Saturday, May 24, 2008
Conference - Community Economic Development Network
I am just about to go back to Toronto after a good 5 days write the newsletter for the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet) National Annual Conference. CCEDNet is one of my favorite organizations, it's a network with a real value to its members, so much that people get really excited and emotional during the AGMs. An amazing crowd of people working on food security, localization, and other types of social economy/services projects with marginalized populations across the country. + a crowd that loves to have fun, genuinely strives to improve in terms of representation and inclusiveness. + a crowd working hard to influence governmental policy to make it more CED-friendly.
The newsletter writing was fun and time-consuming, although I realized how I wasn't so much of a go-getter in terms of information and snippets as I was in terms of actual work. But it reinforced the point that media rules our world, and that there shouldn't be a stop to communications (hence my continuing to write this blog I guess). I like writing.
As days add up to my tally I also realize how my personality seems to fluctuate at times, and how I can sometimes feel more like an observer in a time when really I would want to have as much energy as I generally have. I think on the personal level I need to grow to accept the occasional social awkwardness and just how I am and react to groups given that I inherented part of my dad's agoraphobia.
My own personal highlight of the conference has been the chat resulting of a workshop on business succession which turned out touching on a personal issue of youth exodus from rural areas such as Lac-Etchemin, my own town in Southern Québec. A man I met who lives in the Kootenays in BC was talking to me about rural-urban linkages, and my tour leader for Food and CED, Russ Chartier, has been involved in urban gardening for over 40 years. That gave me the idea of how I could use one of the abundant factor my family has access to in Lac-Etchemin, land, to increase food security... And create a kind of rural Centre for Social Innovation in which youth especially could have access to some activities that are beyond their reach at the moment, such as entrepreneurship training, yoga and cooking courses, etc. A newly articulated dream - looking forwards to talk to my folks and siblings about that. I do admit it is a bit frightening to think of going back to town this early, but I feel committed and ready to go and talk to local actors and see where I can fit in within this community.
Similar to other people I was really pleased with the Aboriginal content, and the Thursday night show, featuring 6 aboriginal performers (poetry and spoken word, dance, comedy theater, storytelling and singing) was amongst the best cultural event I've been to in a long time. I like how unpretentious CCEDNet people are in recognizing their own colonialism and paternalism, and how it doesn't paralyze them at the same time.
Another great thing was to meet the members of the Emerging Leaders group, which I feel might well become key to part of the endeavor previously named. There is definitely a void for me in terms of CED social networks I can really relate to given that my current experience isn't research-based, and I'm really excited to see how I can get involved in this group. Plus maybe they'll help me go beyond my trauma and paranoia on the dance floor? =)
Lastly I must admit my big academic question has taken up a new angle. The whole LSE versus CED debate is now being articulated into 50 000$ for a degree vs 50 000$ into a social entreprise. I'm wondering what is best for me at that point, and how I could potentially use a very orthodox degree to get insights from other groups and how I could make it my own, using my dissertation to do a community economic analysis of my home town. Ideas I need to explore further...
The newsletter writing was fun and time-consuming, although I realized how I wasn't so much of a go-getter in terms of information and snippets as I was in terms of actual work. But it reinforced the point that media rules our world, and that there shouldn't be a stop to communications (hence my continuing to write this blog I guess). I like writing.
As days add up to my tally I also realize how my personality seems to fluctuate at times, and how I can sometimes feel more like an observer in a time when really I would want to have as much energy as I generally have. I think on the personal level I need to grow to accept the occasional social awkwardness and just how I am and react to groups given that I inherented part of my dad's agoraphobia.
My own personal highlight of the conference has been the chat resulting of a workshop on business succession which turned out touching on a personal issue of youth exodus from rural areas such as Lac-Etchemin, my own town in Southern Québec. A man I met who lives in the Kootenays in BC was talking to me about rural-urban linkages, and my tour leader for Food and CED, Russ Chartier, has been involved in urban gardening for over 40 years. That gave me the idea of how I could use one of the abundant factor my family has access to in Lac-Etchemin, land, to increase food security... And create a kind of rural Centre for Social Innovation in which youth especially could have access to some activities that are beyond their reach at the moment, such as entrepreneurship training, yoga and cooking courses, etc. A newly articulated dream - looking forwards to talk to my folks and siblings about that. I do admit it is a bit frightening to think of going back to town this early, but I feel committed and ready to go and talk to local actors and see where I can fit in within this community.
Similar to other people I was really pleased with the Aboriginal content, and the Thursday night show, featuring 6 aboriginal performers (poetry and spoken word, dance, comedy theater, storytelling and singing) was amongst the best cultural event I've been to in a long time. I like how unpretentious CCEDNet people are in recognizing their own colonialism and paternalism, and how it doesn't paralyze them at the same time.
Another great thing was to meet the members of the Emerging Leaders group, which I feel might well become key to part of the endeavor previously named. There is definitely a void for me in terms of CED social networks I can really relate to given that my current experience isn't research-based, and I'm really excited to see how I can get involved in this group. Plus maybe they'll help me go beyond my trauma and paranoia on the dance floor? =)
Lastly I must admit my big academic question has taken up a new angle. The whole LSE versus CED debate is now being articulated into 50 000$ for a degree vs 50 000$ into a social entreprise. I'm wondering what is best for me at that point, and how I could potentially use a very orthodox degree to get insights from other groups and how I could make it my own, using my dissertation to do a community economic analysis of my home town. Ideas I need to explore further...
Saturday, May 03, 2008
NFB Filmmaker in Residence Program
Here's a little blurb from the coolest workshop I attended at Doc U, the documentary school of the Hot Docs film festival.
Two things that came up of Kat Cyzech’s workshop were that filmmakers ought to deeply change their relationship with their « subjects », and that they ought to consider “many vs. any” media. Films aren’t to be made “about”, but rather “with” people; that’s the very motto the Filmmaker in Residence program at the NFB has been operating on since its inception. The Filmmaker in Residence manifesto states that the ideas and goals are to come from the partner, not from the filmmaker, whose role is to put it into documentary form through participation, not mere observation. In this worldview, filmmaking has to learn to become interdisciplinary and participatory. This can be done through breaking free of theatrical limitations and the traditional way of distribution docs through conventional broadcasters, by using various new media forms instead and exploring with uploaded user generated content. As Kat, who has a background in photo-journalism, book publishing, newspapers, radio and anthropology and recently wrote a book called Video for Change, mentioned, the “Internet is a big documentary in process”, documenting the world we live in.
Kat went on to describe various projects of the very grassroots Filmmaker in Residence program, which was based on Challenge for Change, an initiative that first bridged documentary making and community development, by publicizing the struggles of a fishing village in Newfoundland and gave the people of Fogo Island access to financing to start a successful fishing cooperative. Kat screened part of the Bicycle movie, a vector used to advocate a grassroots drugs and aid distribution system championed by James Orbinski’s organization, Dignitas. She also spoke of I was here, a documentary using a “photo voice” methodology to carry forwards the voices of the 300 women giving birth with no fix address in Toronto each year. Photos were taken by the group themselves, and were instrumental in shaping Mayor Miller’s new policies on homelessness and poverty in the city. Along the same line of thought, Street Health helped documenting the health status of Toronto’s homeless through training peer-researchers that would capture audio interviews and photo portraits, once again demonstrating the role of documentary as a tool for political change.
Art and documentary work facilitate social change. Kat advised Doc U students to get versed in graphic design, photography and writing, and says : don’t wait, be interactive and give back now!
More information on : www.nfb.ca/filmmakerinresidence (beware: some people spend up to 3h on the interactive site). You can also check Kat out on the delicious social bookmarking site.
Two things that came up of Kat Cyzech’s workshop were that filmmakers ought to deeply change their relationship with their « subjects », and that they ought to consider “many vs. any” media. Films aren’t to be made “about”, but rather “with” people; that’s the very motto the Filmmaker in Residence program at the NFB has been operating on since its inception. The Filmmaker in Residence manifesto states that the ideas and goals are to come from the partner, not from the filmmaker, whose role is to put it into documentary form through participation, not mere observation. In this worldview, filmmaking has to learn to become interdisciplinary and participatory. This can be done through breaking free of theatrical limitations and the traditional way of distribution docs through conventional broadcasters, by using various new media forms instead and exploring with uploaded user generated content. As Kat, who has a background in photo-journalism, book publishing, newspapers, radio and anthropology and recently wrote a book called Video for Change, mentioned, the “Internet is a big documentary in process”, documenting the world we live in.
Kat went on to describe various projects of the very grassroots Filmmaker in Residence program, which was based on Challenge for Change, an initiative that first bridged documentary making and community development, by publicizing the struggles of a fishing village in Newfoundland and gave the people of Fogo Island access to financing to start a successful fishing cooperative. Kat screened part of the Bicycle movie, a vector used to advocate a grassroots drugs and aid distribution system championed by James Orbinski’s organization, Dignitas. She also spoke of I was here, a documentary using a “photo voice” methodology to carry forwards the voices of the 300 women giving birth with no fix address in Toronto each year. Photos were taken by the group themselves, and were instrumental in shaping Mayor Miller’s new policies on homelessness and poverty in the city. Along the same line of thought, Street Health helped documenting the health status of Toronto’s homeless through training peer-researchers that would capture audio interviews and photo portraits, once again demonstrating the role of documentary as a tool for political change.
Art and documentary work facilitate social change. Kat advised Doc U students to get versed in graphic design, photography and writing, and says : don’t wait, be interactive and give back now!
More information on : www.nfb.ca/filmmakerinresidence (beware: some people spend up to 3h on the interactive site). You can also check Kat out on the delicious social bookmarking site.
