POWER to the PEOPLE!
Roots of Community TV Part 2
George Stoney is a documentary filmmaker and media teacher whose work has been concerned with issues of social justice and empowerment. In 1967 Stoney accepted a position with the Film Board of Canada to head up its Challenge for Change initiative. The idea was to put film and videomaking tools in the hands of everyday citizens in order that they might document their own problems and concerns.
One such crew represented Mohawk Indians near Cornwall, Ontario where a bridge joins Canada and the United States. The Indians had long complained that a 1794 treaty guaranteeing them duty free passage was being violated; their protests had apparently gone unnoticed in Ottawa. The Indian film group now planned a demonstration and a film to give it impact. The demonstrators would block the international bridge, halting the traffic as a means to publicize their case. Demonstration and film were planned together. (Barnouw, Erik Documentary p.258)
Stoney heard about the Mohawks’ plans and sent additional crew to help cover the events. The confrontation between the Mohawks and police on the snowy highway became the film You Are on Indian Land and won the Mohawks a hearing with the government.
Another well known Challenge for Change project was the 1969 production VTR St.Jacques. (VTR stands for Video Tape Recorder). Portable video, giant sized by today’s standards, was just becoming available in the late 1960’s. Residents of St. Jacques, a poor section of Montreal, used the new equipment to tell about their problems. Then they held a community meeting to view and discuss the taped testimony. This discussion was taped and in turn, viewed and discussed.
As community members saw themselves and others in discussion, subtle shifts of opinion took place. The tapes thus stimulated and improved intra-community communication, as well as serving as a bridge to officialdom outside the community. (Barnouw, p. 260)
George Stoney has encouraged this model of community media since his experience with Challenge for Change. While teaching at the Alternative Media Center at NYU in the 1970’s, he sent his students into the neighborhoods to share production skills with community residents. The resulting efforts were aired on newly available public access television channels. Stoney and his teaching partner Red Burns are generally credited with pioneering the first community media efforts in this country and George is affectionately called the Father of Public Access.
Today, Stoney sits on the Board of Directors for the Manhattan Neighborhood Network and is active in the Alliance for Community Media. Each year, the ACM presents "The George Stoney Award" to an organization or individual who has made an outstanding contribution to championing the growth and experience of humanistic community communications. MCM received the George Stoney Award in 2002 for its dedication to the citizens of McMinnville and their democratic right to media access.
Citizens of McMinnville, you have a television station that belongs to you. It is called MCM, McMinnville Community Television. Through its facilities you can make television programming that will reach cable television viewers in our local community and a bit beyond (Comcast’s signal reaches Newberg, Dayton , Dundee . Lafayette , Yamhill and Carlton ).
How can you access such a fantastic pportunity?
You can participate in our video production workshops and learn all facets of television production; you can place a community announcement on the Channel 11 Bulletin Board; you can volunteer to help on a production or simply watch Channel 11 with family and friends.
If you would like to learn more, please call Liz at MCM. 503-434-1234 xt. 23 |
