Monday, September 26, 2011

When I departed home for Caux in mid July, 2011, I knew what I was taking with me but I did not know what to expect. All I was sure of is that I had committed 3 weeks of my summer to meet 7 other participants from the world over to learn and practically engage with our creative side through the eye of a lens. I am talking about the first Caux Creatifs Media Training.

Mbindyo Kimanthi Week one started with a training on participatory video by Steve Wallis and Chalotte Bailey from Change Collective, an organization in the UK. Participatory video is a tool used to engage the community in a wholesome way to produce material for communication based on the community’s needs. It was interesting to learn how to use the camera in a way the people within the community from which you are involved in are empowered and at the same time have ownership of the content produced. The training was punctuated with practical lessons on camera skills including framing, lighting and sound, to mention a few. 

In the same week, I was able to develop interest in still photography, (something I have been less interested in) thanks to Yousef Khanfar. The next two weeks were more practical with all the members in training taking turns to photograph the conference and work in groups to produce short films. With the help of 3 experienced film makers (Andrew Hinton, Jonty Herman and Jean-Dennis Borel) who doubled up as our team leaders, we managed to produce about 6 short films on different themes during the two conferences we covered while in Caux.

One month later and already back home, I feel like a fresh University graduate! The one week of training and two weeks worth of practical skills I got while at the Caux Creatifs media training is much more than that gained during my four years of University education, combined. My joy however is that my university studies complemented the media training well.

I hope to share the knowledge acquired through training others. I am looking forward to creating a pool of well trained and experienced film-makers and social media personnel from Africa who can share the message of change starting from within, with the whole world.  I also hope to start a communications hub that will be the heart of digital communication for IofC and beyond in Africa.

 This is a great vision and I hope that I will be able to attain it.