Film for Change : Communication Rights and Social Change in Tanzania

Film for Change is a cross disciplinary tool for the self-representation, self-determination and self-mediation of people who find themselves marginalised from processes of globalization and the democratization of communication. The book seeks to find an answer to the question of how film for change works as a method to empower disadvantaged inhabitants in three villages in Tanzania, where fieldwork was carried out. The book tracks parameters that connect the visual communication experience to social reality and bear the potential to change it. The use of visual communication technology, interactive and horizontal communication practices, fictionalizations and empowerment strategies enable processes among participants that permit them to reframe or reconsider 'truths'. Film for change reaches beyond the community and through convergence with Web 2.0 into the global public sphere. As citizens' media, Film for Change enables media users to become producers of self-communicated alternatives to the global flows of information. In this way film for change connects to the right to communicate and becomes a tool for citizens to influence power relations and advocate social change.