential of participatory video within current-day South Africa towards enabling marginalised groups to represent themselves and use film to advocate around issues they consider important. The author concludes that despite the challenges, the potential of participatory video is ripe for further exploration and utilisation in South Africa for social development.

The paper explains that a historical analysis considers various filmmaking developments that fed into the emergence of participatory video. These include various film practices that used film as a tool for change - from Soviet agit-prop through to the documentary movement of the 1930s, as well as types of filmmaking in the 1960s that opened up questions of participation, for example the Fogo process. The report states that practitioners of the Fogo process helped initiate participatory video practice in South Africa when they brought it to the anti-apartheid activists in the early 1970s.

The author states that the Kayamandi Participatory Video Project draws on this background and context in its planned methodology and implementation. The project involved community consultation, both through Zone Committees and through Habitat for Humanity committees. These consultations helped identify issues the video project would address, as well as interviewees to participate in the project. The next step was an initial round of interviews, then the production of screen rushes for participant feedback, editing the video based on the feedback, a screen rough cut for more feedback, and final edit. Finally, the finished video is screened in the community. The project organisers also intended to have a screening with the Municipality, but due to lack of response from Municipal officials, the screening did not materialise.

The report makes conclusions and recommendations based on two key points: the potential of participatory video to enable marginalised groups to build consensus and represent themselves; and the potential effectiveness of participatory video to assist these marginalised groups to effect real change through video advocacy in their social/ political/ physical environment. The author states that the elements and steps of the Fogo process provide an in-built method for ensuring participation and subject control over their own representation. In the Kayamandi project, the community did take ownership of the video product and its dissemination, and thus control over the representation of themselves and their interests. The committee most involved in the project have, according to the author, become more empowered through their internal negotiation on the strategic use of the video.

In terms of the potential of participatory video to effect change, the author notes that the biggest challenge for participatory video practice in South Africa is political will, or the lack thereof. According to the report, over the course of the project, responses from the Municipality were mixed - periods of seemingly enthusiastic and open engagement followed by period of complete non-responsiveness.

The author argues that one of the key reasons participatory video techniques are underutilised in South Africa is time. It takes time to conduct genuinely participatory processes, get people on board and keep them on board. During this time, the situation is ever-changing. By the time a video is produced, the moment may have passed. In addition, the author notes that the dramatic successes of early participatory video experiments were based on situations where decision-makers were genuinely unaware of their citizens' perspectives; once they were made aware, they had both the political will and the capacity to address the concerns. In South Africa, capacity can be a problem. However, the constraints can be used constructively to guide the development of project planning and conceptualisation. The more ways participatory video is tried, the further it will develop in a way that best suits the local context.