Vietnam and Laos – Mekong River / by KARIN-BAM STOWE

We sailed up the Mekong, along the waters to the inland beauty of Tonle Sap and Songkhla Lake to run media workshops with members of the NGO Mekong River Commission and local journalist.  The trainees had learnt video, film and photography over a week. Then sent out to document using their newly acquired skills.  The participants had traversed from environmentalists into media makers. The film below, shows the work they undertook and the results of their practice. There is nothing more satisfying than empowering those that know the real stories and they tell them from their perspective. Ironically making practitioners like myself redundant, but why should someone not truly attuned to the problems come in try an interpret?

We set sail up the junction to document the problems occurring to the communities living along the Mekong. We would encounter, flash floods, river bandits and thousands of water snakes that came out in the rain. Your typical media workshop!

The perils of working in country needed to be surmounted by bare foot, bailing out boats, and cameras wrapped in bags to float next to us, each time our boats sank. This is my lecture hall.