By Kim Shaw
Maya Angelou once said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you”. Pam Sykes is teaching South Africans the skills of storytelling in a digital format.
After 15 years of writing for a living, Pam became captivated by the transformative power and potential of multimedia digital storytelling. As a digital storytelling facilitator, she empowers others with the technical skills they need to take their stories into their own hands.
“I remember how impressed I was with the work done on digital storytelling by the Sonke Gender Justice Network, a national NGO based in Cape Town. These were real stories being read by real people and they were amazing,” says Pam.
The experience was life-changing and last year Pam headed off to the Centre for Digital Storytelling at the University of Berkeley in California to join their facilitation course. Since then she has never looked back and now facilitates digital storytelling workshops around the country.
“Telling your own story is empowering,” says Pam. “And especially here in South Africa, we have so many important stories to tell. People have been telling stories for ever and it will never stop; we will continue to refine our ability to tell and to share; I would love to see everyone empowered to tell their own stories.”
The tradition of digital storytelling has its roots in community theatre and even the digital process still has the sense of sitting around, sharing and breaking barriers. As technology gets better so it becomes even easier, and mobile phones are giving it a new direction.
But what does digital storytelling actually involve? Pam explains: “During the facilitation process we offer technical skills as well as story structuring skills so that people can compile stories for their children or their grandparents or work colleagues. Usually it’s quite emotional; many people in South Africa have survived traumatic situations and they want to document them. Many people arrive at workshops not knowing what story they’ll tell, but the facilitation process allows you to feel safe in the environment.”
Sharing stories has so many benefits – from nation building and reconciliation to business tools for corporates. “People respond so well to it,” she adds. “It’s a very useful tool for NGOs, and for managing diversity within organisations. As people share, barriers are broken.”
The beauty of the workshops is that anyone can attend, although here in South Africa the stories are “so very different to what’s happening overseas” says Pam. “In SA our stories are so big that they often get hijacked – one story becomes someone else’s story. We have so many sad stories in South Africa whereas in Europe and the UK stories are not so tragic.”
The workshop process moves from construction and story circle to scripting (just a few minutes of creating 200 to 300 words); honing and editing; using editing software; recording the reading; creating a storyboard and images; final editing and then premiering the work.
“It’s an amazing process,” says Pam. “People achieve things they had no idea they could achieve, and watching their joy at this sense of achievement is so rewarding.”
While there’s considerable work happening at schools internationally, digital storytelling has yet to take off at schools here in South Africa. Pam would love to work with the Department of Education and believes thousands of young people would benefit.
“Public funding is quite big overseas for projects like this,” she adds, “but it has not yet taken off here. I feel very passionate about it, it’s a powerful technique for sharing and I really want everyone to have a voice.”
* For examples of digital stories, visit here
Jennifer Thorpe’s digital story, created after attending a digital storytelling workshop at the Wired Women conference, can be viewed here.
QualityLife Company will be running a two-day digital storytelling workshop with Pam Sykes on November 10 and 11 in Johannesburg. To book, call Lizzy on 011 880 9749 or email Lizzy.
