Digital Diversity, Real Cities
Radio Canada International, a branch of the CBC that broadcasts around the world in several different languages, has launched an interesting competition. Digital Diversity, or Métissé serré as it’s known in French, invited young filmmakers to submit short films on the theme of immigration. From now until December 2nd, you will be able to vote on 60 videos that can be viewed online. Among this week’s finalists are five that, in some way or another, touch on the issue of cultural exchange in the city and the relationship between place, language and identity.
(Unfortunately, due to the competition’s form-over-function Flash interact, it’s impossible to link directly to each video. You can find them all here and check this week’s list of films.)
“Jahsun,” by Paul Aflalo and Laura Cohen, is a short but polished look at Jahsun, a Montreal drummer and the leader of Kalmunity, a musical collective that blends funk, hip hop, jazz, soul and spoken word. Kalmunity’s goal is to bring people together in a positive way — hence the name, which blends “calm” with “community.” (I’ve seen Kalmunity live and it does indeed bring together and interesting, almost unlikely, mix of people.) Part of Jahsun’s philosophy might come from his childhood experience in different parts of Montreal.
“Growing up in Ville Saint-Laurent, which is very multiethnic, going to a school that was like Asians, Indians, blacks, Québécois, Anglo-Saxons, just a nice mix, and moving to Châteauguay, where I did my high school, that was just a culture shock,” he says. “You’re one of two black males and maybe three black females in the whole school and that was it. It was a hard time. All of that is why being creative spoke to me. I’ve always loved music because but it really came to me in Châteauguay, because that’s when I was more on my own.”
In “Binding Borders,” Tiffany Hsiung weaves a story of four Torontonians — one from Vietnam, one from Mexico, one from the Philippines and one from Rwanda — and their lives before immigrating to Canada. What I like about this film is that it explores the backgrounds, at least briefly, of the strangers with whom we share the city everyday. How many times have you looked at someone on the street, or in the bus, and wondered who they are, where they are from, what life they have lived?
“The Ride,” by Onur Karaman, is another fictional film about the encounter between a Muslim taxi driver and two white passengers in Brossard, a suburb of Montreal. As he drives them to their destination, the three start talking: first about language — the driver understands French but doesn’t speak it, and the women won’t speak English — and then culture and religion: the women see a photo of the driver’s wife and take issue with the fact that she is veiled. Although the acting is a bit stilted, and the film is a bit didactic, it’s still nice to see this kind of intercultural exchange on film.
Unlike the other films I’ve selected, “Regard,” by Medhi Benboubakeur doesn’t have much dialogue. Although it focuses on the “quest for identity” of Maiwenn Méhrer, a young French violinist of Chinese and Breton descent, who has recently settled in Montreal, it doesn’t have any characters in the traditional sense. Rather, the whole of la métropole and its habitants become the stars of this homage to the city’s multiculturalism, set to an eloquent violin score.
nina says:
Go see REGARD by Mehdi Benboubakeur, there is a lot of excellent scenes. The building, emotional, music and forescene was wonderfully.
October 13th, 2007 at 1:01 pm