In the summer of 2008, with the support of CITIZENShift and Parole Citoyenne, organizers from the Accommodate this! Campaign -- which mobilized against the "reasonable accommodation" debate and its accompanying Bouchard-Taylor Commission -- decided to approach youth from immigrant neighbourhoods, in order to create a more visible space for their perspectives on racism.

With the help of various groups, organizations, and independent filmmakers & activists, a "youth movie-making free skool" was initiated in Park Extension, with workshop topics ranging from cinema & racism, anti-oppression, and history of migration, to composition, adjusting white balance, keeping a time code, interview techniques, and how to upload videos on the web! With an aim of building strategies of popular education, the workshops emphasized that the youth were free to direct their own project while being given skills and resources to produce a video made by and for youth.

The results were screened on Sunday, October 5th (2008) in a basketball court. This 20-odd minute masterpiece, made entirely by youth, is titled Rafael & Sasha. This Romeo and Juliet redux combined themes of migration, nationalism, and racism, and presented the participants with new-found video making skillz, all of which were culled during the youth workshops of weeks prior.

See the video HERE!

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