At this week’s session, we conducted interviews with Fatima Saya (Senior Manager of Social Impact; The Daniels Corporation), Walied Khogali Ali (RP Resident, does so many things) and Ismail Afrah (RP Resident, Community Revitalization Expert: TCHC). At this point in our research, we have accumulated most of our content, and now we are filling in the gaps through short, 5 minute interviews with community members. For example, a gap in our documentary is a short history on cabbagetown and the early years of RP, as well as some history on community strength and vitality in spite of entrenched stigmatization. Rather than conducting 40 minute interviews, our plan is to simply ask for insights on these topics and quickly wrap.
Now that we have finished conducting all seven interviews, we discovered some interesting and unexpected commonalities between respondents. For example, Ines, Mary, and Fatima all identified that one of the SDP’s major challenges was that the committees and working tables were mostly made up of the same residents. Given their different backgrounds and attitudes towards the SDP (TCHC resident, market resident, and developer employee), we had expected that they would identify different challenges as being important to the SDP’s progress. Many respondents also identified that youth and market residents were underrepresented in the SDP processes. This potentially points to there being more commonalities than differences among different SDP stakeholders. We might try to show these commonalities in the documentary, but it will be difficult since we didn’t consider this possibility when writing our interview protocol. With so much attention focused on the differences between groups, a focus on the commonalities could be an interesting avenue for future research.
Aside from piecing together a film, we’re facing a challenge in how we want to frame the narrative. One option is to remain “neutral” and try to show both positive and negative effects of the SDP. A downside of this option, as we’ve discussed in class, is that by being neutral, we are essentially siding with those who have the power. Equally platforming the voices of developers alongside the voices of Regent Park residents, especially TCHC residents, serves to reinforce existing power dynamics. On the other hand, trying to expose the harms of the SDP and pursuing a more activist stance risks alienating community members and driving further tensions in an already-divided community. As such, we plan to choose the “safer” option by framing the narrative in a way that both celebrates yet constructively critiques the SDP.
Maintaining neutrality (or at least the appearance of neutrality) is easier said than done. We must simultaneously avoid minimizing the work that has been done simply because we found gaps in procedural justice while highlighting flaws in the SDP process. This documentary is not geared towards shaming those involved and chastising the community for not adequately developing an SDP. We are not experts in social development plans, nor do we live in the community and understand what is most needed. This is especially challenging given the short amount of run time we have for the film. The goal is to provide opportunities for more involvement and interest in the SDP. Perhaps focusing more on solutions rather than problems will not discourage future RP community leaders.
Combining interview footage, B-roll and voiceovers using iMovie
Week 4 tasks accomplished:
Conducted interview with Fatima Saya from Daniels
Conducted interview with Ismail (from our team!)
Conducted interview with Walied Khogali Ali
Gathered initial B-roll
Rough skeleton draft of documentary for easy editing, cut/paste
Began reviewing interviews
Tasks for week 5:
Meet with the team on Tuesday (March 26)
Continue working on rough draft on Imovie
Fill in research gap: Conduct short interview with Adonis on the history of RP and sense of community (post cabbagetown/1950s, pre-2000s revite)
Work with FOCUS team to finalize documentary outline/flow
Thursday (March 28):
Finalize reviewing all interview transcripts and select best parts
Finalize music and B-roll for the interview
Fill in research gap: Short 5 minute interview with Aditi Mehta on the history of RP (cabbagetown, pre-2000s revite)
Next Steps:
Saturday (March 30): have first draft complete for review
This draft should have all content finalized, next steps will be for editing only.
Send the draft to all stakeholders/participants for review/sign-off.
Pick title for documentary
The SDP Champions team members are Asae, Ismail, Jacob, and Jackson