The following examples illustrate how individuals have used home video to move environmental officials to take action.

In Center Point, Indiana, a woman named Terry Moore picked up her video camera to document waste from the east coast being dumped at the landfill a few hundred yards from her home. She realized that in order to gain regulation of out–of–state dumping, she had to document the extent of the problem. But she could not do it alone.

Moore organized the Dump Patrol, a group of 75 concerned citizens (in a town of just 250 people) who videotaped every out–of–state truck entering the local landfill for 60 hours a week over a period of 14 months. Moore and members of the Dump Patrol took their video testimony repeatedly to the state legislature, using it in their lobbying efforts. Local broadcasters used Dump Patrol footage frequently in their news reports.

During the process of taping, the Dump Patrol discovered that refrigerated trucks were carrying garbage to Indiana, being hastily and inadequately cleaned, and immediately returning with food bound for east coast supermarkets. When Moore was asked to testify before Congress on this issue, she brought her VHS tapes. The Dump Patrol footage of refrigerated trucks filled to the roof with garbage aired that night on the ABC Nightly News, and subsequently on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and The Phil Donahue Show.

By continuing to lobby, Moore and the Dump Patrol leveraged the media attention to get out–of–state dumping regulated in Indiana. In Bearing Witness: Homemade Tapes from the Environmental Front, Moore said: "Without the video, I don't think our message would have gotten out. The video was something people could relate to." In this documentation effort, which required such extensive community involvement to achieve success, the actual process of videotaping enabled Moore to build the campaign.

Citizen video activists succeed when they understand the public policy process and the case they need to make to regulators. When taping environmental violations, for example, state laws differ in terms of what is considered sufficient evidence. When state environmental officials ignored Brenda LiveOak's complaints about black smoke spewing from a Michigan manufacturing plant in a predominantly African–American community, she decided to obtain proof. LiveOak, who was trained through an EPA–sponsored course on air–quality monitoring, knew exactly what she needed to make her case: 30 minutes of solid evidence.

LiveOak persuaded Alex Sagady, an environmental health expert with the American Lung Association, to help her make a videotape of the polluting plant. "By bringing in a group like that," says LiveOak, "I knew the video would gain credibility." She and Sagady obtained the necessary footage, despite harassment from a plant guard who tried to chase them off the property and who put his hands in front of their camera lens.

LiveOak made 18 copies of the tape and mailed them to every member of the Michigan Air Pollution Commission. Upon viewing the tape, the commission confirmed that the plant was violating air quality standards and they ordered the facility to obtain proper pollution control equipment. When the company said it could not afford to comply with state law, the aging facility had to close its doors.

The efforts of these camcorder activists show that obtaining evidence is only the first—though necessary—step in using video to achieve change. In each case, these women ensured that their tapes would have credibility in the eyes of legislators. Moore involved a considerable percentage of voters in her small community and LiveOak worked in conjunction with a respected nonprofit organization.

In addition, both women used video as a piece of their lobbying efforts. Many other activists have obtained damning footage but have not known how to incorporate the material into a broader campaign. If video is not used to speak on behalf of a constituency, an individual voice with an individual tape is likely to be ignored. Video can provide necessary evidence and expedite official recognition of a problem only when the tape is born out of and connected to a community.

Next: Advocacy Video and Community Organizing

Last updated: 22 October 2001 mff
www.benton.org/Practice/Features/advideocase1.html