The Voicing Hidden Histories project: participatory video in development, soft power and film language

ABSTRACTIn this article, we wish to reflect upon some of the findings of a recent Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded Global Challenges Research Fund Participatory Video (PV) project ‘Voicing Hidden Histories’. Working in South Africa, India and Brazil, this project has been using PV to support specific marginalised communities in each country to challenge the way their nations present themselves – and in particular their national history – to the world via ‘nation branding’ and other ‘soft power’ initiatives. Specifically, we ask: why use filmmaking as an international development tool? What are the enablers of – and barriers to – successful PV initiatives and what does ‘success’ mean in this context? Moreover, while such projects invariably make claims for PV as a particularly effective method for ‘giving’ communities ‘voice’ – however such potentially patronising terms might be defined – very little space is usually dedicated to the exploration of the films produced in such projects, that is to...