Community documentaries and participatory video.

Vera Media is a video production and training partnership in Leeds, UK. This article discusses its participatory video work, which involves, develops and empowers a wide variety of women, youth, older people and generally socially excluded groups. The process of active participation and people filming their own communities is described, as is the need for an end product that looks good and has an audience. Some recent examples of projects are presented to illustrate some of these issues.