Got a YouTube account?
New: enable viewer-created translations and captions on your YouTube channel!
inglés subtítulos
← Interview with Matisse Bustos Hawkes, from Witness, at the GV Summit 2012
A conversation with Matisse Bustos Hawkes, from Witness, at the GV Summit 2012. Pride Inn Raphta Road, Nairobi, Kenia, 2nd July 2012, 2.03pm
-
4
Seguidors
-
0
Comentarios
-
83
Líneas
Ver Subtítulos (2)
Mostrado Revisión 12, creado 02/20/2013 por Silvia Viñas .
-
Título:Interview with Matisse Bustos Hawkes, from Witness, at the GV Summit 2012
-
Descripción:
A conversation with Matisse Bustos Hawkes, from Witness, at the GV Summit 2012. Pride Inn Raphta Road, Nairobi, Kenia, 2nd July 2012, 2.03pm
-
- Matisse, hello!
-
- Hello!
-
- Tell me about Witness. Briefly, tell me what you can.
-
I've heard that it has recently turned thirty years
-
- Twenty years
-
- Twenty years!
-
- We turned twenty years this year.
-
- Right. Tell us the story of Witness.
-
- We started in 1992 after an event in Los Angeles
-
when a citizen watched from his window as a group of police officers
-
beat a man who was drunk and had been driving,
-
and they asked him to pull over and, well...
-
This is a very famous event in the United States but also outside the United States.
-
And the man is called Rodney King
-
And a citizen got his camera and filmed these events
-
And well, this video appeared in the news
-
And all over the world, but especially communities in Los Angeles
-
Especially African American communities were really angry about this
-
Because it was a problem, the brutality of the police
-
against certain groups of the population.
-
It had been a big problem for years but there was no witness of it
-
And then it was an idea that our founder, who's called Peter Gabriel, the artist...
-
- I'm a big fan of Peter Gabriel
-
- He is like a big fan of Witness
-
He had this idea that someone, no matter where they're from or where they are
-
They don't have to be a journalist
-
They only need video technology, a camera
-
And they can be a witness of events in their community
-
And they can share this information and these images with everyone
-
But in the 90s it was a bit early for this idea
-
But it's now 2012 and obviously with the internet and the cameras we have
-
We don't need a big camera with VHS anymore
-
Carried on your shoulders, that is very heavy
-
No. Everyone, almost everyone, has mobiles
-
Or the little camera that you have in your hand, for example
-
And this is an easier way to share images and information about what's going on in my community
-
And immediately with a big community of people on the internet
-
And we are more connected than what had been possible twenty years ago
-
- Tell me... To bring it closer to our communities, well, to where I live for example in Peru...
-
What's the presence of Witness in Latin America?
-
- We are now working with a global network that is working with the issue of desplacidos?
-
- Desplazados [Displaced people]
- Desplazados, thank you. -
Unfortunately we aren't in Peru at the moment but we are in Mexico in three states
-
And also in many parts of Brazil
-
The network is working now with different cases of, we can say, mega-events that are very big
-
Like in Brazil where they are preparing for the World Cup in two years
-
And in four years they'll have the Olympic Games
-
So there are stadiums, apartments, buildings. All the infrastructure that has to be built
-
But they're taking all the people from their communities, from their houses that are already there
-
Without preparation, without warning, without information
-
It's illegal on a national level, and on an international level with human rights laws
-
In Mexico the examples are a bit different
-
It's the... dams? How do you say?
-
- The "represas"
-
- Yes, thank you. The dams in various communities that are also going to move a lot of people
-
But these projects aren't going to benefit these communities
-
For example, in Guerrero they're going to displace thousands of people
-
But this is for tourist sites
-
So these people say 'Well, this is no good to me. I have to move"
-
without questioning, without dialogue between our communities and the government,
-
and the companies who are building these projects
-
So in two places in Latin America they're using videos to start a conversation between the communities
-
But also between the communities and the government in these places
-
In order to say "We have rights, and we already know what our rights are
-
and we are going to resist, because we have the right to do this"
-
There are many short videos that are already finished in each place
-
And in Brazil for example they are producing a series of 10 like mini "portraits"
-
of 10 people who are affected by these events
-
- Well Matisse, we don't have much time
-
Do you have a message for the people who watch or produce videos in the region?
-
- Yes. We would like more.
-
I think the most important thing is that you tell a story
-
Like having a conversation with your family and friends, and the community
-
Graphic images, which show a protest, a fight, something very graphic, very violent aren't necessary
-
What's most important is a story which you can tell from your own community
-
Something that is authentic which says to people from other countries or in your own country
-
that these are the conditions in our community
-
And we need to share the news with the community in this place and also in other places
-
And the power of a personal story has no limits
-
- Thank you, Matisse. Sorry for making you speak Castilian.
-
- Sorry if I made some mistakes, but it's good for practicing.
-
Thank you!
-
- Thank you, bye!