People-centred Advocacy

Michael Moore is a favorite of mine. I think he has been doing very important work using film as an advocacy tool for resisting, engaging, creating, strategising, and bridging gaps in order to improve people’s lives. It is often times said that a picture tells a thousand words, and since discovering the power of film, I believe that it tells people’s stories, as seen in the following video of illegal immigrant workers to the United States of America.

Video advocacy is a powerful tool and it enables persons who are affected by a particular problem to: capture it as it happens, present the side effects and cumulative challenges, and show it to leaders who have the power to make changes. Video, helps community leaders to tell elected representatives, donors, and other stakeholders a more believable story. Video illuminates a problem, thus allowing it to be seen easily.

In my work with Jamaican communities, I therefore urge them to present testimonies of their experiences using video, audio, photography, and hand records. In today’s world of rapidly advancing technology, we can complement personal and community advocacy campaigns with handy equipment like a tape recorder and video and digital camera. In fact, the presentation of a convincing story that will stimulate emotions for social change are dependent on them.

Michael Moore uses testimonies, video footage, and photographs accumulated specifically for his advocacy campaign (as seen in the following video) to tell a convincing story and achieve a success!