USSF Spot Light on the Gandhi Brigade!!

While I was working the AFSC table I couldn’t help but notice a really energetic group of young folks with these amazing DIY Gandhi shirts. When they came buy the table I asked what the shirts were all about. They we all youth organizers with the Gandhi Brigade, a youth media group outside of Washington DC. They invited me to their workshop on youth media production but I declined as it was a few miles away and I had a lot going on already, after some pressuring and the offer of a ride to the workshop in their Gandhi van I changed my mind and decided to give it a shot.

I’ve been to countless youth led workshops and activities; this was one of the best. It was clear that this group of young people had worked together for some time, had a passion for justice, had a head full of knowledge, and knew how to facilitate a workshop.

After doing a brief icebreaker we were given a quick primer on the stages of media production:
1.Pre-Production
2.Production
3.Post Production


The Gandhi brigade’s analysis was that many youth media Organizations go out and shoot footage without putting much energy into the most important aspects of pre-production, namely story development. The workshop had a strong focus on story development.

We were split up into groups of six and shown how to develop of own genome sociogram. We were to explore each other’s family histories in an effort to the links in our collective history. Our story was to have some foundation in common struggles. This was a process that clearly needed more time than the actual workshop allowed but it really sparked my brain. I believe the exercise is an excellent way for folks from very different backgrounds and belief systems to find common ground.




Our next task was to develop a theme, a pitch, and a treatment for our story, which could be a video, a PSA, an article, a film of some sort. After groups had time to develop their stories we each got a chance to share what we came up with.
Before closing the Gandhi Brigade folks shared a little bit about the process of story boarding and handed out media tools packets to everyone.

It was the best kind of workshop, fun, great energy, and we all left with a tangible skill we could all bring back to our communities! Thanks Gandhi Brigade!

Links:
www.gandhibrigade.org
facebook: Gandhi Brigade
youtube: Gandhi Brigade

Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee