Anatomy of a Good Advocacy Video

By | May 10th, 2012

At WITNESS, we rotate facilitators at our weekly staff meetings. If assigned as facilitator, the person is responsible for doing some research and sharing a current advocacy video of interest. My turn up, I screened the doGooder Nonprofit Video Award winner, “Protect Our Defenders.” The video addresses rape in the military.

Everyone seemed moved. It was obvious by their reaction why this video was a winner. So, I asked the room, “What moments in the video do you remember or stood out?” Answers: the statistics, the video included a male subject, the rape kit, the Congresswoman’s closing statement.

The Storytelling Arch of an Advocacy Video

Armed with this information, I revisited the 1:45-minute video. The WITNESS training materials collectively state that stories should have a beginning, middle and end (also see Aristotle’s Poetics).

Photo credit: http://ifp.12writing.com/2011/02/writing-conflict-freytags-pyramid-and.html

Using this information, I broke down the elements further, relating them to [...]

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Video Advocacy Example: New Voices in Sex Workers’ Rights Activism

By | March 27th, 2012

By Teresa Eggers

As advances in technology democratize the media field, its makers are becoming more and more diverse, presenting a prime opportunity for traditional advocates to become facilitators and traditional “victims” to become actors in advocacy scenarios.

This video advocacy example highlights two issues – first, the rights of sex workers and the negative effects of criminalization, and second, the ways in which digital storytelling can be used to strengthen advocacy campaigns and include new voices in the debate.

Video Facts:

Title: “Being A Refugee Is Hard” Date Created/Posted: July 2010 Length: 2:52 minutes Who Made It: Muchaneta, a former sex worker and current rights activist with a South African NGO. This video was created as part of a 4-day workshop facilitated by Women’s Net and organized by Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT). Location: South Africa Human Rights Issues: The rights of sex workers. “Sex workers rights” [...]

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Colombian Filmmaker Flees After Video of Violent Eviction Goes Viral

By | March 1st, 2012

Why Should You Watch This Video

Image from "The Video the Colombian Government Doesn't Want Us to See"

A video depicting the violent forced eviction of nearly 600 people on the banks of Colombia’s Magdalena River has gone viral, eliciting a huge response from viewers around the world, including the President of Colombia (who was obliged to respond to the video publicly and defend the actions of the police force). Since being uploaded on February 20, the video has registered nearly 925,000 views, making it one of the most watched “Nonprofits & Activism” videos on YouTube. The community filmmaker, Bladimir Sánchez, has since fled the region after receiving threats of violence.

A post by our friends at Global Voices first brought this video to our attention, and while many citizen journalists around the world are documenting forced evictions, we at WITNESS wanted to know why this particular video struck such a chord?

After speaking [...]

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Vote for “My Asian Americana” for White House Video Challenge

By | February 29th, 2012

By Christopher Rogy

Did you know the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders is calling for video submissions? The aim is to explore stories from people who impact their communities through dreams, experiences and dedication. And did you know that under the Obama Administration, the number of deported people from the U.S. has increased by over 70 percent? What do these two factoids have in common, you ask? Well, one video finalist raises questions about Obama’s deportation policies affecting communities across the country. While the President has said in a speech that the policies are meant for the most violent offenders, not families or “folks who are looking to scrape together an income,” My Asian Americana highlights how the fathers, mothers, sons and daughters most affected by deportation are in every way average Americans.

I am originally from the Philadelphia area, where more than 20,000 Cambodian-Americans currently reside. In the past two years, I have split my time living in Cambodia and [...]

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Video Advocacy Example: LGBT and Transgender Awareness in the Anglican Church

By | February 15th, 2012

Why You Should Watch this Video This video is an example by activists to bring an under-represented “voice” to the discussion of human sexuality to a group of leaders charged with making decisions on a global scale. The under-represented voice is that of LGBT Christians from Africa sharing in their own words their experience of homophobia and transphobia, especially from leaders within the Anglican Church in various African countries. The leaders charged with making decisions are the Bishops and Primates of the Worldwide Anglican Communion, a loose federation of provincial Christian Churches with ties to the Church of England. Every ten years, this group meets in Kent, England at the Lambeth Conference.

 

 

Video Facts • Title of Video: Voices of Witness Africa Trailer • Date Created/Posted: 2009 • Length: 3 minute • Who made it: Claiming the Blessing, Cynthia Black & Katie Sherrod, et al • Location: [...]

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