Films are an important way to stimulate learning. The Change Agency used to host film screenings and discussion evenings called Couch Action which used films (often about issues) to focus on the processes of change making. We don’t organise Couch Action anymore but we recommend a couple of great films below that we have used as learning tools plus some tips and links for activist filmmaking. If you know of any good films that can help people better understand the processes of social action then please let us know. We are also interested in securing support to create our own activist learning films and we are looking for collaborators. If you are interested, please contact us.
|
A Force More Powerful, a three-hour documentary series, explores one of the 20th century's most important but least-understood stories - how nonviolent power overcame oppression and authoritarian rule all over the world. Narrated by Ben Kingsley, it premiered on PBS in September 2000.
|
Bringing Down A Dictator, a one-hour documentary, is the inside story of how Milosevic was brought down - not by smoke and flames, but by a courageous and risky campaign of political defiance and massive civil disobedience. Narrated by Martin Sheen, it premiered on PBS in March 2002.
|
| Using Grassroots Documentary Films for Political Change | |
http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page5286.cfm
Outreach tips for nonprofits and activist organisations who are interested in using documentary film to further their missions by David Whiteman, May 2002.
|
 | Audio Video NGO-IN-A-BOX - a collection of open-source AV software and tutorials and other linked materials. |  | | Australian Screen Education - Developed by Curriculum Corporation through The Le@rning Federation, the education collection of Australian Screen is designed to help teachers and students make the most of the wide range of moving image resources on the site. The clips in this collection are accompanied by teachers’ notes created by specialist curriculum writers. | | | Big Noise Films - Big Noise Tactical is a collective of media-makers dedicated to circulating beautiful, passionate, revolutionary images. | | | Chiapas Media Project - We supported CMP in 2004 to screen their films in Brisbane and to discuss how they use media to create social change working with Zapatista communities. | | | Engage Media - uses the power of video, the internet and free software technologies to affect social and environmental change. We believe independent media and free and open technologies are fundamental to building both the movements needed to challenge social injustice and environmental damage and also to provide and present solutions and forward thinking to these issues. EngageMedia works with independent filmmakers, video activists, technologists, campaigners and social movements to generate wider audiences for their vital messages and move people to action. | | | Undercurrents - Undercurrents was one of the first activist production companies who put together ‘real news’. Based in the UK, they are a non-profit company mostly working with video makers and communities who have been marginalised or overlooked by TV broadcasters. | | | Video Activist Network - The VAN is an informal association of activists and politically conscious artists using video to support social, economic and environmental justice campaigns. | | | Wild Spaces Film festival - Organised by Friends of the Earth http://www.foe.org.au Wild Spaces is Australia's only national film festival focused entirely on environmental, social justice and human rights issues. | | | YOUR Video - A practical guide to planning and creating effective videos. | |
| | |
|
