::site navigation:: ....................................... >> about VM > projects and programs > resources and media > community services > contact VM ....................................... >> return home ....................................... > support our mission > calendar of events .......................................	> our mission Video Machete (VM) is dedicated to producing media arts projects that promote economic and cultural equity within communities that have been historically under-represented, distorted or erased within mainstream media. Through collaborative approaches towards teaching media analysis, community based research skills and production we seek to bridge diverse experiences while advancing the participation of our communities within democratic processes at local, national and global levels. > our story In 1994, a group of teachers, students, and community activists and organizers began meeting in study circles to discuss problems in the community - particularly the increasing criminalization of young people, struggles of migrants and its relation to globalization. Using popular education methods inspired Paulo Friere and Augosto Boal, VM began creating creative and critical spaces for communities to examine their histories and understand their roles as actors on the world stage for social change. Video and multimedia were used as a tools to document, investigate, and educate our communities and encourage civic engagement and leadership from marginalized peoples to speak in their own behalf. Since then, Video Machete has conducted workshops across the city and has been invited to both national and international congregations to speak and present its work. Video Machete continues to work within the grassroots as a collective entity of youth, students, teachers, artists, activists, techno-geeks, and affiliated organizations within our neighborhood cooperative in Albany Park - the home of the highest concentration of recent immigrants in all of Chicago. The Public Broadcasting Station (PBS), Illinois Violence Prevention Network, Illinois Humanities Council and the Ricky Byrdsong Foundation have recognized Video Machete for our outstanding community achievements. Works produced from VM’s workshops have screened locally, nationally and internationally at schools, libraries and such venues as: the Taos Talking Pictures Festival (NM); The Hamptons Film and Video Festival, Chicago Latino Film Festival (IL), Women in the Director’s Chair (IL), London’s Lesbian and Gay Film Festival; Version02 Museum of Contemporary Art (IL), the Prince Music Theatre (PA), Bay Area Video Artists Coalition (CA) and the Docu-Jam Festival (NY) at the Museum of Television and Radio, Grantmakers in the Arts Conference (CA), and Grassroots Media Festival, Future Filmmakers Festival, Apple Store and AMC Theater in Chicago (IL). > our community VM operates on an open basis and builds community awareness and involvement through direct solicitation of participation and partnerships with schools, community organizations, public institutions, and individuals to promote our free cultural events, forums and workshops for diverse audiences in Chicago and throughout the state. VM strives to maintain gender equity, engage racialized minorities, low-income communities, and involve post-incarcerated and LGBTQ youth and community members in our workshops and other programs. VM has and continues to engage youth on all levels of project planning, implementation and evaluation; youth serve on the Board of Directors and the Youth Advisory Council, facilitate workshops and represent VM at festivals and conferences. 96% of VM’s youth participants are low income; 75% are African-American and Latino and 65% include new and recent immigrants. We often work in areas of the city that do not have access to media art or production.
video machete is supported by the national endowment for the arts, the ford foundation, aol/time warner foundation, the community arts partnerships in education, after school matters, and through generaous support from individuals internationaly