Category: Feature

‘So, what exactly do you do here?’

Six months after Sattya Media Arts Collective established itself in its current building behind the zoo in Jawalakhel, this is one of the questions we hear most. And that’s fair enough, because for most people, a media arts collective is a new concept.

It was new for me, too, when I came to Kathmandu almost five months ago to intern with Sattya.

Sattya aims to be resource network for creative people in Nepal ‘for writers, photographers, filmmakers, journalists, artists, and storytellers of any medium. Sattya is a place where people can come and not only learn new skills, but share their skills as well; where people can express their own opinions in addition to hearing about the perspectives of others.

Sattya began when photographer and filmmaker Anya Vaverko and VENT! Magazine founder Yuko Maskay started talking about setting up a creative space in Kathmandu. Anya and Yuko saw that there were so many enthusiastic creative people here who lacked a place where they could gather and inspire each other. At almost every event or workshop, there is somebody who says to us ‘Wow, I didn’t know that this sort of place existed in Kathmandu’.

At Sattya, we want to make media accessible to everyone, whether they come from an artistic background or not. Our workshops and screenings have been attended by engineering students, bankers, salespeople, forestry workers, and communications consultants, in addition to writers, photographers, artists, musicians, and filmmakers. Our vision is to eventually be able to reach out to rural and non-English-speaking people as well as our current urban audience. We’re not there quite yet, but we’re working on it.

Some of Sattya’s most popular events are our weekly documentary film screenings, shown either on our rooftop or in the screening room, depending on the weather and season. We’ve shown documentaries on philosophy, DIY culture, religion, women’s rights, and climate change, shot in locations as varied as Liberia, Mongolia, Palestine, the US, and the Pacific.

In addition to our regular screenings, Sattya also runs a program called Docutalk, in which everyone is invited to take part in a post-film discussion with speakers knowledgeable about the film’s issues. In September, our Docutalk screening explored globalisation and garbage management through the Cairo-shot documentary Garbage Dreams, and featured speakers from trash and recycling organisations like WEPCO and the Kevin Rohan Memorial Fund. Docutalk is a great way to develop a different perspective on issues relevant to us ‘when we watch a story unfold on the screen, it touches us and provides us with a deeper understanding. Because of that, the post-film dialogue that is so central to Docutalk is not formal or theoretical. Everyone can have their say.

Sattya also offers media skills sharing workshops. Some of our members’ favourite workshops so far have focused on topics including blogging, photography, audio storytelling, and stencil making.

One area that we haven’t so far provided much training in, however, is that of filmmaking. This is because filmmaking requires a serious time commitment from both participants and facilitators. But there is some good news on the horizon ‘Sattya is planning a whole host of longer, more intensive workshops on film and photography that will take place over the next few months and into 2012.

 

Although we do love films in general, Sattya’s trainings and screenings focus on documentaries. We do this because we believe that documentaries provide different perspectives to those given by fiction films. Documentaries allow people to speak for themselves, and to tell their own stories about their lives, their experiences, and the issues that affect them and their communities.

Our favourite documentaries have a few things in common: they have little or no narration; they follow an individual or a family closely and without hiding anything; they show us lives and lifestyles we would not otherwise be able to come close to understanding; they leave us with more questions than answers; and they are filmed over long periods of time ‘three years in the case of one of our most-loved documentaries, Last Train Home.

But most of all, our favourite documentaries are simply inspiring. They are beautifully shot, they make us ask questions, and they leave us wide-eyed at the end, wanting to know more. They do not just advocate for a cause, nor just show pretty pictures or scenes of poverty. They invite us in, keep us riveted, and tell us a story. Sometimes we even forget they are documentaries.

This is why we believe documentary filmmaking to be a hugely important skill to share with others.

 

‘Documentaries allow us to understand a perspective that is totally different from our own and to look into a lifestyle, a world, that is maybe totally foreign to us,’ Anya says. ‘Unlike other media, such as photography or writing, documentaries appeal to people no matter what their literacy, education or background is.’

‘Documentaries have a tendency to touch us more than a news article and often more than a photo, even though those are also important media. A documentary can push people into action, can cause people to change their perspectives, and can also be just an amazing tool to teach people about the world around them.’

Although a number of documentaries have been made in Nepal, and despite the hard work of some great organisations and film festivals, few local documentaries have managed to reach a broad audience. Many international documentaries are also poorly-distributed or simply go un-shown in Nepal, as well as in many other places around the world. Sometimes, the only documentaries people have seen are those that were shown to them in school, which often leads people to think of all documentaries as boring.

‘Documentaries don’t have to just be about poverty or sad stories. They can be funny, they can be inspiring, they can be about anything. They can be shot beautifully, and they can be just as interesting as a fiction film, if not more. ‘Fact is stranger than fiction’, right?’

That said, documentaries can still be powerful tools for advocacy and activism. ‘At their best, they can change people’s perspectives and bring about real social change,’ Anya says. ‘Nepal must have millions upon millions of untold stories. They deserve to be recognised and shared.’

For aspiring documentary filmmakers, Anya’s advice is to push the boundaries and break the mould.

‘Documentaries that take place in Nepal don’t have to start with a montage of the Himalayas, Durbar Square, and city traffic, overlaid with traditional Nepali music. I want to see documentaries that are not made for foreigners about ‘the mystical Himalayan kingdom’ or a poverty-stricken third-world country.’

‘I want to see more documentaries made for a Nepali audience, both urban and rural, on themes like the urban arts and music scene, or what it’s like growing up a transgender child in a rural village, or what it’s like being a woman who is forced to live in a shed during her period.’

Even the smallest two sentence article in the newspaper is just waiting to be turned into a powerful, meaningful documentary.

2011: Blogs, protest groups, online petitions, e-campaigns and e-activism are all the rage.

One of the earliest successful examples of internet activism was the class struggle in the early nineties by the indigenous EZLN Zapatista movement in Mexico. For an indigenous group, comprised of mainly of farmers from a low socio-economic status, internet communication in the nineties, let alone internet activism, was a foreign concept.  But, by aligning with social movements across the world, the Zapatistas became the symbol of a collective identity rooted in opposition to privatized and individualised capitalist endeavours.  The outstanding response that this rebellion generated was outstanding can be attributed both to the gravity of the issue and the manner in which it was communicated.

Though the face of the internet has greatly changed, the role of the internet in activism then and now is to circulate information and provide a space for the participation of a global audience. From piracy culture to terrorism, the internet has seen an aggressive evolution in virtual vices too. However, with its infinite expansion in cyberspace, the internet has shrunk the world into one robust information village. Bryan Appleyard once said that ”unlimited and uncensorable flows of information would spread democracy and undermine tyranny’. Since media has always been a key element to activism, the internet, as the biggest medium for communication today, is transcending the boundaries of traditional means of activism.

On the other hand, has internet just changed the face of media and not the cause and enthusiasm of the activists? Does internet just put together an army of people set to make a change or does it create a comfort zone where people join in because one: it is free, two: it is hip and three: everyone else is into it? Perhaps it adds a little colour and a little risk to your personal life or, simply it could be something just to add to your profile. Has crowd-sourcing enforced shallow and mostly random opinions on topics that require serious thought? Has the internet induced a bigger participation space at the expense of authentic activism? Even if it has, isn’t that what was expected of internet activism in the first place?

Social networking is getting all the more global. Technology has changed the essence of our social being and interaction with the booming rise of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. Accessing people is as easy as accessing information. A number of activist organizations thrive on networking online- many a times simply through Facebook.

A protest is just ‘creating an event’ away and a petition is just ‘creating a page away’. But, the question is whether it is delivering.

Early June this year, Nepal Unites, a group on Facebook organized a peaceful protest in Kathmandu against the delay of the constitution writing. In a month and a half, the group and its cause had generated over 6500 ‘likes’. The group that constituted many known faces of Kathmandu city gathered in front of the Constituent Assembly with placards and the flag of Nepal. However, Nepal Unites has been criticized for being elitist in nature and looking through rose-tinted glasses at the number of people ‘Attending’ events as opposed to the number of people who actually turn up. Late July, Come on Youth, Stand Up put up a protest against the political deadlock as did The Red Revolution in early August in Basantapur, Kathmandu. It was Facebook that drew them together.

Unfortunately for them and us, the protests did not always manifest with the same enthusiastic gusto as portrayed online in the lead up to the event. They drew much attention, often save that of those whom the protests were directed at. It seems political activism (and sometimes the not political too) in Kathmandu is perhaps in need of deep thinking before gathering in a rush. The internet- an easy tool at our disposal is encouraging the latter as much as it is repressing the former.

The Saffron Revolution of 2007 in Burma collected 440,000 members on Facebook. The wall was then so crowded with useless and sometimes pointless posts that it became too easy to miss out a key point, message or an important event. Most of the members were assuredly, not committed or even serious activists. The group then, to retain its ingenuity of cause, moved the ‘serious’ activists to the website. The activism there has become more organized and effective. Also Facebook and MySpace have an application, most of us are aware, known as Causes created by Project Agape to use the networking towards philanthropic causes. The application has been known to raise a lot of support if not a lot of funds for different causes. The arrest of James Karl Buck by the Egyptian police was revealed by the American student himself through twitter. Last year, we voted Anuradha Koirala to be awarded the CNN Hero of the Year. People were encouraged to vote for her by her supporters through Facebook.

If internet were tangible- it would be made of rubber since it is so user-dependent. The point here is that web activism is not a failure, not at all. In fact, it is the biggest platform for dynamic activism to ever take place- only, the focus seems to have drifted from the cause that beats inside it to the limbs that pull it off. There are countless websites and forums for democracy, environmental, women, animals and homosexuality activism etc. that maintain blogs, debates and information exchange today. Digital activism should now synergize its abilities of speed, reach and cost towards improved efficiency and ethics.

Two essential words:
Communication and Interaction.
What do they signify?

— Pranjal Poudel

Perahaps it would be wiser to rewind the historical clock. To, well, the past. During all of time, the aforementioned two words have been the cornerstone of societies. Yes, there are other physical factors as well, but take a moment to sit back and think about it. Where would we be without either communication or interaction? Look at all the people around you, people you know. Then think about something else: words. We think in words, we talk in words, we express ourselves in words. It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that without words, we are next to helpless. Without words, without any universal means of communication and interaction, what we call a society wouldn’t exist. Of course, it’s all hypothetical, but that does not mean it cannot be true. Imagine a world without words. The thought that we can’t communicate with others. Or share our thoughts. At this point, you should really be thinking. Making use of that thing called imagination. Thinking in images. In words. Creating a virtual scenario within the confines of the brain.

Needless to say, communication and interaction have been continually evolving. A chronological listing seems appropriate. From the use of inanimate objects and gestures, we moved on to simple sounds and symbols. Although the order may vary, the meanings surely are the same. Onto more complex sounds and symbols. It was probably at this point that the alphabet came into being. The problem of communication seemed to be solved.

However, with expanding civilizations came the need for communication over longer distances. Along came the letter. Delivered by hand or pigeon and extremely slow. This went on for quite some time. Then came cable’¦

Time to cut out the foreplay. Enter the world of social networking. Gone are the days of the telegraph and email (partially, at least). This is the time of Facebook, Twitter, and more recently, Google Plus. And let’s not forget the et cetera at the end. No example is complete without an ‘et cetera’.  Based on guesswork, the primary role of social networking is communication over long distances. In this increasingly digitized world, we have witnessed the digitisation of words, images and sounds which, in turn, has been succeeded by the digitisation of complex combinations of the same things. Our world is shifting more and more from the physical realm to the digital realm.

This shift has brought about a lot of changes. Not least in communication and interaction. Since the initial purpose of social networking was communication, it comes as no surprise that usage is very high.  In Nepal it seems that Facebook is the most commonly used social networking site. Of course, this only applies to those who have internet access, which is roughly 2 percent of the population. Nevertheless, when you meet somebody new, and want to keep in touch, rather than phone numbers or email addresses being exchanged, it’s adding each other as ‘friends’ on Facebook. Something I have noticed, and I’m sure most of you have as well, is that interactions these days are mostly online. Ask somebody if he/she knows a certain person, the reply you get will be along these lines: I haven’t met him/her in person, but we are friends on Facebook. The whole concept of friendship has been distorted by social networking. Of course, it could be just as likely that notions of friendship have simply been redefined. Your call. Anyway, you can add almost any person as a friend, regardless of whether you know them or not. There are no boundaries, no limitations.

Ease of use is probably another reason why online interactions are so prevalent these days. You can talk to people from the comfort of your home, or any other desired place. Simultaneous interactions are another advantage. You can sound however you would like to sound. If you want to use some big words, you just have to open another tab on your browser and use a thesaurus. If you want to keep it simple, you have your brain.

That aside, I shall proceed to mention an interesting thing. On one hand, you have who you are. On the other, you have your virtual identity. What social networking has done is that it has created a new, digital world. Where you have a digital identity. There are no pressures of face-to-face interactions. It’s the world of chat, hellos and his, lols and hahas, brb and gtg. You can interact with anybody you like. And you can be whatever, whoever you want to be. The possibilities are endless. For example, my real name is Pranjal Poudel, and I live in Kathmandu. Nothing is stopping me from being, let’s say, Randall Martin from Johannesburg. I can project myself to be whoever I want.

For most people, social networking seems to be about the popularity thing, vying for likes or comments. Or for that matter, a larger amount of friends. Behind the safety of your screen and with innumerous resources at your disposal, there is almost no barrier. Another trend I’ve noticed is that many people are so different when you interact with them online, and when you actually meet them in real life, they are not what you expected. The extent to which interactions are based online would be well illustrated by the fact that we make friends online, and even start relationships online. And what’s even more fun is that you don’t even know who that person is. You can talk all you want, and if you don’t like that person, you can simple remove him/her. This rarely happens in real life. It seems that one of the reasons behind people resorting to online interactions is the sense of power it gives. You can choose who to talk to, who not to talk to. You can say whatever you want and not have to be answerable to anybody. And as mentioned before, you can be whoever, whatever you like. Not that everybody does it, but the option remains open.

And think again. Without words, where would we be?

 

— Anil Prd. Udaya

We are an open community of civilian-activists (especially youths) that believe in democracy and social justice. We believe that only by responsible action from every member of society shall we achieve a prosperous, progressive and peaceful society and nation. We originally came together to ensure the completion of the ongoing peace process and constitution-drafting as promised to the populace at a time when unaccountability and incompetence of the politicians had been well-established. We are a youth movement for instituting a culture of responsible actions directed towards the healthy survival and progress of society.

 

Our GOALS

1. Accountable and effective governance: A Nepal where the government and the politicians are accountable towards the people satisfying their duties with optimum efficiency.

2. A responsible citizen: A Nepal where all of us, citizens, act responsibly and fulfill their duties to the society. Each one of us needs to take responsibility for our actions in a democracy. Each one of us should actively voice for a proper progression of the society and therefore of the nation in its entirety.

3. A prosperous, progressive and just society: A Nepal where every citizen has right to decide for the regime to live under, where every citizen gets an opportunity to work for his/her survival and pursuit of happiness, where every citizen shall be treated equal in the eyes of law and not a single citizen shall be denied or delayed justice.

Our VALUES

This movement voices the frustration of common people, diagnoses the immediate and long-term problems of the nation, searches for their remedies and acts for getting them solved by pressing the responsible organ of society to act on it. We believe that the ultimate change has to come to the person in the mirror. Therefore, we also move to change our own behaviour while also motivating the same in others. We do not believe in perfection but in continuous progressive evolution. This movement is completely independent of political affiliation and donor funding. We raise our funds from the voluntary contributions of individual Nepalis.

 

Current CAMPAIGN

The ongoing campaign tends to demand timely deliverance of the democratic constitution by the CA and conclusion of the peace process by integration of the combatants in the society and provision of post-war justice. The campaign is also intended for pressing the political leadership to deal with the current issues of energy crisis, corruption and passive economy in a responsible fashion.

 

Responding to questions posed by Verse, Anil, truly utilising the medium of social media, posted the questions to members of the Come on Youth Stand Up (CYSU), Facebook page. Here is what the core group and active members had to say:

In what context did Come on Youth Stand Up emerge?

Diwash Pradhan: It was emerged as a frustration of the youth with the current scenario, a inner voice calling ‘It’s too much now, we can’t just sit down, we need to do something’. Our Slogan  – ‘अहिले नगरे कहिले? हामीले नगरे कसले?’ says it all. We joined hands initially to raise our voices for timely constitution.

 

What are the main aims of CYSU?

Udeep Shakya: The aim is to make youths and people to stand up and feel responsibility towards the state and start acting for it. There were about 2000 participants in the ground movement but about 10,000 supported the movement in Facebook. It was sure that they all wanted change but may be most of them don’t know how can they fulfill their responsibility to bring change. Then CYSU became a platform where people share ideas, read the information or comments and try to learn more. There are doers, who makes new friends of common interest and have started small campaigns like Cloth Bank, donating books to libraries and building audio books. These things can be done alone too. There is no need of CYSU. But I believe that this platform has given a slight push to those who came up with these initiatives.

How do you utilise social media?

Diwash Pradhan: Social media is utilised for the purpose to find people with similar views and share ideas and information. We share views, inform about upcoming events, debate and discuss. Different groups with different causes have come up, and we are always there to support them and encourage them.

Why do you choose to communicate in this medium?

Nischhal Pradhan: Social media has been an integral part of life for today’s youths. They pour down all their frustrations and share their happiness via social media. They can express their views regarding any matter because it is often easier for people to write their feelings rather than talking one on one. There are people from all over the country in this media and it has helped us create a sense of awareness and unity across the nation.

Would you consider social media integral to your success and overall campaign strategy?

Diwash Pradhan: Well it’s just the beginning, but a better Nepal is of course a better future for us all, and taking part in these types of campaigns is being responsible. With the popularity of the group we now have to act more accountable. We have hopes.

What do you consider the benefits of social media activism?

Pramod Pandey: social media have a free access, are transparent and most of all we can be in touch with large no of people in short period of time.

What do you consider the limitations of social media activism?

Umesh Ghimire: Social media is limited to only a segment of Nepali society. For a country like Nepal which lacks sufficient infrastructures social media is limited to only a portion of the population. As such activism in rural communities can be deprived of the valuable information being shared in networks of social media. One other limitation of social media activism is the collision of minds of people with varying thoughts. It is always challenging to bring everyone into a specific boundary of thoughts as you never know what kind of people are engaged in the movement.

Do you believe CYSU can really create long term change or just initiate short term protest?

Anil Pratap Adhikari:  We intend this movement to last decades. We’re here for a stable change that not only alters the superficial system but also the mindset of every individual. The rest depends on how successful we become.

What does CYSU hope to achieve?

Udeep Shakya: When all Nepalese people start thinking like a real Nepali, then it will be an achievement for CYSU. ‘Jaba Nepali harule mero pani yo desh tira kartabya chha bhanne kura bujhcha’ tyo huncha CYSU ko main achievement. Making a corrupt leader fall down is not an achievement if there is not another leader (who feels the responsibility towards nation) to take that position.