Chiapas Media Project (Promedios de comunicación comunitaria)
Training and resources to enable marginalised indigenous communities to create their own media, building their autonomy through communication.
Initiator(s)
Promedios
Description
CMP is a project established by a group of filmmakers and media artists that went to Chiapas to report about Human Rights violations and the situation with the Zapatistas Communities. They decided to provide video equipment, computers and training enabling marginalised indigenous communities in Southern Mexico to create their own media. CMP instructors worked in close collaboration with autonomous Zapatista communities sharing knowledge, technics and skills. As a consequence, indigenous youth with little formal education, and often working without reliable electricity, have produced videos on critical issues as agricultural collectives, fair trade coffee, women’s collectives, autonomous education, traditional healing and the history of their struggle for land.
Goals
Responding to the Zapatistas Communities demands of media access. Offer training and resources to document and denounce Human Rights violations, building their own autonomy through communication.
Beneficial outcomes
CMP has distributed over 6000 indigenous produced videos. These videos have been screened at universities, museums, and film and video festivals worldwide. All the participants got a complete professional training. Currently, CMP functions solely as a distributor of the Zapatista productions and other documentaries from Mexico and Promedios de Comunicación Comunitaria continues working with the Zapatista communities.
Location
Mexico
Users
Chiapas Media Project, Promedios France, CLACPI (América Latina), Zapatista Communities.
Maintained by
Angelica Foundation, Daniele Agostino Foundation, Chace Fund, Funding Exchange, Fund for Global Human Rights, Goldman Environmental, Foundation Global, Fund for Human Rights, Honor the Earth Fund, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Joshua Mailman Foundation, Peace Development Fund, Reebok Human Rights Award, Riverside Sharing Fund, Solidago Foundation, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, US-Mexico Fund for Culture Vanguard Foundation, William H. Donner Foundation
Duration
1998 - ongoing
Category
Scientific
Pedagogical
Politics
Urban Development
Economy
Environment
Social
