Projects

In 1967 Colin Low and his collaborators made 27 films on and about Fogo Island under the National Film Board's "Challenge for Change" banner. Here is how the NFB describes "Challenge for Change":

The objective of the Challenge for Change program is to shed light on social problems through the production of films. What is Challenge for Change? What happens with children from deprived areas when they are given a free hand to make their own films? Who can be a better voice for Indigenous Peoples' needs and aspirations than an Indigenous film crew? How angry are the black people with the way society treats them? How do government representatives react to social change and the role of the Challenge for Change program? Can a film project serve as a cohesive agent and catalyst for change within a community, and at the same time serve as a means of communication with government? What is community organizing? What role can film play in participatory democracy? Does controversy lead to violence? How useful are the films from Challenge for Change going to be? This film has some of the answers.

The question Can a film project serve as a cohesive agent and catalyst for change within a community, and at the same time serve as a means of communication with government?  often appears without its second clause (and at the same time serve as a means of communication with government?) Important that this clause be there, lest we confuse it with other well-intentioned projects, from building an opera house in the Amazon basin (Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, 1982)

to bringing art and artists to Fogo Island (Zita Cobb's Shorefast Foundation, 2006-)