How we produced the videos linked to this handbook development

In the Vrinda Project we want to share the inside stories of development cooperation programs: so we opted for an extensive use of the audio-visual media and we worked with the partners on the field, at project locations, howsoever remote they are.
We have used the video camera as a means to understand and communicate, so as to reveal the human element of development work and show the cultural context of cooperation activities. In the videos collected we also reveal the backstage of the team work, the debates among the actors, their approach, so as to portray different approaches and use different interpretations and keys to the issues under observation.

We uploaded all original recorded material on YouTube: in this way project stakeholders could freely utilize and share with their public and partners the video footage collected. Their feedback is helping us to edit the material and link the stories and testimonies to the development issues tackled in this handbook.

The audio-visual documentation was gathered in cooperation with the Eugad project (see introduction); most of the footage was shot in Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and South Asia with the support of the network partners from these regions (in particular with Kautilya Society and Armadilla).
The Italian State Television (RAI1) was also an associated partner of EUGAD. The agreement was that a team of 2 employees of RAI1 traveled with us, we introduced them to the on-going projects on the field and they shared with us the collected footage after a single TV broadcast. The Kautilya Society team also independently collected additional audio-visual documentation and shared it with the RAI1 collegues. On the basis of this footage RAI1 has produced 5 short reportage on TV7 and a long comprehensive one on TG1 Speciale. Our aim was to enable each others to achieve our specific objectives without necessarily mediating a compromised stand; so we left each other free to reinterpret and distribute the results of the joint effort. The colleagues of RAI were given the opportunity to edit the video recordings freely and the videos have been broadcast on TV7 and on Speciale TG1 (see below for more details)

After that broadcasting the audio-visual resources returned to be the exclusive asset of the project and we are now re-editing them for the wikibook. We are also preparing an independent documentary as a separate avenue for distribution of the collected resources. The difference from RAI usage and our usage of the audiovisual recording will also help understanding the challenge of fair communication to the general public of the real development issues. (more in ⇒ Media and the international communication climate)