Twin Cities Indymedia Presents: Movement Mediamaking For the Masses

Do you want to grow radical social movements?  Do you want skills for chronicling and fighting injustice in the Twin Cities?  Do you want to add mediamaking tools to your toolbox?  Then you can be more than a citizen journalist - you can be a radical movement mediamaker.  If this could be you, then, this March: [dramatic movie voiceover voice; cut to montage] Join activists across the Twin Cities metro area in connecting movements and leveraging our power.  Three participatory class sessions will culminate in an optional fun community event at which participants can present their collective work, which will also be featured on www.tc.indymedia.org.

Because this is NOT simply a "citizen journalism" course, participants should have an interest/investment in social justice activism and a general agreement with the Indymedia mission statement and principles of unity (found below and at http://twincities.indymedia.org/page/info).

Also note that this course will go beyond completion of the final session.  We want people like you to be better equipped to continue having fun making radical media for the benefit of Twin Cities Social movements.  We want you to stay involved with telling the stories that reflect our communities.  Radical media does not bring justice by itself, but is a role all freedom fighters can and should take a turn at filling. Join us and help make it happen!

We intend for this class to be an intergenerational space committed to anti-oppression practice, including but not limited to the challenging of white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, classism, and transphobia.

About Twin Cities Indymedia:

Twin Cities Indymedia (aka the TC Independent Media Center, or TCIMC; www.tc.indymedia.org) is an independent, democratic media outlet dedicated to the passionate, radical and accurate telling of truth. We do not claim neutrality; rather, we report from inside social movements against capitalism, imperialism, and injustice.  We are the local chapter of the national (www.indymedia.us) and global (www.indymedia.org) IMC movement, with over 150 active IMCs worldwide.

TCIMC is an open publishing website, meaning anyone can instantly publish content so long as it does not violate the site's mission (that's the paragraph above).  As a collective, we also leverage our resources to aid social movements in the Twin Cities and surrounding region, for example: reporting live from the streets at an antiwar demonstration, telling the stories of Minnesota women resisting foreclosure, or providing video evidence to help wrongly-accused activists fight their charges.

All IMCs are committed to the development of non-hierarchal and anti-authoritarian relationships, from interpersonal relationships to group dynamics. Therefore, all IMCs organize themselves collectively and are committed to the principle of consensus decision making and the development of a direct, participatory democratic process.

Read more about TCIMC, the IMC Network, and the IMC Network Principles of Unity here: http://twincities.indymedia.org/page/info and our FAQ here: http://twincities.indymedia.org/page/faq-frequently-asked-questions

Brief Class Outline:

The course will consist of three class sessions, plus out-of-class mediamaking of your choosing.  Attendance at each session is not mandatory but is strongly preferred; participants who miss a session should connect with a facilitator during the week in order to get the most out of the course.

#1) Saturday, March 6, 12-2pm: Introductions; goals of radical independent media

#2) Saturday, March 13, 12-2pm: Overcoming issues while mediamaking (video, photos, text); visioning projects

(Saturday, March 20 is skipped - we encourage participants to attend the planned anti-war demonstration that afternoon)

#3) Saturday, March 27, 12-2pm: Workshopping projects; moving forward

Potential final community event: TBD by class participants

Any questions or concerns? Please contact us!