Remote Participatory Video in Medellin, Colombia

Spectacle has been at the forefront of Participatory Video (PV) practice and community engagement for more than thirty years. We continue to innovate and during the last 9 months we have developed a model for delivering Participatory Video workshops remotely.

Reinventada, a participatory video project for LSE

The Project

Spectacle is currently a partner in a research project developing a groundbreaking remote PV method. The research project Reinventada is funded by the London School of Economics (LSE) Knowledge Exchange and Impact Fund (KEI). It investigates the condition of displaced and migrant women, especially mothers and heads of household, living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods of Medellin (Colombia).

The Garcia sisters, Celmira and Elicenia

The research was initially planned to produce a participatory documentary on women’s ‘right to the city’ in Medellin. However, as soon as the pandemic crisis exploded, being well aware that women are amongst the most affected groups of people during emergencies and disasters, we were able to create a remote participatory project that investigates the impact of COVID-19 on participants’ everyday lives in poorer areas of the city. 

The Beginning

Started in May 2020, the project was originally planned to be conducted face-to-face, but was forced online due to the pandemic. It is led by dr. Sonja Marzi, the Principal Investigator from the Department of Methodology at LSE, as well as supported on the ground by two Colombian partners: Maria Fernanda Carrillo, a sociologist and filmmaker, and Lina Maria Zuluaga, anthropologist.

Dr. Sonja Marzi, Principal Investigator of the project

The aim of this research project is to create a documentary filmed and edited by the women themselves to depict their daily lives during the pandemic. 

Online Participatory Video

We began initially by training the participants on how to best use web platforms and available technology. We set up weekly ‘Zoom’ meetings that served as an online space for workshops on filming techniques and how to use their smartphones to capture high quality video. Zoom meetings became the workshop space where all production and editorial decisions were discussed and made in consensus. The production meetings are chaired by participants on a rotating basis. We discussed film content, planned shoots, reviewed and critiqued the footage together, and collaborated on editing the final documentary.

Demetria, chairing a meeting

The groundbreaking project has successfully adapted Spectacle’s Participatory Video methods and techniques to an online environment. The short documentary Reinventadas was released at the end of 2020 and premiered in film festivals in 2021. 

Collaborative editing process

Watch the Final Film

Visit our vimeo channel to see examples of Spectacle’s past PV work.

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Olympic regeneration exposed in the Journal for Northeast Issues

Journal for North EastFrom this week the new issue of the Journal For Northeast Issues edited by Projekgruppe, will be on sale. The specialised periodical features a reprint of an article by Mark Saunders  Fish and Freedom Fries on London’s Olympic regeneration myths and realities.

In July 2006, London rejoiced at winning the bid to 2012 Olympic Games. But who is really celebrating? Mostly urban planners, who have carte blanche to carry through a programme of urban reconstruction otherwise beyond their wildest hopes.

In London, Olympic visions tie in nicely with existing policies of regeneration. Made digestible using labels such as “mixed tenure” and “social diversity”, regeneration is effectively a policy of interference with existing social structures.

Documentary filmmaker Mark Saunders describes, how in East London, the structures being replaced are precisely those that do not coincide with the private interests behind the Olympic bid.

The Journal For Northeast has been published by Hamburg based Revolver Publishing since November 2007, under the label “For now, let’s make our paper as a living magazine!”

A release event will take place on 9 December in Hamburg. In early 2011, related journal events will take place in Budapest, Vienna and Copenhagen.

Click London Olympics for more blogs
See our Olympics project pages for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

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