EngageMedia, in collaboration with the Video4Change network, announce the global launch of the Video for Change Impact Toolkit.
This ambitious project unites the knowledge, expertise and best practices of all the seasoned Video for Change practitioners in our network and beyond. The resulting Toolkit is something you can’t afford to miss — whether you are a practitioner wanting to create social issue videos, an experienced film-producer interested in different types of social change, or a human rights NGO looking to make impactful videos.
The Toolkit emphasises the process of making a video as much as the product and explores the threats and opportunities facing social movements working in human and environmental rights. This approach is different from the bulk of work in the impact field, which tends to focus on feature documentaries with large budgets, mostly operating in liberal democracies in the global north. While there is much to learn from this work, the political, cultural and economic contexts of many Video for Change projects, particularly those happening in the global South, mean that the underpinning theories and methodologies require significant adaptation and additions.
With the help of the Toolkit, you’ll learn how to safely and effectively make videos that engage and involve the videos’ subject(s) and affected communities. You’ll also learn strategies for maximising impacts during the outreach, engagement and distribution phase after your video is made. And, most importantly, you’ll learn how to evaluate the success, or otherwise, of your project.
The Impact Toolkit is designed to be modular, so you can start reading anywhere you feel is most relevant to you. You can also use the Toolkit as a reference guide, or put the methodologies into practice. It’s entirely up to you.
Either way, we are sure the ideas, references, resources and real-life examples shared throughout the Toolkit will strengthen the way you strategise, design and evaluate the impacts of your video initiative. Because that is what this Toolkit is all about: helping readers to safely and effectively use video to create more impact and garner greater social change, however big or small.
We look forward to hearing your stories and seeing your videos.