THE BILWI (PUERTO CABEZAS) VIDEO PROJECT
REPORT FROM DAN HIGGINS (dhiggins @zoo.uvm.edu)
TO ALL WHO SUPPORTED THE PROJECT May 5, 2000see stills from Bilwi video project
I have been back from Puerto Cabezas now for 3 days, reflecting on the project while maintaining that extraordinary perspective of being neither here nor there, with the red dust of "Port" still in my lungs and hair and the memories of the past 2 1/2 months fresh in my mind.
The goal was to train residents in Puerto Cabezas in the use of video cameras that they might begin a visual documentation of life in the region. To implement the project I took a semester off from teaching at the University of Vermont and organized the class through URACCAN, the University of the Autonomous Region of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. URACCANís dual mission is to provide training for residents of Nicaraguaís Atlantic coast and to understand and promote the many social groups and cultures coexisting in the region.
Jane Kramer and Howard Jaentschke both came with me from Burlington, Jane bringing her highly developed social skills and Howard his understanding of and commitment to his hometown of Puerto Cabezas. Fundraising before we left generated a broad base of support for the project, with major donations from Film/Audio Services of Burlington and the Peter C. Cornell Trust and many smaller donations from Burlington supporters of the Sister City Program. We were able to purchase several new Sony video cameras, as well as accessory equipment and monitors. Chittenden Community Television donated a VHS editing system, as well as allowing Nat Ayer to come to join us for three weeks to help with the class. The UVM Art Department and the College of Arts and Sciences helped with travel expenses. The timing of the project coincided with a large shipment to "Port" of sports equipment collected by Mayor Peter Clavelle and 4 families, and we were able to piggy-back the video equipment onto their shipment from Miami. To all who helped with the project I extend heartfelt thanks.
We arrived in Puerto Cabezas on February 15 to discover that URACCAN had promoted the course extensively on local radio stations. We met with URACCAN Rector Myrna Cunningham the next day, discussing ways the project might integrate into URACCANís vision. The first class met on Monday February 21, with twenty interested participants showing up representing a range of interests. I talked briefly about the importance of community video, gave a demonstration of how to use the cameras, and invited the class, in groups of four, to go out and begin taping aspects of life.
Getting participants to think about local culture was easy. Residents of Nicaraguaís Atlantic coast, and especially students of URACCAN, have pride in their region and deep understanding that it is a region that has been historically exploited, undervalued, marginalized, and poorly represented by dominant Nicaraguan (Pacific Coast) media. Included among the students was a man sent by the Consejo de Ancianos (the Miskito Council of Elders), a woman sent by a church congregation, three people working for an anti-drug NGO, two employees of the television cable company, and several students of journalism and sociology studying at URACCAN. All were aware of the importance of video in promoting regional viewpoints.
During that first week students recorded a wide variety of vignettes. I asked them to work in groups of three or four, and concentrate on the visual documentation of daily life. They made recordings in the market, in radio stations, in churches, and at the wharf. They recorded people producing cement bricks, cooking tortillas, cutting meat, washing clothes, attending funerals, dancing, and catching fish. The emphasis was to record the most ordinary activities.
In addition, I asked students to conduct interviews with older residents whom they admired, to gather information about how life had been in the region during the past. They also gathered opinions from residents on a variety of subjects, from thoughts about the condition of the local baseball stadium to how they felt about issues of autonomy.
Toward the end of the first week in March the ship from Miami arrived carrying the sports equipment from Burlington and our editing equipment. Mike Dixon, who runs the Alcaldia-supported computer center, made a space for us there located on the grounds of the convent. Nat and I hooked up the decks and we began instructing the class in the nuances of linear editing, a task somewhat hampered by the need to explain in Miskito as well as Spanish.
For an initial editing assignment I asked students to make visual clips illustrating songs sung by regional musician Remigio Hudson. Remigio will be remembered by many Vermonters for his 1994 appearance at the Ben and Jerry Music Festival and his subsequent singing tour of many Vermont towns. Remigioís trademark song, "Mi Ropa", is about a woman who prevents her husband from going out partying by keeping his clothes wet through continuous laundering. Students shot footage of their mothers and other women wetting down and ironing menís shirts and used the editor to overlay those images over footage of Remigio singing. The lesson demonstrated the creativity possible with insert editing, while celebrating the work of a talented local musician. Students quickly learned the process and began adding images to their previously recorded interviews.
As the course progressed participants were free to tape anything else they thought important. One student, working with the Consejo de Ancianos, traveled to isolated Miskito communities, documenting over ten hours of ordinary life there as well as catalyzing local residents to perform traditional Pulanka dances. Another recorded religious services from numerous different churches in "Port". One made a video documenting the pollution of a river that runs through the center of town, as well as recording a community meeting concerning the controversial privatization of the regional wharf. Another looked at the situation of garbage disposal in "Port" from the point of view of the workers who shovel it up early in the morning hours, from the point of view of the Alcaldia, which hires them, and from the point of view of residents. My favorite piece concerned the ubiquitous activity of sweeping, with visual footage interspersed with interviews about the significance of the broom. This simple reflection on the ordinary activity of sweeping provided a profound indicator of social values and an insightful barometer of gender roles in the community.
Besides the production of videos, a goal of the project was to work with the local television Cable Company to open up a vehicle for showing the work. PuertoVision now reaches almost 2000 homes in the Puerto Cabezas area and utilizes Channel 5 for showing locally made newscasts. Jaime Ruiz, the owner of PuertoVision, was enthusiastic about the project, paid for two of his employees to be enrolled in the course, helped us locate necessary voltage stabilizers, and broadcast videos the class produced several times during the week. He has also committed PuertoVision to showing one hour each week free of charge for any videos that URACCAN makes in the future. Jaime plans to visit Burlington this summer and I would like him meet the staff at Adelphiaís Channel 15 and 17, to see how Public Access television operates here.
One unforeseen problem we encountered was the power outages that plagued Bilwi for the entire time we were there. Rather than improving, as the company kept promising, conditions degenerated, with power being out sometimes for 8-10 hours a day. Productivity in "Port" was at a standstill. Welders could not weld, icemakers could not make ice, street vendors could not sell their wares, nurses could not iron their uniforms, and without refrigeration large amounts of food spoiled. For our video group it meant many hours of waiting, with the editing equipment either not turning on or shutting down in the midst of work. After 3 weeks of frustration (with the electric company promising each day the problem would be fixed within 48 hours) we moved all the equipment to the URACCAN campus where we were provided with a generator we could use six hours a day. URACCAN also provided bus service for our group to the campus, which is located on a former military base several kilometers outside of town.
By the second week of April frustration over the electrical outages, as well as problems with water distribution and irritation with the misinformation put out by officials, cumulated with a town wide demonstration directed at the electric company, the water board, and representatives of the Central Government. It was Howard who organized the event, bringing together his North American proclivity for outspokenness with his Costeno resentment over the second class treatment of Nicaraguaís Atlantic coast. Howardís father, who builds coffins, donated one to be carried around town, a visual showstopper with placards attached saying "MURIO LA LUZ" and "MURIO EL AGUA". The demonstration was historic, the first ever in "Port" not called for by a political party, and provided a dramatic final project for the video group who utilized their training to conduct interviews and document the event from several vantage points. Video of the demonstration was shown on cable television many times during the week, a good example for the students of the power of media to focus attention on subject matter relevant to the community.
When the class ended all the participants had edited at least one piece and the first weekly program had been aired several times on Channel 5 cablevision. A graduation ceremony took place on April 18, with words spoken by one of the students, by me, by the rector, by the assistant rector, by the owner of the cable company, and by a priest. The formalities were followed by refreshments of FLOR DE CANA rum and locally made "Hot Patties".
It is my hope that the project will have lasting impact on both URACCAN and the community, and that the equipment will continue to be used for community documentation. Over 40 hours of videotapes were recorded by the class and left at URACCAN, an archive of visual information that can be cataloged and used for future research. Furthermore the participants in the project represent a talented resource whose skills and enthusiasm I hope URACCAN will continue to utilize.
From my perspective this could be done in the following ways:
1. Use the group to continue documenting the life of the region.
2. Use the group to videotape programs and workshops given by URACCAN. These could be shown in the remote communities using battery operated VCRs.
3. Use the group to produce the weekly show for cablevision, providing URACCAN with a media voice in the community
4. Establish an income-generating component to support the program, using the students we trained to take on commercial video jobs, filming and editing, and selling copies of tapes. Income could be used to reimburse the participants for their work, as well as provide funds for maintenance and replacement of equipment.
5. Train future students in video productionI have recommended that Julio Bordas, a participant in the course with an extraordinary capacity for video work, be given a salaried position by URACCAN to run the program. His job description would include the logging of existing tapes, the maintenance and organization of equipment, the overseeing of video projects, and the training of future students in filming and editing.
I returned to Vermont with copies of the most interesting videos from the project. I plan to edit the work into a series of programs that can be shown on local Burlington Public Access television. This will mean adding descriptions in English of the videos, all of which were recorded in Spanish or Miskito. I also plan to upgrade the Sister City web site (http://www.uvm.edu/sistercity ) but make no promises about how soon I can get to it.
In summary, the project for me was an ideal opportunity to combine my interests in art, anthropology, and teaching. In many ways this project provides a model that I think has useful applications both here and there, both in the realms of academia and community. Members of URACCAN expressed many times how much they would like to visit UVM, to get help understanding the business of running a university. I kept thinking just as often how much UVM could learn from seeing how integrated URACCAN is in the lives and culture of the region. I appreciate the support from everyone who made the project possible, and from the Burlington/Bilwi Sister City Program which has provided a bridge between the communities of Vermont and Nicaraguaís Atlantic coast for sixteen years. I hope more people from both places will discover that bridge, and traverse it. To do so offers insights for us all, here and there, as we face the challenges of a rapidly changing world.