VC is working to democratize and diversify the field, to ensure that all nonfiction video professionals are holistically equipped to produce and release compelling, impactful stories. We see visual storytelling as a collaborative process, not as a club.

Guided by three focus areas, what we do reflects this ethos:

• Community building and Events: attend in-person or virtual gatherings, led by our organizers in Local Hubs around the world; explore our member directory, participate in Advisory Circles, or join the conversation via our Slack workspace.

• Education: join the Newsroom Collective, attend Industry Conversations, get involved in our University Initiative, listen to the Rough Cut podcast, or learn about the Pay Transparency Project.

• Production: peruse our jobs/gigs board and watch films from our ongoing Solutions Storytelling Project.

To represent the evolving direction of our field, we use “nonfiction video” as an umbrella term to describe the interconnected sectors of documentary filmmaking, visual journalism, and social [fact-based] media— all forms that serve the urgent need for truth in this new age of misinformation.

TRUTH: We seek to amplify stories that authentically capture truth with nuance and integrity.

COLLABORATION: We believe that generosity and kindness are foundational to successful collaboration, and that reaching back to lift up those who come after us is crucial to the storytelling process and to our industry.

COMPASSION: We endeavor to meet people where they are, to be fully present for those we’re with, and to work towards an empathetic media culture in which storytellers can thrive and story participants are treated with dignity.

EQUITY: We strive to amplify and empower underrepresented voices and perspectives in all programs and content; after all, diverse crews and newsrooms, uniting varying perspectives and cultures, tell the most accurate and wholly better stories.

HUMILITY: Attitude and intention are equally important to technical skill and craft. Awards and accomplishments aside, we believe that a humble, seeking spirit is what drives excellent reportage and a pathway to social progress.

REPRESENTATION: As an international media organization that actively works to make space for storytellers everywhere, we seek to view the world through the perspectives of those most proximate to the issues being documented.

EXPERIMENTATION: We believe that mistakes are blessings, and that innovative, out-of-the-box experimentation is what drives us towards a better future.

AWARENESS: When we’re truly willing, present, and open to being swept up by the serendipity of the stories we’re following, we enter new worlds and can truly, authentically capture what’s happening before our eyes — and strongly regard this practice of conscious, deeply aware storytelling as vital to good journalism.

Continued reading: the Video Consortium's Community Code of Conduct.