EYE TO COLOMBIA SANCOCHO FILMS AND DREAMS, AN EXPERIENCE OF PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION MEANS THE PONDEROSA
By: Carlos Pena David Durango
Keywords:
Citizen Media, Communication, Community, Video, Audiovisual Participation, Re-signification.
Summary Dreams Films
Colombia and the International Festival of Film and Video Alternative and Community EYE TO SANCOCHO are alternative media and community education generated the need for the Democratization of the Media, led by a group of young entrepreneurs who advance a participatory audiovisual training in several locations in Bogota, particularly in Ciudad Bolivar, San Cristobal and Barrios Unidos. Its purpose is to promote and share spaces of freedom, free speech, recreational spaces, creative, productive and leading roles for children and youth to be recognized, participate in society and work in the re-construction of collective identities that the release of stigma caused by conventional means.
INTRODUCTION
New information technology and communication have allowed resources such as video and even leave the cinema in elite circles that moved in the past to volunteer en masse to all that which is of interest in alternatives. The facility to record video, edit it and share it through alternative media like the Internet have been key to the generation of participatory communication processes in which communities previously invisible to the logic mercantilist traditional means of communication brought to light and become partakers of life in society, achieving a comprehensive development of the people who make it through the strengthening of self-esteem and recognition of their role in their territories, thereby strengthening the ability to overcome problems and view and manage solutions.
The International Festival of Film and Video Alternative and Community EYE TO SANCOCHO is an event that was born in Ciudad Bolivar - Bogotá, one of the largest urban centers with problems of poverty and social exclusion, as a response to the needs of expression youth, is an attempt to "democratize the media culture in Colombia and Latin America ", produced and hosted by Dream Films Colombia, a group of young entrepreneurs in the audiovisual area originating in Ciudad Bolivar, San Cristobal and Barrios Unidos, which provides alternative communication and education to young people of these localities in the Capital Colombia, in an effort to dignify the existence through artistic and cultural training, creation, dissemination, circulation, research, ownership, recognition as citizens and active participation in caring communities.
The festival, held by first time in 2008, promotes new audiovisual directors and producers of Ciudad Bolivar, Bogota, Colombia and Latin America, whose contents fit in the concept of an audiovisual educational-cultural, informative and inspiring "to enable the exchange of knowledge, skills and experience in the use of audiovisual media at the community level and promote the Latin American identity, multiculturalism and the values \u200b\u200bof freedom, solidarity, peace and justice, all geared towards the creation of spaces for the collective construction of a culture audiovisual meets the needs of the social realities in Colombia and Latin America.
Another goal pursued by the completion of this activity is to provide elements that allow the transformation of negative imagery on the territory of Ciudad Bolivar, giving visibility and outreach to local audiovisual activities and highlighting the creativity of proposals and the resources and the low cost that characterizes them, as well as progress in the processes of community organization in Ciudad Bolivar, and the local cultural heritage and rural and urban.
Colombia Dreams Films develops projects and participatory communication.
"School of Audio Visual Research Eko, a training initiative for children and youth sectors with high levels of poverty and violence and with limited access to comprehensive training recreational spaces to alternative educational activity, offering options for learn the realization of audiovisual products and training in the assessment of art and expression as non-violent activities that transform conflict situations and opportunities for improvement. Is a traveling school that does not depend on physical space and moves according to the needs of each locality and children and youth who participate in it.
Also perform a series of documentaries called "Ciudad Bolivar, Our land, Our Earth, which promotes civic culture and the prevention of crime and violent deaths to young people. It also aims to foster recognition and visibility to local, national and international coexistence of successful initiatives, education, culture and art.
Projects that could be compared with the ingredients that Sancocho on which all eyes alight and are the basis of the International Festival of Film and Video Alternative and Community.
CONCEPTS OF MEDIA AND CITIZENS PARTICIPATION
According to Jair Vega and Clemencia Rodríguez [1] , alternative media, community and citizens have played an important role in the processes of social change in Latin America, based on theories of researchers such as Chantal Mouffe, Gumucio - Dagron, Paulo Freire and Antonni Pasquale. In his text as `media Citizens Political Subjects: the case of community radio station in Magdalena Medio, Colombia, set out to redefine the concept of citizenship outlined in the theories of Mouffe, beyond mere legal formality legitimate membership in a political community entitles you to participate in democracy, citizen means anyone who exists within a specific social space, "a city \u200b\u200bexists as it participates in interactions that have their foundations in local daily life including relationships with family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, members of a religious community, etc. "(Ibid, pg. 7) .
The authors propose that these relationships provide citizens with small amounts of economic power and / or cultural, which in turn are as the main input for democracy.
In this vein is then defined as the "Citizen Media" as those that promote the transformation of individuals in Citizens, those that activate the appropriation of symbols and the re-codification of the people and their environment, generators identity construction processes are deeply rooted in local relationships. "A genuine citizen media is actively involved in social and cultural environment, with clear proposals for determining the future of the community" (ibid. p.7).
The International Festival of Film and Video Alternative and Community EYE TO SANCOCHO and in general the Dreams Project Films Colombia, can be studied in light of the proposals and Clemencia Rodríguez Jair Vega on Citizen Media, since this experience relates to community members in productive activities and audiovisual display in which they socialize various aspects of reality as violence and everyday problems, serving as a catalyst for bringing about changes, participation in local decisions and the reconfiguration of the different social and cultural aspects of the environment.
experience in this video as a medium of communication, maintains constant contact and interaction with the communities of Ciudad Bolivar, Saint Kitts and Barrios Unidos, their realities and their proposals for the construction of collective meanings alternative to violence, fear and sadness that has long stigmatized this portion of the Colombian capital, initiating change in children and young people who are formed as a generation where despair is not learned and therefore has greater powers to make systemic changes that are reflected in the improved quality of life.
Festival Colombian government entities linked to the Ministry of Culture and the Mayor of Bogota and Local mayor of Ciudad Bolivar, Gilberto Alzate Avendaño Foundation, Agency English Cooperation in Colombia, Cinep-Peace Programme, the Master of Cultural Studies at the Pontifical Javeriana University, The Institute for Studies in Communication and Culture IECO, War Child Holland, South Agenda Journal, TRUST Cooperative Financial Relations Observatory EU-Latin America (OBREAL) area of \u200b\u200baudiovisual communication and cooperation, ETB, Organic Digital Format 19k, Hospital Vista Hermosa, Instituto Cerros del Sur "ICES", Channel Five, Omar Rincón, among other groups and social organizations.
which is achieved with the strengthening of their autonomy and legitimacy of the activity in the social context.
Moreover Democratization of Communication as a condition for the existence of a true democracy, is approached by Osvaldo Leon and Sally Burch in his text "Democratization of the Media" [2] which exposed the existence of a general sense in Latin America during the 80's with regard to the fact that much of the mainstream media or were props for the establishment of dictatorships or accommodated them, either by censorship or self-censorship, leading to the establishment of monopolies in exchange effective favors hidden character as silencing the voices of political opposition and social movements.
"But in that proclamation was also present the voice and desire of countless efforts and alternative experiences, with a popular sense, community, base, etc., Sought from putting counterpoint segments of media management, to formulate global responses, in a sense anti-hegemonic, through a hybrid, but with one common denominator: the affiliation to what was moving around the "national communication policies" that supported the demand for a New Order Global Information and Communication (NWICO) "(ibid. Pag 1)
The traditional media in Colombia and Latin America have succeeded in accumulating power and" virtual occupation of public space ", allowing them to act political and economic agenda itself, establishing what is or is not showing social relevance and popular communities that remain outside of this agenda as victims of natural disasters and conflicts and crime protagonists.
This phenomenon generates Dreams Films movements like Colombia and the International Festival of Film and Video Community Eye to Sancocho Thanks to new technologies of information and easy access democratizes the production of audiovisual messages, giving these areas a chance to show from their own perspective totally different from traditional media.
Another theory required for the analysis of this experience is tackled by Manuel Jair Vega in his Masters Thesis in Political-Economic Study "Evaluation of the implementation of the National Houses of Justice from the experience of the House of Justice of the Peace in Barranquilla area " [3] where supported by various authors set out various definitions of participation and its different manifestations in the context of city, among which are the three kinds of Participatory Communication from A. Meister: voluntary, provoked or unprovoked, in fact. The first in which new collective behaviors arise as a result of the voluntary formation of groups or movements, the latter as one in which participation is fully managed from an entity external to the community that has control over the activities and the third as one in which participation is generated not voluntarily or raised. When the individual is immersed in groups that exist before that he and the family or office group.
The author quoted investigators as Diaz-Bordenave, De Roux, Delgado and others who have different concepts related to the different levels of participation, which permit the identification of levels of participation in his study of the Houses of Justice and can also be used to understand the levels of involvement in the case of Ojo Sancocho.
CHANGES TO ACHIEVE THROUGH MOVING IMAGES
The International Festival of Film and Video Alternative EYE TO SANCOCHO Community and can be understood as a participatory communication experience as their structure is based on EU production and distribution of audiovisual content in accessible formats that have been developed as a result of processes of community training in different areas and popular sectors Bogotá not only but also from other cities participating in the Festival of Cali, Medellin and even Latin American countries like Cuba, Mexico, Bolivia and Argentina.
is an experience that has its roots in the community and emerges as a mechanism to bring the media to the popular sectors, and the possibility to tell their realities from the standpoint of local realities that not only are composed of multiple conflicts and violence stemming from poverty that are presented through the traditional media.
According to Diaz - Bordenave [4] experience we can identify a level of participation consistent with the "self", since the collective Dreams Films Colombia, festival organizers work character as a community agency that has full access to the control and decision-making about their operation and that of all the projects undertaken included the Festival, without interference from any organizations that over time have joined the project as sponsors, or any other external nature.
The group sets its goals and objectives independently, design rules and conditions for participation in the Festival works, provides programming and design controls, side events, awards and others, maintaining independence and respecting the peculiarities of members of different local and foreign communities that are part of the initiative and participate in it in the various roles necessary for the organization and functioning.
Although this is not the only level of involvement that is present in experience, since from the standpoint of Meister [5] , we could find, apart from voluntary participation is presented the members of the community organizers of the Festival, a participation rate in those arouse or event participants from different communities to the neighborhoods of Ciudad Bolivar, San Cristobal and Barrios Unidos, as these are involved in the project from an invitation by Dreams Films Colombia, but from the activities of community and participatory nature.
Also, from the thought of Manuel Jair Vega and Clemencia Rodríguez, we can say that the festival EYE TO SANCOCHO and Dreams Film Colombia, relate to the idea of \u200b\u200bcitizen media, as are initiatives achieved status of "Political Subject," noting that through his proposals for production and dissemination of audiovisual material made from community and clearly looks foregrounding local agendas of interest, they become protagonists in the process of re- significance of local realities in the construction of collective identities and the re-encoding of individuals and their role in society, thus intervening radically in the redesign and configuration of your future and therefore in their environment.
also because thanks to these initiatives has been achieved 1. exposing to the public communities previously invisible by traditional media and even by the state, and place them in the collective imagination of a new way that not only recognized by violence and poverty but also for their creative abilities, sensitivity art and their particular ways of living and understanding the world.
AND 2. Encourage the interrelation of the members of the community with state entities and others are part of public life and favor the formation of concepts on which to build public policies that support over time the positive changes achieved through the work of Citizenship and Participatory Communication.
Conclusion
communication as a fundamental social process can help communities achieve significant changes to improve the quality of life and provide solutions to problems that are framed in relations between individuals.
For Dreams Films and the International Festival of Film and Video Alternative and Community EYE TO SANCOCHO, communication is a mediator in the construction of collective meanings and through the completion and exhibition of audiovisual material itself , made as a community and from the point of view of those living realities such as Ciudad Bolivar, San Cristobal and Barrios Unidos in Bogota and their counterparts in Colombia and Latin America, has managed to overcome stigma imposed by traditional media has always have referred to them as mere victims of disasters and the protagonists of many conflicts, excluded from society and lack of spaces for artistic creation.
Participatory communication has been a key ingredient in the success of these initiatives, given that individuals within communities have their say and are heard through their visual creations and have the opportunity to participate in spaces of cultural exchange between different people and groups (independent, community, empirical, ethnic groups, urban tribes, groups - social, academic, amateur, self-study etc.) that are part of the audiovisual landscape locally, nationally and internationally and work on developing high-quality audiovisual products subject from alternative views that encourage respect for life and the values \u200b\u200bthat identify our cultures.
would be interesting to integrate the Festival and other activities of the group Dream Films Colombia to different spaces at three locations where currently developing their projects, in order to overcome barriers related to negative imaginary prebuilt and greater participation of the general public and provide opportunities for reflection on realities nearby but unknown to many, as well as assisting local producers exchange in other settings, enabling them to learn other perspectives and other stories developed from similar concepts.
Likewise Films Dreams experience Colombia with regard to participatory community work and can serve as a model for the implementation of programs through the government processes aim at social change in communities far from the urban centers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
BORDENAVE DIAZ, J. Participation in society. Buenos Aires: Ed Search, 1985.
Leon, Osvaldo. Burch, Sally. (2007). Democratize communication. Revista América Latina en Movimiento, 421, 1-2.
Meister, A. Participation and Social Change. Venezuela: Monte Avila, 1992.
Rodríguez, Clemencia. Vega, Manuel. (2007). Citizens' media as a Political Subjects: the case of community radio stations in Magdalena Medio, Colombia. Internationalizing Media Studies. University of Westminster. Routledge. London. In press.
Second Film and Video Festival of Alternative and Community Eye to Stew. Retrieved October 25, 2009. http://www.festivalojoalsancocho.org/paginas/objetivos.html
Vega, Manuel. (2004). EVALUATION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE OF THE PEACE IN BARRANQUILLA BARRIO. Master's thesis in Political and Economic Studies. Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia.
[1] Citizens as Political Subjects `media: the case of community radio station in Magdalena Medio, Colombia: Clemencia Rodriguez, Jair Vega
[2] Osvaldo León and Sally Burch, Democratizing Communication.
[3] Manuel Jair Vega, EVALUATION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF THE HOUSE OF JUSTICE OF THE PEACE IN BARRANQUILLA BARRIO
[4] Diaz Bordenave, Participation and Partnership
[5] Meister, A. Participation and Social Change
