Video For Change is a non-commercial partnership of three women producing documentary videos on social issues. It has evolved a docu-drama style, using music, rap poetry, drama and documentary footage. Video For Change collaborates with NGO's, United Nations agencies and Church and Community organizations.

Cynthia Wilmot, director/writer, entered the audio-visual field in the 1940s as a fee-lance writer of dramas and documentaries for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She joined the Film Unit of the Jamaica Information Service in the 1960s and became Chief Films Officer. She wrote and directed award winning film "Memories of Parboosingh, a biography of one of Jamaica's outstanding painters and "The Sunset Years", an examination of the problems of the aged. In the 1980s she left the JIS to free lance and was cofounder of Video for Change in 1990. Cynthia has just been awarded the "Doctor Bird Award in media.

The Doctor Bird Awards are bestowed biennially on outstanding workers in film and video in the Caribbean and West Indian diaspora by the Doctor Bird Awards Committee, made up of persons prominent and competent in the industry who select awardees from persons whose work has been released.
Cynthia Wilmot, veteran filmmaker and co-founder of Video For Change was given the award for her video production which was selected from the body of work for the year. Her documentary "Edna -- a love story"
completed in 2000 was featured at the Doctor Bird Workshop for film makers. The award is named for the Longtailed Hummingbird, which is native to the Caribbean and is the national bird of Jamaica.

Hilary Nicholson, producer, has worked in popular theatre and drama in education in the Caribbean for many years. She was a founding member of the celebrated Sistren Theatre Collective of Jamaicas. Her work with Sistren led to involvement in documentary film and video works that explored conditions of women sugar workers in "Sweet Sugar Rage" (1963). Her theatre work let do her becoming involved in Jamaica's burgeoning film industry during the 1980s and her preference for documentary resulted in her teaming up with Cynthia Wilmot as cofounder of Video for Change in 1990.

Gayatri Persad, production assistant and location supervisor, graduated form the Caribbean Institute for Media and Communications in 1993, and work in the field of development communications in Jamaica and Trinidad before joining Video for Change in 1997. She has worked in the Jamaican film industry on local and international feature productions, the most recent being the feature film "Third World Cop" and the television series "Royal Palm Estate". She is currently on leave from Video for Change to pursue her Masters Degree at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.

Artist Code: 914