The yearlong campaign for FreedomFilmFest2009 ended successfully last weekend with the FFF2009 Community Video Workshop. 28participants comprising of representatives from grassroots communities, students and FFF2009 volunteers attended this workshop, which aimed to prove that anyone could shoot a video for their respective communities.

Community video is a powerful tool that can be used by a group of people to communicate a local issue effectively to its viewers, be it to the general public or the community itself. A simple and well-produced video does not only pass on a strong and relevant message, it also encourages the local communities who watched it to discuss about the issue shown in the video. These discussions are important to create a greater awareness to the local community, and to spearhead a process of solving the respective issues within the community.

Throughout the workshop, the participants realised that they need not necessarily have an expensive video camera or superior editing skills to produce a short video. To prove that point, the participants were tasked to spend an hour to shoot a video only with their handphones or compact digital camera. The screening of the newly made videos was indeed filled with amusement as everyone learnt to improve what they might have missed out during the filming process earlier in the day.

Last but not least, the participants were also shown various different ways to distribute their videos.