This week, we hoped to move forward by working on the content and deciding on the media format of our project. The theme of our group, inter- and intra-faith divides and solidarities, is very broad. Therefore, we wanted to narrow down our topic and explore a specific theme that we can address in our final media project. Unfortunately, our Diva Girl partners were unable to make it this week. Taking on this challenge, Andrew and I decided to brainstorm together and explore possible pathways for the project.
A few weeks ago, we learned in class from the Divas Girls that there are two mosques in Regent Park that attracts Muslim residents of different ethnic backgrounds. There is a sense of rivalry between these two mosques. We passed by one of them during our walking tour of the neighbourhood last week. The rivalry between these two mosques could be an interesting entry point to discuss intra-faith divisions and solidarity. Interviewing people, perhaps religious leaders, from different mosques could give us an understanding of the divisions within Muslim residents of Regent Park. The potential tension between these two groups and how they still, in a way, coexist peacefully could be an interesting theme of our project.
However, we have two concerns about this option. First, we do not know whether our Divas Girl partners would feel comfortable delving into the tensions. This is an important concern, as the project also depends on what stories our partners are comfortable with sharing. Additionally, since the topic may be very controversial, it may be difficult to distinguish subjective opinions from facts. Since neither me nor Andrew are of the Muslim faith, we may not have sufficient background knowledge to approach this issue in an objective, respectful manner.
Another option that we proposed is to explore various faith groups in Regent Park and their perspectives on others. This route would provide us with a more comprehensive understanding of religious communities in Regent Park. However, this approach is very broad. Since we are doing one media project, Dr. Mehta suggested us to focus on a narrower topic so we could explore in more depth.
Going back to the drawing board, we came up with another theme, which is to explore the interactions between the Chinese and Muslim communities in Regent Park. We thought that this topic could work for several reasons. First, Andrew and I are both of the Chinese background, with the ability to communicate with residents in the Chinese language. Second, the SEAS community centre, which we stopped by last week, could help to connect us with local Chinese residents who may be willing to speak to us about their experiences. Lastly, this exploration of two groups in Regent Park could provide insights on the relationship between different religious groups and between religious and secular groups in Regent Park, as well as how these relationships can be strengthened in a positive direction. Next week, we plan to talk to our Divas Girl partners about this idea and hear their thoughts.
SEAS community connects many Chinese residents. From SEAS website.
Another important discussion we had is about the form of our media project. Both Andrew and I want to make a short documentary film, because the shooting process can incorporate all our Divas Girl partners, and both Andrew and I have experience with filming. Andrew once edited a short video for another class, and I made a short trailer for my high school English class. These experiences would be conducive to our filmmaking process. We’re also planning on watching the short film that we presented earlier in our class, “Hair And Self Image”, again on our own to seek inspiration.
Lastly, we set a timeline to guide our work in the coming classes:
March 9
Discuss with Diva Girl partners
Narrow down specific plan and how we use media
Email/explore community to set up interviews
March 16
Preferably conduct interviews + filming
March 23
Interviews + filming + editing
We’re hoping that we can follow through with this process. We can’t wait to start exploring!
The Faithful Delta team members are Aisha, Amal, Andrew, Jim, Sahara.