The article Shooting Back, With Video in last week’s International Herald Tribune discusses “grassroots filmmaking" as a tool to get your locality in the global picture, focusing on young Palestinian filmmakers. Three years ago, B'Tsalem, an Israeli human rigts organization, gave cameras to young Palestinians to “collect video evidence of abuses and misconduct by the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli settlers in the West Bank.”

The kids liked filming and soon the footage was not only juridcally succesful, but also creatively. And so a “grassroots filmmaking culture” was born.  A film workshop for teenagers from H2, “living in the militarized, Israeli-controlled sector of Hebron”, results in original, personal mini documentaries about daily life in a conflictive area.

Hebron is not the only place where citizens use video to portray their neighbourhood. I found Slum TV from Kenya, that pictures the daily life of the inhabitants of Mathare, a slum in Nairobi. Unfortunately, the website has not been updated for a while, but the clips are still great to watch. I highly recommend “Mathare Highway”. The soap opera gives an insider's perspective on the lives, problems and jokes of the locals, and even contains a few funny special effects.

 Used to flashy television items, the calm pace of the videos, and their simple topics  are a relief, and a valuable addition to the daily CNN/BBC/Al Jazeera dose.

 Does anyone know similar grassroots media, with a local tube? Please share them!

Slum TV, Kenya. Photo: Al-Jazeera