Aliko & Ambai Film Project: Engaging with Communities
Mark Eby, a co-director and facilitator of the film Aliko & Ambai (Mark Eby & Diane Anton) describes the community benefit in stages of preproduction and development. The film, scripted by two PNG screenwriters addresses gender-based violence and povert among other issues with the aim of creating ‘discussion and support strategies for social change in PNG communities‘. In this work young people in PNG were given training and practice in screen-writing, auditions, and shooting, something beneficial if one is to build film-making capacity in the region. The script, written by 2 young people, covered issues important to the community The process also enabled engagement and empowerment as people involved in the project became the liaisons to communities bringing them into the project. Whilst shooting enabled visibility, the collective auditions created senses of ownership and co-creation, cultivating pathways to collaboration. Before the film was even completed, there was an audience, ready to watch. He writes about this work in Mobilising Media for Sustainable Outcomes in the Pacific Region.
Mark Eby has written significantly on his experience and the value of process and practice in making social change through media. You can read about this in the following items:
“Capacity Building through Narrative Feature Film Production in Papua New Guinea“, Mobilising Media for Sustainable Outcomes in the Pacific Region. May 2015.
“Aliko & Ambai Film Project: Engaging with Communities“, Mobilising Media for Sustainable Outcomes in the Pacific Region. March 2015
“Screenwriting as Communication for Social Change“, Mobilising Media for Sustainable Outcomes in the Pacific Region. October 2014.
Other sites:
Aliko & Ambai film website: https://filmfreeway.com/AlikoandAmbai
Aliko & Ambai Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AlikoandAmbai/
Photograph by Laba Kenny