“Advocacy video is not about filmmaking. It’s about change.”

“If you care about the issues you are addressing, you understand that you must get these stories out to the public, even if the work is hard on you.”

Mwelwa Kamanda, a member of the Camfed Zambia team, was introduced to filmmaking in a participatory workshop chronicled in Camfed’s first documentary, Where the Water Meets the Sky. As one of the Samfya Women Filmmakers that emerged from that first training, Mwelwa was selected from a group of 200 people from around the world to attend a prestigious program to train activists in filmmaking for social change.

In July, Mwelwa traveled abroad for the first time to join 26 other emerging filmmakers from 24 countries including Iraq, Georgia, Indonesia, and Brazil for the nine-day Witness Video Advocacy Institute in Montreal. “It was reassuring to learn that filmmakers from other countries are struggling to bring attention to some of the same issues that we face in Zambia, although their cultures might seem very different,” says Mwelwa. “We realized that as human rights filmmakers, we are united by our desire to inspire change in our societies.”

Now home in Zambia, Mwelwa will use the plan that she developed at the Institute and work with other members of the Samfya Women Filmmakers to produce a film focusing on child labor. She spoke to Kimberley Sevcik, Camfed’s Information & Media Relations Manager, about her experience in Montreal.

Kimberley: How did you feel when you learned you had been accepted to the Video Advocacy Institute?

Mwelwa: It was one of the greatest achievements of my life. I didn’t expect to be chosen because I had heard that the Institute was very respected and that selection was competitive.

What were your hopes going into the workshop?

I wanted to improve my filmmaking skills—I wanted to learn to edit, since I had never done that. I also wanted to increase my understanding of how to use video to advocate for human rights. And I hoped to learn from fellow participants who were working on human rights issues.

What were the most important things you took away from the experience?

First, that you must genuinely care about the issue you are presenting and the people you are filming. With advocacy video, you’re telling stories about real people, and you must respect them and be sensitive to their needs. Some of the case studies I heard at VAI were so moving they were painful. As a filmmaker, you might feel overwhelmed hearing stories like this, you might find it hard to continue. But if you care about the issues you are addressing, you understand that you must get these stories out to the public, even if the work is hard on you.

I also learned that advocacy video is not about filmmaking. It’s about change. It’s about convincing your audience that the issues in your film matter. My role as a filmmaker is to move my audience so that they are inspired to take action.

Was it challenging working with filmmakers from all over the world?

It wasn’t challenging. It was encouraging. I learned that it’s not only in Zambia that we face difficulties. Some of the issues that the other participants were working on were shocking. Child soldiers, for example. I knew about this problem, but I was not aware how terribly mistreated these children are.

It opened my mind to hear about what people in other countries are going through. I think all of the participants from the VAI learned from each other’s problems, and we want to help each other fight for change.

What were your favorite parts of the workshop?

I was asked to be part of a three-person panel on human rights and the media, presented by the National Film Board of Canada. I had the opportunity to talk about the filmmaking workshop we did in Samfya. It was the first time I had ever spoken before a big audience, and their reaction was encouraging. They were very impressed to learn that women, many of whom cannot read or write, are learning to make films in Samfya!

What are your goals for using film to end child labor?

The most important audience for me to reach is the community. I want the video to speak to parents who send their children to work. My objective is to help them understand how this hurts their children. Because when they send their child to work, they are depriving that child of an education. When they deprive her of an education, they also deprive her of a good future. If community members walk away from my film understanding this, then I will know I have done my job.

Listen to Mwelwa’s perspective on how child labor perpetuates poverty in Zambia.

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