Short films provide a unique window into Canadian experience
Cyrus Sundar Singh. Image credit: Jae Yang.
In 1971, Canada became the first country in the world to adopt multiculturalism as an official policy, intending to preserve the cultural freedom of all individuals and provide recognition of the cultural contributions of diverse ethnic groups to Canadian society.
In the 50th-anniversary year of Canada’s first multiculturalism policy, the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Migration and Integration program at Ryerson University unveiled the i am... project – a digital research project exploring the legacy of multiculturalism’s ideal and the sense of belonging to a Canadian identity.
A cohort of 28 graduate students from across Canada were selected through an open call to produce individual short films exploring the following three questions:
How do you see yourself?
How do you wish to be seen?
Anna Triandafyllidou.
How are you seen by others?
“Using digital storytelling, researchers are able to uncover in-sights and engage the public in ways that are not possible otherwise,” says Anna Triandafyllidou, the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration.
“Through this project, we invite the broader public to join us on a journey to better understand matters of inclusion and diversity in Canada and beyond, which is particularly important in the current context of racial reckoning and resistance to settler colonialism.”
Through six pandemic months of online workshops, mentorship from industry experts, and creative exploration, the cohort produced original works that weave together a larger story about Canadian identity.
From an outdoor skating rink to an orchid inside a basket; from Black Lives Matter to Tibetan resistance; from acceptance to rumination; from the price of a blue dress to the social cost of the hijab, pirates, homelessness, motherhood and depression, filmmakers share details of their private lives to help us understand their struggles to belong.
The stories will inspire viewers to explore their own sense of belonging and to reflect on how we may build a future of deeper understanding and greater inclusion.
“The achievement of these 28 short films is remarkable on a number of fronts,” says project director and award-winning filmmaker and scholar Cyrus Sundar Singh. “Each creator worked remotely under significant constraints in the midst of their pandemic bubble, yet produced highly creative and deeply personal pieces that give us a new way of seeing and thinking about the search for belonging inside a shifting Canadian identity.”
The i am... short films and the interactive web platform where they are housed were unveiled on June 10 and are available on demand for viewing at www.Ryerson.ca/iam.
