This week’s online viewing assignment brought me back to a time in my life when I was a lot more ‘awake’ with things that were happening around the world. There was a time in my life when I participated in demonstrations to fight against blood for oil, apartheid, and police brutality (back in the early 90’s Portland was coined ‘Little Beirut’ by the Bush G.W. Administration after one of our demonstrations. I was there and was the first time I saw riot police) Then, one day, I got sick and tired of seeing/hearing/supporting the same old rhetoric on the conveyor belt of how societies should behave, and how I can fight against the man. So I stopped.
On YouTube’s Human Rights channel, my playlists were Watching Egypt: October 2013, and Cambodia: Land & Housing Rights.
The picture above is a screen shot from the From Homes to Prison Cells: A Story of Land Grabbing in Cambodia.
Nothing ever changed
Okay, so I never completely stopped giving two cents about what happened in the world around me, but feelings of powerlessness going up against ‘the man’ over and over again creates apathy, which left me with nothing. Nothing I could point to and say “look what I was able to change!” Instead, I got in return feelings of major burn-out and emptiness. Wind blowing through an empty canyon kind of emptiness (not to be confused with the surrendering of stillness).
Eventually I learned and accepted that I could fight back with how I spent my money without being a total sell-out. $pending power to the rescue! Such as:
- What corporations are the lessers of the evils?
- What products leave the smallest carbon footprint in the mud?
- Who are the candidates that walk their talk to the best of their abilities?
And along came the WITNESS assignment
I wasn’t that impressed with Kelly’s Witness Your Environment presentation per say, but I was blow away by her explanation on how WITNESS operates and their mission. After roaming around on their web site (bullet point assignment number 2) I was finding myself feeling excited again about activism and the power of storytelling through video. Giving the people a platform to tell their story. Mind-blowing. Empowerment in their own hands.
Help! Unresolved Issues
- WITNESS: One of two issues that came up for me was how people who are doing the videos in the are putting themselves at risk of death, imprisonment, and/or relocation. The Witness Your Environment presenter avoided talking about how WITNESS and the storyteller manages and mitigates the risks, and I wish that she would have provided an example from either Nah Papa’s story, or the Iranian who was beaten by the police. Is it selfish of me to want them to tell their stories, even if their safety is not guaranteed?
- YouTube Human Rights Channel: The second unresolved issue I am left with is my behavior while I was watching a video from one of my playlists, which was Watching Egypt: October 2013. My behavior caught me off guard. As I was watching this video, I was waiting for something to happen. There is plenty of build up of tension, and I was on the edge of my chair, waiting. Why was I waiting? Why was I wanting something to happen? Does something have to ‘happen’ in order for it to be valuable? Spur change?
Thoughts?
“Is it selfish of me to want them to tell their stories, even if their safety is not guaranteed?”
Possibly, but I tend to feel a little selfish when I want anyone to tell me their story. Once I was doing a story about immigration. It was about these two sisters that were living here undocumented. They were going to travel down to Salem to see their dad in jail. I really wanted them to take me along because it felt like that would be a dramatic interaction. I didn’t end up asking them though because it felt uninitiated by them. So, I think that is the key thing. If the person who is at risk initiates it then it’s okay, but what is important is letting them know the risks involved. It sounded like WITNESS was trying to do something about it, but it’s true that they didn’t really go into it.
The other side of the coin with regard to your question about something happening came up for me too while I was watching some Human Rights stuff. The video was of what happened without and explanation of what came before, so I didn’t know what I was seeing besides of bunch of bodies on the side of the road. It was really challenging because I wanted to feel like I was watching something important but it kinda felt a little like a snuff film.
I had similar thoughts when viewing the Witness videos — namely, ‘Wow, these people are brave.” They’re putting their lives in danger to show people what’s happening in their corner of the world and, hopefully, bring about change. I think they’re well aware of the risks involved, but they do it out of the hope that someone will watch and be affected somehow. So to answer your question, no, I don’t think it’s selfish because they want to tell their story and do it out of their own free will. It’s extremely sad, though, that in many of the countries where these injustices are happening, people can be arrested simply for shooting a video.
To answer your second question, I think the videos where something is happening have the most impact, but taken as a whole (for example, the Egyptian protests), they help to tell more of the story.
Jamie, I completely agree with you about being unimpressed with Kelly’s Witness presentation. But, you’re right, it was the powerful mission of the organization that was really empowering. I thought it was interesting to hear about their partnership with the guardian project to develop technology for smart cameras that could protect people’s identities. I wonder how that will change the effectiveness of videos for the human rights channel. I understand the necessity to protect people’s safety, but there is something very powerful about seeing real faces in these videos.
To some degree, I think all storytellers struggle with differing versions of your question, “Is it selfish of me to want them to tell their stories, even if their safety is not guaranteed.” First, Jarrett’s point is well taken: If the subject is initiating the story, odds are their story will be told one way or the other. Better to be told by you – assuming you are the ethical, honest, professional I think you are. (Take a bow! I base that opinion on the fact that you’re asking the question in the first place)!
Secondly, while the subjects in the WITNESS videos were facing threats of death, subjects in many stories face unpleasant repercussions when championing any issue: Loss of job, friends, family, status, etc. While that’s not death – it’s still an unpleasant consequence for standing up for what’s right. I encountered a lot of that when I was a newspaper reporter – even in small town Wisconsin. Again, not to the same degree as the WITNESS storytellers – but there are often negative backlashes against people who speak out.
So here’s my litmus test, for what it’s worth: Ask yourself why you want to tell the story. Answer yourself honestly; then decide if YOU can live with the answer. Is it because the subject has a story that needs to be told to fight injustice and better humankind? Is it because the story will boost your career and/or ego? Is it a combination of both?
Thank you for leaving me with some very important questions to self-reflect on. And thanks for the compliment about my professionalism.