Hamilton’s Staircase Café Theatre buzzed as a sold-out crowd gathered to watch NOT ONTV, a night of local activist videos presented by the Dundas Independent Video Association (DIVA).
70 people were able to witness, many for the first time, examples of grassroots activism ignored and marginalized by Hamilton’s mainstream media.
For some in the audience there was an opportunity to see themselves represented on the big screen as actors for social and environmental change in a city with a burgeoning activist scene.
At the core of the films is locally generated action. People from the Hamilton community working together to positively impact on the world around them. People who care enough to risk going public with their love of peace or clean air. People who lend their diverse talents and insights to making change happen. People willing to wear silly costumes...
Organizers dubbed the Staircase screening NOT ONTV with an eye on highlighting the absence of Hamilton's corporate media when it comes to covering local actions.
This point was made clear by a number of activist-shot video of the Hamilton War Show protests which made up a solid portion of the NOT ONTV programme.
During three years of protests against the Hamilton International Air (AKA War) show, Hamilton’s corporate media sponsored the event while exerting near black-out censorship over those who opposed the show, failing even to cover the protests which included the largest local civil-disobedience action in decades (22 arrests.)
DIVA videos documented three years of protest including exclusive footage of arrests inside the war show in 1999 (five arrests) and 2000 (seven arrests) in front of the US warplane, the A-10 "Warthog."
Indeed, many of the videos screened at NOT ONTV are the only extant visual records of local actions on Car Free Day and Buy Nothing Day or of night-time encounters between soldiers doing weapons training in Bayfront Park and activists.("War Games in the Park")
Behind each video are hours and hours of volunteer labour by talented and dedicated video editors who take the raw footage and turn it into something enjoyable to watch without the aid of gravol.
Video is a helpful tool for activists, not only for bringing to light the stories kept off nightly newscasts, but often as a form of protection against police or security force violence. Activist video has even been used to defend against criminal charges in the courts -- and helped to win acquittals. As David Hermolin of Toronto Video Activist Collective reports,
"Matthew Behrens of Toronto Action for Social Change and 6 others...received a NOT GUILTY sentence from the Ontario Power Generation action last year! Matthew said: ‘the judge must've said 3 or 4 times that the video clearly showed, I saw this on the video and stuff like that.’ We are continuing to do invaluable work for and in the activist community and these are the rare plum moments when our success is actually measurable." (www.tvac.ca)
Access to camera equipment and editing software means that groups like DIVA and TVAC can proliferate, bringing to light the undercurrents of social change activity and offering up unique perspectives on the city’s activist life.
DIVA is a loose affiliation of activists and artists who began by documenting their political and civil disobedience actions on video.
Groups such as DIVA exist to serve as a reminder of the gap between for-profit media concerns and the every-day concerns of individuals and groups seeking to actively change the world.
A hoped for positive outcome of the NOT ONTV screening would be the birth of more "DIVAs", that is, more groups inspired to use video as a tool in social change activity.
The implications, if followed through, might mean the revolution will be -- if not televised -- at least visualized.
True to form, the Hamilton Spectator and CH TV failed to cover the event after being notified.
Thanks to: all at the Staircase Cafe Theatre for hosting NOT ONTV and for splitting the door with DIVA; Imre Szeman for arranging the screening; Mike Smith for ably teching the show; Gord Pullar for the poster/programme art; to all who arranged, organized and participated in actions, and those who video-taped and edited. And again thanks to those numerous souls who've supported and been DIVA in its various permutations..