With extensive experience of facilitating participatory video workshops, we believe in the value of participatory video as a tool for empowering individuals and communities and giving them a ‘voice’ with which they can author their own stories and represent themselves from their own perspective. Participatory video helps to build bridges between communities and decision–makers, enabling people to develop greater control over their own development and the decisions affecting their lives.
The process of participatory video is simple, and the equipment required is increasingly accessible and easy to use. Firstly, participants are taught the basics of using video equipment. Facilitators then help groups identify and analyse issues important to them and plan how best to illustrate this on video. Video messages are directed and filmed by the groups themselves. These films can then be used for a wide range of purposes from educating to campaigning to initiating a dynamic exchange of ideas and perceptions. Participatory video is particularly beneficial when working with disadvantaged communities as everyone, whatever their formal level of education, can use video to communicate their perspectives.
Participatory video can be used to reach policymakers, to empower marginalised groups and to provide audiences with a more accurate insight into the lives of those being filmed.