News on Participatory Video (PV)

DRC researchers reflect on using PV in research

Steve Abah reflects on using PV in Nigeria

Idaci Ferreira reflects on using PV in Angola (in Portuguese)

Steve Abah and Idaci Ferreira in conversation

Participatory video: a useful lens for research?

What are the advantages and challenges of using participatory video in research? What is distinctive about participatory video as opposed to other participatory approaches? And how does it combine with other methodologies? These are just some of the questions that Citizenship DRC researchers in Angola, Brazil, Mexico and Nigeria are trying to answer as they use participatory video in their research.

 Researchers at the Citizenship DRC are using participatory video in their research, some of them for the first time. In Bangladesh , Simeen Mahmud and her team are carrying out research on the theme of deepening democracy, building citizenship and promoting participation. They are looking particularly at the role of civil society organisations in Bangladesh and work with eight civil society organisations to do so. They are using participatory video with four of them – the Grameen Bank, Nijera Kori , Bangladesh Sramajibi Kendro and Proshika.

Working with the Grameen Bank, research participants learnt how to use the video and sound equipment and were able, without much trouble, to record interviews with each other. On the second day participants went out to interview people in their village. Three groups drew up different ideas for subjects to explore independently. They were: local problems, present political situation and the price hike. After watching back their recordings, the participants felt more confident and more interested in connecting video with community expression and communication within a society. According to the research team, community members realised the potential video has for empowerment of the community.

DRC Manager and researcher Joanna Wheeler worked recently with communities living in favelas, or urban slums, in Rio de Janeiro while she was researching citizenship in violent contexts. She carried out a series of conversations and discussions around the research questions with community researchers and used video as part of the process. At the end of the research, community researchers made their own videos and chose subjects that were most important to them to focus on. The videos reflect their analysis of the situation.

One of the films is called, ‘The life we do not want’ and is about a young man who gets involved with drugs. His mother is single and doesn’t know what is going on even though her neighbours warn her. Her son goes missing and the implication is that he is dead or missing. At the end of the drama both a young person and a mother give a message to other children and parents - talking about the problem of violence and describing where the problems come from and what they think

The community researchers helped organise a public screening and debate of the videos. The cinema was at full capacity with fifty people attending including community residents, community leaders, NGO people, city and state government, and newspaper journalists. The debate panel included a city legislator, a representative of federal ministry of culture and a community leader who represents 17 favelas. A national newspaper ran an article the next day.

Using participatory video as a methodology in research is a new area for the Citizenship DRC so capturing lessons learnt is key. During a participatory video training in Nigeria , researchers agreed to keep field diaries – writing down daily experiences and thoughts throughout the research and field work. They will also take video footage of the process so that a film can be made from all of their collective work. A future workshop will take place where researchers can share their experiences in more detail.