Embedded Filming for Social Change.Learning about HIV/AIDS and Rural Development Professionalism

Loes Witteveen & Rico LieWageningen University and Research Centre

Contents

AIDS and Rural Development (A&RD) context

Five films on HIV/AIDS and rural development

Conceptual framework Facilitating, learning and filming during

the course A&RD The film, the learning process and the

envisaged social change for various audiences

A&RD context

AIDS affects rural livelihood in all dimensions as it:– reduces labor force;– aggravates food insecurity;– decreases social capital due to stigmatization;– diminishes intra generational knowledge

transmission, and;– reduces effectiveness of rural service delivery.

Five filmsKilio – the Cry. AIDS and Rural Development in East Africa – TanzaniaSamuel Taye & Loes Witteveen, June 2002

Filmed in Arusha, Tanzania during a network meeting of rural development professionals from five East African countries. Produced with largely a non professional crew, borrowed equipment, and a very limited budget. VHS, 32 minutes.

When I Die, Tell Eliza… AIDS, Orphans and Vulnerable Children in RuralZambia – ZambiaElizabeth Chintu, Machona Kasambala & Loes Witteveen, May 2004

Filmed during a meeting of the Larenstein and Wageningen Alumni Professional Network for AIDS and Rural Development (LAPNARD) in Chibombo, Zambia. Produced with some professional crew members, professional equipment, and a limited budget for editing on broadcast quality DV. VHS and DVD, 42 minutes.

Five filmsTamaso ma Jyothir Gamay – From Darkness to Light – IndiaLoes Witteveen & Prasanth Thachapuzha, May 2005

Filmed during a refresher course for Asian alumni of Larenstein University in Andhra Pradesh, India. Produced with a professional crew and equipment on broadcast quality DV. VCD and DVD, 41 minutes

When the Beat of the Drum Changes, the Steps Will Follow – GhanaLoes Witteveen & Prasanth Thachapuzha, November 2005

Filmed during a refresher course for West African alumni of Larenstein and Wageningen University in Ghana. Produced with a professional crew and equipment on broadcast quality DV. VCD and DVD, 38 minutes

Five films

Close Concerns, Distant Mountains. A Space of Intercultural Learning onAIDS & Rural Development – TanzaniaLoes Witteveen & Prasanth Thachapuzha, October 2006

Filmed during a refresher course for African and Asian alumni of Larenstein and Wageningen University in Tanzania. Produced with a professional crew and equipment on broadcast quality DV. VCD and DVD, 39 minutes

Conceptual framework

1 filming, learning and facilitation during the course

2 film, learning and social change for various audiences

Facilitating, learning and filming during the course A&RD

Facilitation Learning Filming

Facilitation Setting the scene

– Getting acquainted– Introduction to the program– Defining guiding principles

State of the art / primary experiences– Endogenous (actual experiences of participant)

• state of the art literature review• subject matter workshops • country or sector presentations by participants

– Exogenous (relevant outsiders, PLWHA, rural service providers)

• guest speakers• field visits and/or rapid appraisal

Reflection and reporting The way forward / agenda setting

Learning

Experiential learningSocial learning, collective learning

and individual learningSingle loop, double loop and triple

loop learningIntercultural learning

Filming

Covers activities of the course Follows the events ‘through the eyes of’

participants Records the learning processes through

reflective interviews with participants Moving away from individual fear arousal images

to images that represent collective day-to-day stories, highlighting people living with HIV/AIDS rather than people dying of AIDS

Rhetoric is expressed by participants; localization embedded in footage

Learning by various audiences

Course participantsOther who appear in the filmsPeers, other RDPs and their

organizationsUnintended audiences

Learning by course participants Recalled experience

“Thank you very much for the DVDs. I got them today. They are great. Well done! I felt nostalgia watching the film. It's such a nice memory.”

(participant from China to the India course)

“What ever each person has perceived in the eyes cannot be wiped out from the mind.When there is the need to play back a scene it is always possible and that produces a lively and practical discussion and a learning situation which will never be forgotten”.

(participant from Ghana to the Ghana course)

Learning by course participants

Action: show at workplace

“Today I showed the VCD to all our district program advisors who are working in 20 district which is the remotest part of the country.”

(Nepali participant to the India course)

“I have been receiving compliments from people and organizations would like to use it in their OVC-program.”

(Zambian participant in the Zambia meeting)

Learning by course participants Audience consciousness

“When I joined the movie I did not think of the outcome as I was very much willing to fight against the disease. Just before I launched the film I was just wondering about how would my colleagues accept my role in the film and how would they think of me. But finally I was very happy as they accepted the film very well and most of them really understood the weight and there is something for us to do there. So I was so satisfied. I did not really get any repercussions after watching the movie. They did not think that I am also a victim but they really understood the role as RDPs.”

(Sri Lankan participant, after showing the India film at the Ministry of Agriculture)

Learning by others who appear in the film

Participation dilemma: PLWHA join the filming and tell they don’t want to disclose their status.

“Even my husband is not aware of this. Only my son and my daughter know it. My husband doesn’t know. If he knows, he drinks and beat me.”

(PLWHA, female, India film)

We hardly have insights in their exposure to the finished film.

We assume a positive influence based on consented participation and de-stigmatizing comments.

Learning by peers, other RDPs and their organizations Indirect and direct distribution Hardly formal feedback available ‘Snowball’ requests for the films are the main

indicator for interest

“I learned that the AIDS epidemic - and that was for me, as a city-dweller, an absolute eye-opener - weakens farmers in the most literal sense. As a consequence, they are unable to grow any crops that demand heavy physical exertion. By coincidence, these are also the more lucrative crops. What is more, many farmers have gone through their last reserves, put aside for buying medicine. Some, for example, sell their only cow to pay for drugs. <…> The documentary provided no answers, it simply put the question in a most powerful way.”

(Comment on Kilio – the Cry)

Learning by unintended audiences Unknown distribution and broadcasted via regional and

national channels

“Last night I watched the film and maybe the credits are most touching. The interview with those four boys was heartbreaking, maybe because you rather associate girls and women with care - their empty gazes and that boy who, almost unnoticed, moves towards that man for tenderly being consolated by that big hand.”

(Comment on When I die tell Eliza…)

Conclusions

We conclude that the course / meeting (facilitating / learning) and the filming is a whole.

This exercise, the audience feedback and the increased funding of films indicate that they lead to social change.

We acknowledge lack of insight into audience perceptions and responses. We want to do more audience research and also pay more attention to the distribution of the films.

We identify gradual development in addressing participatory action in the films; from participation while filming to providing stakeholders an audience, an arena for debate.

Wageningen University and Research Center, The NetherlandsLoes.Witteveen@wur.nl & Rico.Lie@wur.nl