THE INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY AS A CREATIVE AND ARTISTIC EXPERIENCE FOR YOUTH EMPOWERMENT: THE HEBE WEBDOC AS A CASE OF STUDY

The interaction potential offered by new technologies open up unprecedented possibilities both for the investigation of youth empowerment within academia, and for the design and implementation of participatory methodologies that foster young people's empowerment processes in society. The HEBE webdoc [www.hebewebdoc.com] described in this paper is presented as a pioneering case in the field of youth empowerment, as it combines within a single interactive platform: empowering stories in the form of audiovisual segments; reflections on the creative process as shown in various focus groups; and, finally, digital sharing in order to enable a dialogue between the materials and citizens. The first section provides details of and analyzes the three main factors on which the HEBE webdoc is based: the evolution of empowerment participatory methodologies based on audiovisual creation; the use of new transmedia formats that allow collective participation; and the establishment of a film pedagogy as a way to learn from an emotional life experience. The second section describes the stages of the HEBE webdoc building process, by detailing the most important aspects and revealing its qualities as a tool for citizen science. It also explains the pedagogical methodology applied in the workshop where it was created, and the webdoc site's navigation layout, which involves the construction of narratives that enable the user to reflect on processes, spaces and youth empowerment moments. To conclude, the third section contains the initial results from the completed webdoc's platform design, based on an analysis of the pieces resulting from the audiovisual education workshop, carried out by the participants.