[Ed Note: This article first appeared as a guest blog post on MediaRights.org]

Can social-issue documentaries play a role in helping to end global poverty?

Link TV thinks so.

Almost one year ago, the nonprofit global affairs media organization and broadcast network launched a project based on the idea that documentary storytelling, combined with social actions and the latest news, could make a meaningful contribution to the challenge of global poverty. The idea became ViewChange.org, an online portal built on the foundation of semantic Web technology that connects documentary stories to news and social actions in global poverty. In other words, in one place, people can watch character-driven stories, read the latest news about issues covered in the films, and then connect directly to action campaigns around each social issue. It’s a site and tool that’s primed for grassroots awareness and action.

The ViewChange.org platform is now a curated documentary hub with more than 400 short- and long-form character-driven documentaries from around the world – and all of them illustrate real progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals, which together comprise the world’s “blueprint” for ending global poverty. The portal site now includes the best stories from top global development organizations and filmmakers around the world.

I work on the project in a kind of hybrid role that combines documentary producing, communication campaign strategy and partnership cultivation with top global development organizations, including Devex, InterAction, Save the Children, UNICEF, PSI, Global Health Council, ONE, Comminit, Bread for the World and more. And thanks to the expertise of these groups, combined with the amazing repository of films now licensed to ViewChange.org, we’ve started producing half-hour TV specials in partnership with several top global development organizations – the ViewChange TV series. For each show, the narrative is informed by the expertise and objectives of the partner organization, and the main story and outreach campaign are developed simultaneously against the backdrop of the group’s organizational (and sometimes advocacy) objectives, creating a powerful campaign-style approach.

But one key to the project is simple and so powerful for those in the social-justice community to organize around specific issues – the fully-sharable/embeddable formatting of the acquired films and the final jointly-produced shows. By giving the videos, films and global development shows to groups and blogs to embed and share for their own purposes, we’re offering a tool that’s useful not only in our own campaign outreach, but for others to use in theirs. Interested in raising attention about the connection between climate change and drought in developing nations? Want to support innovative hunger relief programs in poor areas of the world? Need a documentary story that can be used in your own awareness/activist campaign to organize for purposes of advocacy or other goals? Navigating through the ViewChange.org tool provides all of these opportunities.  

Just last week, one of these jointly-produced documentary specials premiered on Link TV (Friday, August 12 and 16) and on ViewChange.org. Working closely with Bread for the World, an anti-hunger advocacy organization, the “ViewChange: Challenging Hunger” documentary special combines filmmaking from Bread for the World itself, along with short films from Oxfam and the Sundance Institute. In this particular show, the organization’s advocacy goals – to use foreign aid more effectively to help poor and hungry people – provide the narrative thru-line.

The call to action is urgent: With more than a billion people suffering from chronic hunger, the timing of potential budget cuts would be particularly devastating to developing nations. And the special debunks a key foreign assistance myth and provides new insight into the ripple effects of chronic hunger: Most Americans believe that about 25 percent of the U.S. budget goes toward foreign assistance, but, in fact, less than 1 percent supports crucial foreign assistance programs—including anti-hunger programs and food aid. The funding is vital to the continued development and management of innovative programs that provide long-term solutions to hunger.

The outreach includes a grassroots campaign to reach out to Bread for the World’s network of thousands of individual members, churches and denominations around the country, as well as reaching out through its college-age hunger activists group. Teams at both Link TV and Bread for the World are working jointly in an integrated strategic communication campaign model that includes traditional media outreach, blogging, sharing the show via embeddable links, outreach to top global development influencers, and social media.

To support Bread for the World’s work directly, check out its fact sheets and advocacy opportunities on its site: Tell Congress to create a circle of protection around funding for programs that are vital to hungry and poor people in the US and abroad.

Follow ViewChange on Twitter @ViewChange and at Facebook.com/ViewChange.

You can watch and share the full show here:

Each year, Oxfam estimates that more than 500,000 people are killed due to armed violence with countless more left devastated, displaced, traumatized, and angry.  Armed violence destroys lives, drains government resources, undermines development efforts, and fosters a culture of violence, fear, and corruption. It is big business with huge ramifications. 
   
At the moment, there is no global arms trade treaty regulating the transfer of arms. Too often, cheap yet highly destructive weapons land in the hands of those who use them to assert power insidiously and further continue a vicious cycle of violence. For developing countries, particularly those in conflict or post-conflict situations, the low-cost accessibility of weapons wreaks havoc on efforts to achieve reconciliation and development. While decades of tensions slowly settle, an arsenal of cheap, available weapons remains—stunting efforts to move forward peacefully.  Families are left displaced and devastated by the loss or injury of a family member; their home may be destroyed or no longer safe to live in, and they may be left virtually income-less with no able-bodied workers or farmland. Already struggling health care systems are overburdened; schools are forced to closed or get by with meager support; access to food becomes limited. Anger, hopelessness, and fear grow. Any tensions that may arise or continue in communities—ethnic or religious conflicts, neighbor or land disputes—are resolved through violence. And when you are angry and disempowered with no job or education opportunities—no potentials to grow or support your family, when an AK-47 or grenade is as cheap and accessible as a pint of beer, as is the case in Burundi, it is easy to see how violence remains the preferred medium for conflict resolution. Violence infiltrates every aspect of the culture; it becomes a daily part of life.
   
“Weapons call out to other weapons,” says Teddy Mazina, a journalist in the documentary film Bang for your Buck. The huge supply of cheap weapons leftover from Burundi’s civil war has contaminated his country, he says, causing an intractable cycle of violence and corrupt power that undermines all development efforts. Underlying issues such as why violence is so easily resorted to are obscured by the sheer supply and availability of cheap grenades and Ak-47s. There needs to be regulation: a path towards disarmament.
   
Bang for Your Buck beautifully illustrates this need. As winner of Oxfam’s "Shooting Poverty” contest, the film was made to galvanize the Control Arms Campaign, a global civil society alliance, of which Oxfam is a part of, calling for a universal Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) would outline universal standards for arms exporters and importers, eradicating any loopholes or variance in regulation that could be used to evade responsibility and further fuel armed conflict, poverty, and human rights violations. The Campaign calls on members of the United Nations to secure this urgent treaty—one round of negotiation is underway this week in New York with the final conference scheduled for July 2010.  You can join the campaign and help ensure the government takes this opportunity to comprehensively regulate the deadly weapons trade.
   
A universal Arms Trade Treaty is an important step towards ending irresponsible arms transfers that promote corrupt agendas and violate human rights, drain resources, and hinder development efforts in countries striving to rebuild, particularly in the aftermath of civil war. Much more needs to be done, however, in order to start over. To learn more about the struggle for new beginnings check out ViewChange.org’s new episode, Starting Over, where Bang for Your Buck is featured along with two other powerful films. In the episode you will meet Teddy Mazina as he walks you through the realities of daily grenade attacks in Burundi, learn about Rwanda’s Gacaca justice tribunals, and witness one ex-patriot’s dream to promote economic development through tourism in Sierra Leone. 

Starting Over airs on Direct TV Channel 375 and DISH Network Channel 9410 on:

Friday, July 15th 4 pm PST
Sunday, July 17th 12am PST
Tuesday, July 19th 8pm PST
Wednesday, July 20th 3am and 10am PST
Friday, July 22nd  5am PST
Saturday, July 23rd 11:30pm PST.

And can also be viewed online at LinkTV.org.

Interview with Hamid Karzai

(Channel 4 News: March 1, 2011) Jon Snow from the UK's Channel 4 News interviews Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the military surge in Afghanistan, talking to the Taliban, corruption, and WikiLeaks.

Lampedusa: The Gate to Europe?

(Euronews: March 3, 2011) The small Italian island of Lampedusa, closer to Africa than Italy, is facing an influx of illegal immigrants from Tunisia. As the situation in Libya deteriorates, there are fears of a fresh wave of refugees.

Democracy, Indonesian-Style

(Al Jazeera English: March 4, 2011) After freeing itself from the grip of dictatorship more than a decade ago, Indonesia offers an example of how Islam and democracy and go hand-in-hand.

Christchurch Quake Unearths Time Capsules

(ITN News: March 1, 2011) What appear to be two time capsules have been discovered in the base of a statue in the aftermath of the recent earthquake in New Zealand.

(Associated Press: 0800 PST, February 22, 2011) Protesters were clashing with riot police in the Greek capital Wednesday after rallies and a general strike by workers angry about the government austerity measures. One policeman burned when he was caught by a firebomb.

Greece Strike Turns Violent in Athens

(Russia Today: 0700 PST, February 23, 2011) Young demonstrators hurled rocks and fire bombs at riot police as clashes broke out on Wednesday in Athens during a mass rally against austerity measures, part of a general strike that crippled services and public ransportation around the country. Police fired tear gas and flash grenades at protesters, blanketing parts of the city centre in choking smoke.

The winning entries for our ViewChange Online Film Contest represented a wide range of styles and themes as they told stories of progress in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals around the world. Ana Cetina’s Rising to the Top, the winner of the Local/Global Partnerships category, is a short film done in classic documentary style about the Sarakasi Trust’s innovative approach to youth empowerment in Nairobi. Last week, she wrote for the Huffington Post about the film, the Trust, and her deep-seated love for Kenya.

Ana Cetina moved to Nairobi, Kenya from Bogota, Colombia when she was seven, and returned to Kenya years later to film Endeleza, the extended version of her winning entry, Rising to the Top. She was motivated to document the inspirational story after leaving Kenya because she saw that many people outside of Africa only saw the continent’s dark side. In the Huffington Post, Cetina writes:

"I have always felt very fortunate that I had the opportunity to live in Kenya and see for myself how beautiful it is and how warm the people are. But after leaving the country, I noticed how little people in the west know about what Africa is really like. The media mostly shows the violence, the starving children, and the animals, and yes, this is a part of reality that everyone needs to be aware of. But very rarely do we get to see the beautiful people, the different cultures and the positive side of the continent that also deserves attention."

Rising to the Top is an inspiring short about the Sarakasi Trust, which provides performance arts training to the youth of Nairobi’s slums. The dance and acrobatic instruction they receive can subsequently be utilized as a sustainable source of income. Cetina’s Huffington Post article expresses her admiration for the program’s method of cultivating talent as well as life skills:

"What impressed me the most about the Sarakasi Trust [...] is the fact that instead of imposing western values as a means for success, Kenyans are able to use their existing culture for their own advancement. In addition to refining their dancing and acrobatic expertise, artists also get the opportunity to learn different life skills by means of workshops and performances around the world. And as they improve, they're also encouraged to use their creativity to provide input in coordinating and choreographing actual performances. In turn, through outreach programs, the more advanced performers serve as role models and relay their acrobatic and dancing skills to the youth living in the slums of Nairobi. The Sarakasi Trust provides Kenyans with the means to empower the younger generation with the hope of a better life."

Watch Rising to the Top:

Read Ana Cetina’s complete article in the Huffington Post.