Dream Job: Mother Love

Community members in Burkina Faso review footage on a Sony HVR-A1E camera for the White Ribbon Alliance''s film Avec Nous, which examines the difficulties of providing proper prenatal care and labor support to women in the African nation.

Betsy McCallon says she was searching for a bridge. Having just come back to the United States after working in Southern Africa and Central America on advocacy and policy issues related to women's health care, she wanted to align herself with an organization that united the work of grassroots groups with that of larger agencies. She says the Washington, D.C.-based White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood (WRA) — which brings together individuals, organizations, and communities working to increase awareness of the high rate of maternal mortality worldwide — was a perfect fit.

Video seemed like the ideal tool to spread the WRA's message locally, nationally, and internationally. As the WRA's senior program advisor, McCallon traveled to Tanzania with Sony HVR-A1E and Panasonic NV-GS250 cameras to help train five local midwives and one doctor, who were selected by local WRA members, in videomaking techniques so they could capture the struggles of women seeking medical care during pregnancy and childbirth. She says everyone, including those interviewed, became stakeholders in the filmmaking process.

“We ended up in maternity wards, with women using the cameras and interviewing each other and then showing it back,” McCallon says. “They were really feeling empowered by the process and by the opportunity to share their stories.”

Ande John of Tanzania, Emilie Flower from U.K.-based Insight, and editors from the U.K.-based Engine Room edited the piece using Apple Final Cut Pro. The finished film, Play Your Part, has broadcast on television in Tanzania and in Norway, as well as on the WRA's website and at international meetings.

The WRA has completed three other films: Avec Nous, a participatory film produced in Burkina Faso; My Sister, Myself, spearheaded by U.K. journalist Brigid McConville; and Stories of Mothers Lost, which documents a traveling exhibition of 121 fabric panels commemorating women who have died during childbirth.

McCallon says the films have mobilized people in Europe and North America, fueled advocacy efforts in the nations in which they were made, and encouraged communities to dialogue about what changes need to happen locally. Because the WRA left the cameras and other equipment behind in the countries taking part in the projects, local filmmakers continue to capture stories. “The films may be a final product, but they are not an end in terms of the process,” McCallon says.

For more information about the WRA, visit www.whiteribbonalliance.org.