They do not wield swords, few are capable of reining in a steed, and even fewer are given the recognition they deserve. Most are just average people who see a need, note that the authorities have done little to assuage it, and take it upon themselves to rectify the problem. This is the basic premise of the documentary television program Heroes, now broadcasting locally driven stories in Azerbaijan, with support from the USAID-funded Media Advancement project, administered by IREX.
Produced and aired by local Azerbaijani television stations, this series provides an important outlet for highlighting positive and uplifting stories of community involvement. A recent episode produced in the region of Ganja highlighted a volunteer teacher who works with hearing-impaired children to develop their language skills. Another program profiled the head of a state-run orphanage who, instead of institutionalizing those in her care, actually makes them part of her ever-expanding family. The program directly confronts stereotypes of orphanages and the people that administer them.
While the half-hour program focuses on an individual or a group that is trying to improve the lives of their neighbors, community, city, or country, it is also a valuable training mechanism. Each episode provides opportunities to teach developing media outlets the associated arts of story development, shooting, editing, and lighting—basically everything that goes into program production.
When the IREX personnel and trained production crew goes into the field to shoot an episode, they have already been prepared with a basic outline of the subject and the storyline by journalists from the TV station in the community where the subject resides. The reporter has been tasked with doing the research and verifying the facts behind the story. During actual shooting, IREX personnel accompany a journalist and cameraperson from the station. Of course the key ingredient of any program is the editing, which is done in the local station by the resident editor, with support from the IREX producer and editor. The editor is tasked with producing a coherent television program with clear introduction, story, and conclusion that fit into a half-hour program, all the while maintaining a focus on the actual subject.
IREX initiated this project in Albania where well over 100 episodes were produced, the majority by the local participating stations. Two of the Albanian productions won international awards, one in Palermo and the other in Cannes. In Azerbaijan, Heroes is one part of the extensive Media Advancement Project, which focuses on increasing Azerbaijan civil society’s access to objective and varied information, thereby promoting and supporting their participation in Azerbaijan’s policy and decision-making process.
