Tracking Magazine March 2002

Increased action on networking globally for independent and community TV - report on the TV Nova meeting in Brussels December 2001.

Margaret Gillan

TV Nova is the name for a regular series of public meeting organised by Cinema Nova, an autonomous non-profit cinema established in 1997 in the city centre of Brussels that screens mainly undistributed films. These meetings involve groups and individuals active in community and independent TV, audio-visual media made by citizens, grass roots initiatives, independent local televisions, community based televisions, broadcast by cable, web or satellite. The meeting in December 2001 brought together groups both in and outside of Europe to present and discuss their work, the circumstances and constraints they operate under and to develop new networks.

Marie Eve Cosemans of VOX, a group who were instrumental in setting up TV Nova, said "It seems important to us that these experiences from all over the world have a place and a space to meet. Very often, they might have heard of one another, but there's no structural communication amongst them, although they all share the same kind of experiences and problems. The idea is to create the necessary instruments for permanent exchange of information, films and/or images, and to create the necessary conditions to distribute on an international level."

Cinema Nova itself is an old building run collectively by volunteers. When they got a grant to do up the building, the group decided to put all the money into a decent central heating system. The walls are stripped to the brickwork, seating is basic and comforts are few. However the place works, the screen is big, and, in the middle of Northern European wet cold grey winter, their central heating certainly did work! They got a small amount of funding to run TV Nova, paying basic costs.

Evening screenings showed a wide range of video work - scratch video dealing with the nature of media, documentaries, news items - eg. Local housing issues, actions such as the Spanish anti-globalisation activists refusing to pay for food en masse (good fun and you didn't need translation to know what was going on!) A small videotheque with 4 video players was set up, groups were invited to lodge copies of their tapes in the library and a copying facility was available.

Participants came from the Philippine's, South Korea, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Lithuania, Ethiopia, as well as many European countries - Spain, France, Italy, Holland etc, etc,. . . . Translators were volunteers from the groups and all sessions were conducted in French, Spanish and English, which made for slow progress. The volunteer translators were incredibly patient, though those who spoke needed to keep their contributions short - not always achievable! Not all sessions followed a set procedure. Some were given over to hearing about people, their organisations and their issues, and a deal of time was given at the start to reorganising sessions.

Some thematic workshops were:

"Other forms of media-activism" How to use video as a source of counter-information, as a mean of analysis and investigation in processes of participation and political decisions (civil empowerment). Axel Claes (PTTL / Brussels) and Mark Saunders (Spectacle / London) organise video workshops in a working class area in Brussels. They use video as mean of communication and as audio-visual base in local political decision-making, e.g. in urbanism development.
"Public Access and Labour News Production" Jung Mi and Dong-Won Jo from South Korea - LNP was set up in 1989 to politically and culturally support the labour movement. Production, distribution and training are key areas of concern and establishing public access centres.
"Different ways of distribution" this session was given over to Zalea and the French TV stations - support appeal. Zalea TV (France) is an autonomous television that came out of experiences like Onde Sans Frontière and TV Bocal. French TV stations are being refused licences in 2002 due to it being election year in France!! (see elsewhere in this issue of Tracking, also last issue) Pirata (France) is a group in Marseille who literally pirate local television to distribute their own programs. Primitive in Marseille organised pirate action in mid December to highlight the situation.
"www: Web TV, free access, free software" What are the possibilities for independent media to construct a real web based work? When will MPEG4 be available? What is free/open software?
"conclusion and common projects" Opportunity to think about networking. (How? What do we expect from it? How to finance…)

Defining what is media activism Ensuring diversity of content in our videos, reflecting how people live their lives - rainbow idea, and allowing conflicts and questions to emerge; The tendency towards activist video that concentrates on actions and the documentation of demonstrations to the exclusion of other aspects of resistance; How people form their own resistance discourse;
Defining community TV - open TV as opposed to mainstream programming etc. While new forms/language may be needed, this raises issues of access - 'access' also means access to the language of film and video; how to critique ruling class media
Media is owned and controlled by ruling class, need for the working class to own and control our own media; Media not in the hands of individuals, but in the hands of communities;
Different channels of distribution, dangers of over-dependence on one means. Important to combine techniques and technologies to make it as cheap as possible; Concern about over-focus on the Web - not accessible for everyone Need for off-line approaches - no off-line approach, no on-line success
Need to work with social movements; What is relationship between TV and social movements; Need for research; · Indymedia - how broad-based? Can we get away from national boundaries?

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