You don’t have to be a professional filmmaker to tell a powerful story, and you don’t need bulky, expensive equipment. With 5 billion cell phone subscriptions worldwide, mobile technology is opening a doorway for citizen media makers anywhere in the world to become agents for change. That’s the opportunity proven by Reel Health:Tanzania.
Reel Health: Tanzania is a project of Remedee that explores how mobile technology can be used as a powerful storytelling and media-making tool in low-income and underrepresented communities around the world.
Sponsored by Tigo Tanzania, a leading mobile operator, and in collaboration with the health nonprofit Touch Foundation, the project kicked off in June 2010, when selected medical and health students at Bugando University attended storytelling and camera workshops and began making personal films using cell phone video cameras. These ten short documentaries ranged in topic from the extreme doctor shortage, to the dangers of bathing in a contaminated lake, to counterfeit drugs. The program culminated in a campus-wide screening, and the films will continue to be seen through a variety of outlets locally and worldwide.
These ten amazing films serve as proof that it’s no longer necessary to be a professional filmmaker or use bulky camera equipment to tell a powerful story. Mobile technology is opening a doorway for young activists anywhere in the world to become citizen media makers.
