In the remote villages of Northeast India, where indigenous traditions and biodiversity thrive, young people are learning to tell stories in a powerful new way through the lens of a camera. Since 2014, NESFAS has been equipping rural youth with the skills to script, film, and edit videos that document their own lives, cultures, and challenges. This Participatory Video (PV) programme is more than a training initiative; it is a movement to reclaim narratives, preserve indigenous knowledge, and create opportunities for the next generation.
So far, around 30 youth have been trained under this initiative, producing more than 55 videos on themes ranging from agrobiodiversity and traditional food systems to the impacts of climate change. These films are not simply documentaries, but they are also authentic voices from the community, speaking to the world about resilience, culture, and sustainability.
Reclaiming Narratives
For too long, indigenous communities have been portrayed by outsiders, often reducing their identities to stereotypes or leaving their stories untold altogether. The PV programme challenges this imbalance. By placing cameras in the hands of rural youth, it ensures that communities themselves control how their culture, knowledge, and challenges are represented.
The result is strikingly different. The videos produced showcase farming practices embedded in biodiversity, food festivals celebrating heritage, and community responses to climate change and all narrated by the people who live them. This is grassroots journalism at its most authentic. It is a shift from “being studied” to “being heard.”
Skills That Empower and Retain Youth
Opportunities for rural youth in Meghalaya are limited, often leading to migration in search of livelihoods. This not only drains villages of young talent but also weakens cultural continuity. By offering training in filmmaking, storyboarding, and editing, NESFAS creates new pathways for young people to thrive in their communities. Isn’t it time we start embracing such innovative ideas as essential tools for modern-day challenges?
In this way, the PV programme not only provides employability but also addresses deeper issues of youth migration and identity. It gives young people a reason to stay, to contribute, and to lead.
A Participatory Approach that Strengthens Communities
What sets NESFAS’ PV programme apart is its participatory approach. These are not outsider-driven projects. Community members decide what stories to tell, what themes matter, and how they wish to be represented. This shared ownership makes the films more authentic and ensures that the process itself strengthens community bonds.
Working in collaboration with The Indigenous Partnership (TIP) and InsightShare, NESFAS facilitated its first PV trainings in 2014. Over two weeks, across four villages, participants learned the entire filmmaking process, from script to screen. Guided by Chris Atkins, a consultant with InsightShare, the youth gained confidence not just in handling a camera, but in using it as a tool for advocacy and change.
From Local Villages to Global Platforms
The potential of this first work was demonstrated at the Indigenous Terra Madre (ITM) 2015 event in Shillong. For the first time, community-made films were screened on an international stage, giving indigenous youth the platform to share their stories with people from around the world.
This was more than symbolic recognition and it was proof that voices from remote villages could reach global conversations about food sovereignty, climate change, and cultural preservation. For the young filmmakers, it was life-changing: their communities’ stories were no longer invisible.
Since then, more 30 rural youth have been trained and these PV teams have produced over 55 films. Each new video reflects a growing confidence to tackle bigger and more urgent issues, from documenting climate impacts on agriculture to showcasing women’s central role in sustaining indigenous food systems.
Looking Forward
The vision is clear: to build a network of youth-led documentation hubs where indigenous knowledge is celebrated, cultural identity is preserved, and local voices shape conversations at every level, from village gatherings to international forums. By training rural youth to become storytellers, NESFAS is doing more than teaching filmmaking. It is creating leaders, strengthening communities, and safeguarding a heritage that is invaluable not just for the communities, but for the world.
However, nothing comes smoothly without challenges. As is often the case, resources remain the greatest hurdle. Procuring gear, equipment, and sustaining projects for trained fellows is not easy. Yet, in its small but meaningful ways, NESFAS has begun addressing some of these gaps, for instance, by engaging trained PV fellows in its own story documentation work, employing them as videographers and crew members.
Because when communities tell their own stories, they do not just preserve the past—they shape the future.