Video Activism and Social Movements: Online Reception of “The Revolution and the Land” Trailer

“The Revolution and the Land” is a 110-minute documentary, released in Peruvian cinemas on October 10th, 2019. The film deals with the background and consequences of the promulgation of the Agrarian Reform Law by the president Juan Velasco Alvarado on June 24th, 1969. To analyze the social discourses generated around the documentary, we analyzed the official trailer available on YouTube This 2-minute 30 seconds video was chosen because of the relevance that the internet has acquired for the dissemination of this work, as well as its characteristics to promote video activism: the high number of users, the ease to include information about the documentary and by offering content related to social issues. At the time of this study, the documentary had 254 260 views, 3 967 likes and 123 dislikes. To analyze the reception of the documentary and explore the commitment to social change, 952 comments were analyzed according to the following categories: visibility and reach, frames and values, affinity and support, communicative practices. After the analysis, it is concluded that the official trailer for the documentary “The Revolution and the Land” is a success story of video activism and communication for peaceful social change. However, while the comments reveal the interest generated by the documentary's release, the detailed analysis reveals a tense debate that oscillates between the vindication of social movements and their disqualification. In this way, video activism is allowing different social actors to have new spaces for political action through the audiovisual.