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Video Witness on the world 

By Karen Herland

For the second year in a row, human rights activists from around the world convened at Loyola to use the equipment, resources and expertise of the Communication Studies program to connect their stories to video advocacy campaigns.

Twenty-seven people from twenty-six countries made up a “virtual U.N. at Loyola," remarked Tina Singleton, the coordinator of the Video Advocacy Institute (VAI) that was held over two weeks in July. The participants, who normally work in community groups, NGOs, schools, churches, and clinics, were selected to learn how to effect change with digital media.

The VAI began last year as a collaboration between Concordia and Witness, the organization founded by Peter Gabriel after the Rodney King affair in the U.S. demonstrated how a window on injustice can make a difference.

Activists working on issues ranging from labour strife, reproductive rights, genocide and literacy were selected to participate in the intensive training program which benefits from the state-of-the-art equipment at Loyola, as well as the expertise of two full-time professors, Liz Miller and Marty Allor, 10 student mentors and the Witness team.

"I was a beginner when I got here," said Marija Tosheva, a Macedonian program director supporting sex worker access to health care. "I had a confused idea of what I wanted to say when I got here. Now it's really clear and I have the skills as well as a concrete idea."

The participants spent their mornings working on advocacy plans, and during the afternoon they worked in teams with their student mentors (who earned credit for their participation) practically applying lessons to a single project. Each team interviewed someone from the Benny Farm project and produced a video of that interview.

"The results were broadcast quality," said Miller, one of the two communications professors who worked on the project for the second year in a row. "We had a final screening at the SAT [Society for Arts and Technology] that was really moving." Miller added that they are hoping to have another screening later this year.

Miller said that many lessons were learned from last year's experience. Student mentors were given more responsibility, and good and bad examples of work were produced to help students visualize their own projects.

"We also refined our menu to accommodate people with a wide variety of tastes, traditions and cultures."

But it's the Benny Farm interviews that Miller is most proud of. "There was incredible diversity. The portraits represented long-time organizers and individuals from four of the very unique programs programs that make up Benny Farm." Currently, there are housing projects there for seniors, single mothers returning to school and people with disabilities, among others.