A few quotes by Colin Low on the Challenge for Change on Fogo Island

“The Fogo Island project, which became a cornerstone of that program, was like one of those events in science where conditions come together and seem to prove something fundamental. But then, try and duplicate the results in another laboratory! I was still defending the Fogo approach as not only practical, but essential."

“It was a community development program in Newfoundland, well planned and well funded, that used film as a catalyst to generate local debate – to give local people a voice and even editorial control – and to provide those people with access to people in power, via film. Not one film but a whole series of mini-films. It was meant to be a step in incorporating media into the democratic process. The creation of a communication loop, as we called it.”

“But there has never been any way of proving that film caused the change… fourteen years later, Fogo Island is one of the healthier communities in Newfoundland, and we can’t say for sure why it is that way.”

“Those moments when rancour and hostility and anger are transformed by reason and become cooperation and accommodation: I have seen the, triggered by an appropriate film. This attitudinal change is hard to get on film, but it is the very root of community. Those moments are hard to record. There are cultures that understand that, in negotiations, people must not be allowed to lose face; they must be able to maintain dignity for the good of the entire community.”

Colin Low, Grierson and Challenge for Change (1984), in Waugh, Thomas and Baker, Michael Brendan and Winton, Ezra. Challenge for Change Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada. Montreal and Kingston: McGill – Queens University Press (2010).