Joanne Richardson: Making Video Politically

2005 seemed to mark the beginning of the end of media activism. Web 2.0 questioned many of the assump- tions of earlier media activism — the call for open participation and the transformation of consumers into producers was revealed as a perfect liberal democratic utopia, which is why it was so easily appropriated by capitalism. Simply putting the means of production into the hands of the people did not automatically shatter oppressive relations of power. There remained other questions to be asked. This presentation will attempt to ask these other questions by going back to a distinction made by Godard in the 1970s between making political film and making film politically. What would it mean to make video politically to- day — beyond any simplistic calls for open participation and do it yourself?