Session 30

Title: Engaging community members from twenty-one remote Northern Manitoba Communities to share their stories in participatory videos

Session Description:

Community members were empowered by sharing their stories through participatory video (PV) across 21 northern remote communities in Manitoba. In this study, PV was applied to a health promotion program for Chronic Disease Prevention Initiative (CDPI) with community volunteers with Burntwood Regional Health Unit. These participants shared their stories and photographs on video about ice fishing programs, gardening promotion and exercise programs. The community members wrote scripts, reviewed the video and were asked for comments and additional material. The PV process – which is easy, accessible, and empowering – allowed 80 participants in a two day workshop to explore issues, demonstrate creativity, communicate needs, problem solve, and express concern to decision makers. The process of PV differs from documentary film-making, where the outcome remains the authored product of the film-maker, with little control exercised by its subjects. With PV, subjects create their own films, controlling how they will be represented and how they will depict their message. The focus is on content and process, rather than cinematography, to create an avenue for change. A showing of some of the videos will be presented as part of this presentation.

Presenter: Shirley Thompson, Phd, M.Eng.
Assistant Professor
Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba