This story is on the Go-Local Jamaica web site for the parish of Kingston. Please check out this and other interesting stories at www.go-kingston.com.
EXPOSING JAMAICANS to their history and societal change, is the primary mandate behind the production company Video for Change. Just 10 years old, it has twenty video productions addressing issues as diverse as: youth and sexuality, media images of women, community development, and the economy.
According to its co-founder Hilary Nicholson, Video for Change, is a "teeny" (as in small) non-government organisation that produces social change, historical and heritage videos for public consumption.
The videos are shown primarily on television, at teacher training colleges, youth clubs as well as at other community organisations.
The 'teeny team' which drives this effort comprises Hilary Nicholson, Cynthia Wilmot, and Gayatri Persad. But the 10 years of work that this small NGO has accomplished, is not to be underestimated. Strong Jamaican, Stirring Times, for example, is a six part series that tells the story of organised labour in Jamaica - the story of the working women and men of Jamaica, from the slave uprisings of 1831, through the upheavals of 1938, to today's modern trade union movement. Another production, Together Against Violence, tells of the search for peace in a Kingston inner-city where gang warfare has torn the community in two. Residents have had enough! So they plan a strategy to bring the rival gangs out of hiding, to negotiate peace.
Personality profiles are also on the list of productions. The collection includes The drums keep sounding - the story of Miss Lou, Jamaica's foremost folklorist, actress and poet - the Honourable Louise Bennett-Coverley, O.J. Since its beginning Video for Change has evolved into a docu-drama style NGO, combining music, drama, humour and rap poetry with actual documentary footage. The team collaborates withother NGOs such as Jamaicans for Justice, Children First, Sistren Theatre Incorporated, to aid the process of correcting society's ills by raising public awareness. The team also works with local production houses that provide assistance with shooting the acts and with actors who work on a freelance basis. Funding, Hilary says, comes from "all over" and some assistance is provided by United Nations organisations.
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