Films are a greatly underused communication form. Serious communication usually is at most limited to awareness building. EarthCare Outreach wants to explore beyond. Films could be tools for social change and empowerment. Participatory filmmaking by sharing skills and capacities could take the ‘use' of films to a different level. Not that it has not been tried and practised but we want to take it forward and try and push the boundaries.

The objective is to create ownership and stake in the process and the product of a documentary film of the people whose lives we document. In the process we strive to empower young people and rural communities to make them stakeholders in decision-making and in planning for natural resource management.

The activities Outreach could undertake is travelling/mobile film screenings/film festivals through the rural and urban areas, community and citizenry exchanges between selected locations and evolving film-making skill share across these groups in rural and urban areas.

EarthCare Outreach has been active in these areas for the last few years. Shaped by Outreach colleagues like Kavita Das Gupta, we are today looking ahead to institutionalise these efforts and reach areas and people where documentary films have rarely gone.

Krishnendu Bose, Managing Trustee, EarthCare Outreach is the main contact point for outreach activities.