Iberville Boys & Girls Club from Lily Keber on Vimeo.

On Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 12pm New Orleans Video Voices, the Make it Right Foundation, and the Contemporary Arts Center will host a reception for the presentation of the youth-directed video exhibit From Devastation to Hope: Rebuilding with Faith and Love and a youth-created photo exhibit. The exhibit was created by four - twelve and thirteen year old girls under the direction of the members of New Orleans Video Voices. Both the photo and video exhibit display the resiliency of Make It Right Homeowners and Lower 9th Ward Residents as they continue to rebuild not only homes, but the 9th Ward community.

New Orleans Video Voices (NOVV) is a local media collective dedicated to using new media to address underlying problems of racial tension, education, economics, health, and health care in our communities. Through community member participation, health and resilience is promoted and sustained. NOVV uses of documentary film to foster critical thinking and media literacy skills, engages the creative power of community and amplifies the voices of a largely unheard population.

Youth Directors

Noella Anderson, Sade Jones, Ebony Thompson, and Anastasia Woods all served as youth directors for the documentary From Devastation to Hope: Rebuilding with Faith and Love. Prior to directing this film, the girls directed From Our Point of View: Joining Hands to Save Our Community, a film that explores the history, triumphs, and struggles of the 7th Ward Treme area. This film won first place in the Elisabeth Irwin Human Rights Film Festival in New York, New York.

Anastasia Woods
Anastasia, 12, is an 8th grade Honors student at Slidell Junior High School and a Junior
Mentor and Facilitator for New Orleans Video Voices. Originally from New Orleans, she
appreciates the culture and traditions of her home city. She aspires to be a Pediatrician.
Until then she enjoys movies, singing, dancing, maintaining excellent grades, and
media.  As a member of New Orleans Video Voices, she has the opportunity to continue
to do the things that she loves the most; documentaries.

Ebony Thompson
Ebony,12, is an eighth grader at Holy Ghost Private School and a Junior Mentor and
Facilitator for New Orleans Video Voices. She is an intelligent young lady who takes her
media skills to new heights. Ebony wants to be a doctor and a cosmetologist when she
grows up. She enjoys hair design, makeup, fashion, movies, singing, and of course
media. She has a natural knack for interviewing.

Sade Jones
Sade 12, is a  seventh grade Honors student at John Dilbert School and a Junior
Mentor and Facilitator for New Orleans Video Voices. She enjoys singing, dancing,
talking on the phone, and media. Sade is a great camera person and has an eye for
scenes. With her new media skills, she is now avideographer for her whole family. The
media skills that she has acquired have allowed her to be a videographer of her family.

Noella Anderson
Noella is a thirteen year old eighth grade Honors student at Holy Ghost Private School
and a Junior Mentor and Facilitator for New Orleans Video Voices. The quiet one out of
the girls, Noelle is a great technical person, and great at setting up picture perfect
interviews. She loves taking B-Role for the documentaries.

Any Questions?

Contact Michele Burton-Oatis, Director of Community Collaboration, New Orleans Video Voices at michele@neworleansvideovoices.org.

The event was sold out just 48 hours after they announced it!  Watch it broadcast online…

More about TED Silicon Valley…

http://www.tedxsv.org/

Caricia Catalani from Institute for the Future on Vimeo.

Here are some highlights on this amazing conference by IFTF’s Mani Pande.

Highlights from Future of Video Conference

Read all post

Here are some of the interesting ideas that were shared by some of the expert panelists at the conference:

In the morning we had a panel with Howard Rheingold, Research Fellow, IFTF and Mimi Ito from UC, Irvine where they talked about user generated videos. Howard, who is an expert on the use of video for communication and teaching, talked about vernacular or informal video that is being created by non-experts. He pointed out that YouTube is providing new ways of doing things with video. There are probably new cultures that are developing on YouTube. Young people are going to YouTube to learn about new things like “how to videos” rather than Wikipedia.

Howard was quick to point out that video is more time consuming. In text you don’t get authentic presence of the person, but video does that making it more performative.
Mimi Ito, Research Scientist, UC, Irvine, correctly pointed out that most of the media today is made by amateurs. Amateur videos are entering everyday production and circulating in the same streams as professional work.

Ito who has studied Japanese youth said that camera phone was fostering new kinds of visual awareness among young people in Japan. Young people are paying attention to their environment because they carry cameras with them, and are always looking to capture everyday experiences with their peers. Ito also believes that to understand the future of video you need to understand the social context in which video is being created.

While discussing the new kinds of grammars and genres that are evolving, Robin Sloan, VP, Current TV, said that when Current TV asked viewers to make videos, most people were imitating journalist. It was a little bit of a disappointment. 90% were people acting as if they were on TV. Sloan believes that innovation is not flowing from people in their 20s. They are very risk averse. Instead you want to look at either side of bracket. Teenagers or older people.

Online performance artist Ze Frank pointed out that creativity and efficacy are not conjoint twins. What matters is how effective you are in conveying the message. Citing his own example, Ze said that advertisers gave him money because they liked being associated with this new powerful genre which makes people do stuff.

My colleague, Jess Hemerly, moderated a panel on authorship, appropriation and control with Alexander Cohen of UC, Berkeley and Paul Spinard, Author, the VJ Book. Jess made a wonderful video presentation, which can be found on this blog.

Hannah Eaves from Link TV and from Caricia Catalina UC, Berkeley, talked about the role of video in bringing about social change. Citing the Nirodh project in India where video was used to spread awareness on condoms, Catalina said that use of video has been highly effective in advocacy and intervention in public health. Hannah said that the strength of video is that it can cross language and literacy barriers and is effective in making people take action.

Watch their interview with Caricia Catalani.

Course Description

This course focuses on understanding and using participatory media, especially video, for public health advocacy, evaluation & research. All students are welcome to join Fall Semester 2009.  Students with some video experience are invited to join Spring Semester 2010.

Although video is not new to public health, this course introduces practices that are at the cutting edge of public health leadership.  Participatory media practices use media—for example, online video, blogs, podcasts, and digital storytelling—to engage and mobilize diverse communities in research and action around the world.  Using the distribution capacity of the Internet, this media can now be shared through vast networks to reach people and places around the world with astounding speed, at minimal cost and with relative ease.

In this new course, students will learn video and new media skills in the context of an evaluation for the new SPH Center for Health Leadership. Students will participate in designing the research questions, carry out the research using video and new media, and produce media products that can be used to communicate their findings. Research questions will focus on how we can best foster the development of leadership skills among students and alumni. We will want to look at:

• Currently, how effective is the SPH at meeting this goal?
• How has the work of the new CHL contributed  to this goal (evaluation of impact in the first 1.5 years)?
• What would be the most effective strategies that the SPH and the new CHL could use to make progress in reaching this goal?

We expect that participants in the class will interview students, faculty, alumni, PH leaders and people involved in leadership development efforts as part of their research. Video products can be used for communicating with/influencing current and future funders, new students, prospective students, faculty and others.

Students will be introduced to emerging theories of participatory media and learn from practitioners of participatory media from around the Bay Area to gain knowledge about producing and sharing media. Students will implement their own participatory video project(s), gaining skills in participatory decision-making, team building, video production, video editing, and strategic media dissemination.
New tools for public health leadership are particularly critical today.  We face profound challenges from the global AIDS pandemic to the push for healthy built environments.  To address these challenges, there is growing need to train public health leaders to communicate research and other health promotion messages in a manner that might be received, be understood, and act as a catalyst for change.  YouTube, now the world’s largest distributor of video, has demonstrated the capacity for the medium of video to reach people around the world via the Internet.  In February 2008, YouTube announced that it had reached the one billion mark – meaning, one billion videos are viewed through YouTube every single day (Berg, 2008).

Although scholars in general and public health practitioners in particular have been slow to embrace this tool, some early adapters have demonstrated the potential for communication of research concepts through video and YouTube.  In a recent case, Professor Michael Wesch from the University of Kansas Department of Cultural Anthropology uploaded a 4 minute video that summarized ideas developed during his dissertation research.  He had published a scholarly book through the usual academic means the year before, but it remained obscure.  Within a few months of publishing his video on YouTube, the professor experienced something that all scholars who are dedicated to public communication need to know.  Wesch (2007) writes:

Taking advantage of these new possibilities, this course instructs students in the utility of video to mobilize communities around research, evaluation, and action so that, in partnership with public health leaders, we might address today’s immense public health challenges together.

Instructors

Caricia Catalani, DrPH, MPH

Lecturer
School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley

Co-Founder
VideoVoice Collective
San Francisco . New Orleans . New York

Contact
mobile (917) 533 - 7008
catalani@berkeley.edu

Office Hours:  By appointment

Ellie Schindelman, MPH

Lecturer
School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley

Center for Health Leadership
School of Public Health
University of California

Contact
ebs@berkeley.edu

Office Hours:  By appointment

Schedule Summary

Week 1 - Sept 1 - Introduction to Concepts & Camera

Week 2 - Sept 8 - PH Leadership/ Video Skills

• Explain their understanding of leadership and public health leadership.
• Communicate personal beliefs around public health leadership.

Week 2 - Sept 13, 10-3 - Special Video Clinic

During this Sunday clinic, we will learn about capturing people, their knowledge, thoughts, and opinions, on video.

• Identify the key steps involved in preparing for a video interview.
• Conduct a video interview using basic camera, tripod, and sound equipment.
• Communicate personal beliefs about leadership in public health during an on-camera interview.
• Describe common challenges & solutions for video interviews.
• Describe the ethical importance of the consent process.
• Request consent from interview participants.

Week 3 - Sept 15 - Video & Research for the Center for Health Leadership

• Understand the goals & timeline of the CHL evaluation.
• Describe some ways in which video can be integrated into process & impact evaluations.
• Communicate with clients (ie, CHL) about integrating multimedia approaches into their research/evaluation plan

Week 4 - Sept 22 - Participatory Decision-making/ Video Production Planning

IMB_DevelopmentMarketplace09
For the next three days the World Bank here in Washington DC is hosting a world changing event that few people know about. Called the Development Marketplace - it is a gathering of organizations behind 100 innovative ideas from 50 different countries on how to save the planet. The ideas can affect everything from a small village of 60 to a large population of millions. The only requirement is that the funding request from organizations participating must be less than $200,000. As I went through the list of projects that are being featured in the marketplace, there were 10 that stood out to me not only for the creativity of their solutions, but also the lessons that anyone might take away from the idea.

The best ideas solve big problems, but also offer a lesson that could apply to much more than just the situation at hand. Reading the stories of all the innovative organizations presenting at the Development Marketplace gives you a sense of hope about the world that can sometimes get lost in our daily lives. Check out the stories below, and the rest of the great projects from Development Marketplace 2009 … these are stories and ideas worth sharing:

1. Wave Energy Converter to Mitigate Ocean-Wave Damage and Beach Erosion
Country: Dominican Republic - Project #4949
Organization: Universidad Nacional Pedro Henrique Urena (UNPHU)
Description: Waves currently cause a large degree of the devastation from storms, including destroying bridges, roads and other vital infrastructure. This project is about using wave energy converter (WEC) technology to lower the power of waves and convert some of this power into usable electric power.
Lesson: Your greatest source of energy can come from the same thing that also causes the most destruction.

2. Rate-and-Shame Project Would Raise Media Pressure On Public Officials
Country: Ukraine - Project #4886
Organization: Resource and Analysis Center “Society and Environment”
Description: Local governments in the Ukraine tend to rely on central government to take adaptation steps to deal with climate change, however the results of action (or inaction) are most felt at the local level. This effort involves creating a public rating system for climate change initiative and rating local officials on their performance, in an effort to use transparency to shame inactive officials into action.
Lesson: Giving people someone to blame can encourage action.

3. Saving Glaciers: Artisanal Industry Aims to Stop the Melt and Save Water
Country: Peru - Project #4311*
Organization: Glaciares Peru
Description: Increases in global temperature are causing the world’s largest freshwater reserves — glaciers, to melt. Tropical glaciers are most at risk, which includes those high in the Andes. This project is to build a production facility that will create a paintable white cover material that can be applied to existing black rocks near the glaciers so they do not absorb as much heat and the glaciers melting will slow.
Lesson: The best way to deal with a problem is to sometimes focus on what is right beside it.

4. Global Voices: The Vulnerable Make Videos to Speak Out on Climate Adaptation
Country: Bangladesh, Colombia, and Sri Lanka - Project #3768
Organization: Institute of Development Studies
Description: Use participatory video (PV) training to allow people without strong voices in the community to share their stories and thoughts about climate change through video to the world.
Lesson: Video can help amplify voices that are usually silent on an issue.

Join us for a presentation on participatory video and human rights in New Orleans at the 2008 Human Rights Center Conference!

Conference, November 6, 2008, 10AM to 5PM
Alumni House, UC Berkeley

Health, Human Rights and Vulnerable Communities - 10:00 AM to 12 Noon (Toll Room)

Faculty Discussant: Cheri Pies, School of Public Health

• Caricia Catalani, School of Public Health, Berkeley, Participatory Video in New Orleans, USA

Abstract
Billions of people worldwide have gained access to the Internet, digital recording devices, and other new media tools.  More and more, these new media tools are used as innovative solutions to enduring human rights struggles, however often without critical understanding of their potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  To begin to understand these aspects of new media more thoroughly, this evaluation of the New Orleans Videovoice Project describes the processes and outcomes associated with a particular participatory video methodology: videovoice.

Like its predecessor photovoice, videovoice involves partnering with communities to research health and human rights situations by putting digital cameras in the hands of everyday people.  The New Orleans Videovoice Project took place in Central City, an underserved nieghborhood that was hit hard in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Those who have returned from displacement have faced a difficult recovery period involving loss of family and friends, loss of housing and possessions, closures of primary sources of health care, marginalization by government and its recovery programs, and the ongoing stress of piecing one’s life and the community back together.

The New Orleans Videovoice Project arose out of a need to organize around human rights and health concerns at this critical time.  By building a partnership of diverse community members from the Central City neighborhood, public health researchers, filmmakers, and human rights advocates, the project has produced several participatory documentary videos.  The videos describe the neighborhood’s historical and current struggle for human rights, and their own solutions for a better future.  Beyond videos, this highly participatory project has resulted in other critical outcomes, such as increased capacity to produce media, understanding of community strengths and concerns, individual empowerment, and engagement in community action.

• Krista Kshatriya, School of Law, Berkeley, World Health Organization/Southeast Asia Regional Office, India
• Miranda Ritterman, School of Public Health, Berkeley, Christian Children’s Fund, Angola
• Nobuko Mizoguchi, Demography, Berkeley, Global Health Access Project, Thai-Burma border

Lunch Break - 12 noon to 1:30 PM

• Friday, August 22, 7:pm at Ashe Cultural Center, New Orleans
• Saturday, August 23, 5:pm (previously scheduled 3:pm screening has been changed) at Zeitgeist Multimedia Arts Center, New Orleans

Executive Producer Matt Wisdom and Digital Filmmaker Tim Ryan hope to help convey that vision in a new short Internet documentary about recent successes within New Orleans public charter schools. In addition to an insiders look into what makes public Charter schools successful, the short film addresses the impact current public school reform will have on the future of New Orleans.

The Sundance Institute announces the opening of a Request for Proposals for Stories of Change: Social Entrepreneurship in Focus Through Documentary. If you are creating a documentary film that frames, examines and amplifies social entrepreneurship as an innovative approach to the central questions of our time, read on to see how you can apply.

From electing candidates to fact-checking the traditional media, people-powered politics is become increasingly influential thanks largly to growing online communities. Find out how you can attend the Netroots Nation Conference this month to exchange ideas with like-minded individuals and learn how to become more effective in using technology to engage in the public debate.

“If print culture shaped the environment in which the Enlightenment blossomed and set the scene for the Industrial Revolution, participatory media might similarly shape the cognitive and social environments in which twenty-first-century life will take place (a shift in the way our culture operates)” (Rheingold, 2008, pp 99-100)

His talk at the TED conference — viewable here — encapsulates some of the thrilling possibilities for democracy, collaboration, and (in my mind) health promotion in our century.

Structures of Participation in Digital Culture. A new SSRC edited volume on culture, technology, and power in the digital era.  The book comes out of the Culture, Creativity, and Information Technology program, which focused on changing forms of cultural agency and the changing roles of cultural institutions.  Full text available free online (and for sale!)

The Bellagio Global Dialogues on Intellectual Property, or, How to Build an International Policy Research Field.  A report on Rockefeller Foundation IP Policy Initiatives, 2001-2006.

Moderated by NBC’s “Today Show” anchor and “Dateline” host, Ann Curry, the panel will discuss the impact activist journalists, filmmakers, writers and artists have had in ending human rights abuses and how we can refocus our energy to address the present crisis in Sudan.

Please come with your questions, observations and ideas to contribute to this important discussion.

EVENT DETAILS

When: Tuesday, February 19. 2008, 6:00 pm
Where: Vanderbilt Hall, Greenberg Lounge
40 Washington Square South, New York, NY
FREE, but please register by emailing Kelly Ryan at: kellyr@juris.law.nyu.edu
Reception to follow

PARTICIPATING PANELISTS

Professor Ben Kiernan, Whitney Griswold Professor of History and Professor of International and Area Studies at Yale University, author of numerous books on genocide, most recently Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur.

Marie de la Soudiere, former Director of the Children’s Unit at International Rescue Committee (1997-2007), she has worked with UNICEF, UNHCR in war torn countries throughout the world and acted as a consultant to numerous NGOs on child refugee issues.

Susan MacLaury, executive producer of “War/Dance,” 2008 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature and executive director of a non-profit organization called Shine Global, which is dedicated to ending the exploitation and abuse of children worldwide.

Sam Gregory, Program Director of WITNESS, is a video producer, trainer, and human rights advocate. In 2005 he was the lead editor on Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism (Pluto Press), and in 2007 he lead the development of the curriculum for WITNESS’ first ever Video Advocacy Institute. He is on the Board of the US Campaign for Burma, and the Tactical Technology Collective.

Upcoming opportunities and deadlines:

* February 12 – Nominations Due for CCPH Annual Award. The award recognizes exemplary partnerships between communities and higher educational institutions that improve higher education, civic engagement, and the overall health of communities. The complete “Call for Nominations” is available at http://depts.washington.edu/ccph/awards.html.

* March 17 – Applications Due for Community-Engaged Scholarship Faculty Development Charrette, May 28-30 in Chapel Hill, NC. We are seeking teams from 20 diverse colleges and universities across the U.S. to participate in a charrette to facilitate development of innovative campus-wide mechanisms for preparing and supporting community-engaged faculty. The complete “Call for Applications” is available at http://depts.washington.edu/ccph/faculty-engaged.html.

* April 4 – Early Bird Deadline for CUexpo Conference, May 4-7 in Victoria, BC, Canada. In lieu of our own major conference this year, CCPH is delighted to be a core sponsor of the third Community-University Exposition, “Community-University Research Partnerships: Connecting for Change.” We encourage CCPH members to adopt the CUexpo conference “as their own” and fully participate in it. The CCPH annual award will be presented at the conference and a CCPH member meeting is scheduled for Monday May 5th. For more information, visit http://www.cuexpo08.ca/index.html.

* April 10 – Applications Due for 11th Summer Service-Learning Institute, July 25-28 in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Gain the knowledge, skills and strategies to incorporate service-learning into the health professions curriculum! We encourage early applications as past years’ institutes have had wait lists. See details at http://depts.washington.edu/ccph/servicelearning.html.

December 17 marks Martyrs’ Day in Bahrain, a day which pays tribute to past victims of state violence. During last month’s demonstration, Mr. Ali Jassim Mekki was killed, and a wave of protests and brutal arrests followed. Eight human rights defenders remain in detention. Reports claim those in detention have been subjected to physical and psychological ill-treatment and torture. Please click on the HUB link above to take action on behalf of human rights defenders at risk in Bahrain.

The mission of this unique network is to encourage involvement in community, promote participatory social action research, and endorse community leadership that is mindful of cultural diversity and welcomes the opportunity that this diversity brings.

The University-Community Partnership for Social Action Research Network is planning on advancing multimedia efforts by partnering with organizations like ours that are dedicated to building video and photo partnerships.

Two of my favorite things about this network is that it is multinational and multilingual, building a bridge between communities and scholars throughout the globe.

We are looking forward to attending the launching event in March and more!

As a part of the commitment that they made to the Clinton Global Initiative, Pure Digital Technologies recently announced a goal of giving away one million free Flip Video camcorders over the next five years to nonprofits to help them document world issues and highlight the invaluable work they do across the globe.

In the press release Jonathan Kaplan, the CEO of Pure Digital Technologies, states ‘Non-profit organizations do incredible everyday work that the public rarely sees. Imagine the impact that video would make if every on-the-ground staff member or volunteer had both a camcorder and the ability to broadcast their message to the world.

The deal that they are offering is 2-for-1 price through the Flip Video Spotlight Website for those organizations that are accepted by the scheme.

The deal: your nonprofit gets is a Spotlight Kit for $150.00, which contains two 60-minute Flip Video Ultra camcorders with built-in video editing and publishing software, detailed instructions for easily uploading video to your own website or popular video sharing sites (like YouTube, MySpace, and Blip.tv), tutorials, and other training materials. If your group cannot afford the 2-for-1 price, then the site also gives information about how to apply for funder sponsorship.

The Flip Video Ultra camcorders can be used by staff and constituents who are not trained videographers. The camcorders are easy-to-use point-and-shoot, lightweight, compact devices that produce ok quality video. Some digital cameras can capture video at a similar quality, but this price point for nonprofits can’t be beat!

Learn more about Flip Video.

To create Maquilapolis, the filmmakers brought together factory workers in Tijuana and community organizations in Mexico and the U.S. to collaborate on a film that depicts globalization through the eyes of the women who live on its leading edge. The factory workers who appear in the film have been involved in every stage of production, from planning to shooting, from scripting to outreach. This collaborative process breaks with the traditional documentary practice of dropping into a location, shooting and leaving with the “goods,” which would only repeat the pattern of the maquiladora itself. The process embraces subjectivity as a value and a goal. It merges artmaking with community development to ensure that the film’s voice will be truly that of its subjects.

The filmmaker’s ongoing commitment to the community participants and organizations that they work with led them to hold an intensive video editing workshop just this year. Each participant created a short 3-5 min documentary about their life histories. They will have them posted on the site soon!