The ThunderBlogs

A film panel presentation focussing on the plight of marginalized Latin American communities shed light yesterday on urban development issues, while simultaneously casting doubt on the effectiveness of footage in helping resolve them.

The omniscient voice of a Canadian narrator rippled intermittently from in-ceiling speakers. Beneath them sat roughly 100 local audience members sporting thick-rimmed glasses, silk-embossed scarves and Gucci handbags. They watched as a 66-year-old Brazilian fruit vendor pushed his cart across the screen, silently churning up dust in his wake.

“Having a camera just creates a different fabric, a different way of engaging,” said Jonathan Frantz, participatory filmmaker and adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning. “Through video we’re trying to frame some of that and share it to instigate social change.”

Participatory Filmmaking: Activism or Art comprised just one slice of the eighth annual Vancouver Latin American Film Festival. Its workshops, seminars and 59 short films and features draw on the varied experiences of people from over a dozen countries well south of the 49th parallel.

On this cool Wednesday evening inside the performance hall of Yaletown’s Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre, an impoverished hillside community was clinging to the patchwork outskirts of São Paulo.

Unregistered bairro residents, depicted on a retractable projector screen, sought decent roads and electricity, clean water and government recognition. Documentary footage told “their story through their own voice, in their own words,” Frantz said.

In between video clips, four 20- and 30-somethings including Frantz pontificated over the hardships of deprived communities in Brazil, Cuba and El Salvador, as well as the purpose of capturing their situation on film.

“It’s about hearing those whose voices might not usually be heard,” said Sarah Shamash, a UBC Film Production graduate. “You know, because perception is dynamic depending on our position in time and space.”

Sitting in red-cushioned chairs, the other panellists nodded their heads as Frantz said that “if collaborative films are going to be used as a political tool, like ours, they have to be done artistically.”

In response one grey-haired audience member asked what concrete effect their artistic work had on the communities portrayed. “It’s hard for me to track the impact of these videos,” said Frantz. “Very little tangibly, I guess.”

“I’ll show a documentary to politicians, planners or engineers,” he said. “But the funders like the government have to be aware that they may end up with a piece that is more artistic in nature. They have to appreciate that we might just be spreading awareness.”

An extended applause followed the panel presentation. Further discussion surrounding post-production contact with the communities, donation options or government aid was overshadowed by other topics.

“My participatory filming doesn’t seem to fit the mould of information presentation,” said Frantz. “And you just sort of lose touch with how the video ends up working.”

More information on VLAFF, which runs September 2-12, is available at vlaff.org.