TRU students premiering documentary inspired by American election

A group of social work students has turned anger over the American election into action. Art will meet activism this weekend during the premiere of their documentary Exploring the Meaning of Social Justice at Padlock Studios.

Spurred by the sadness, shock and anger surrounding the American election — and prompted by a professor to consider what they could do about it — Aliy Nash-McLeod, Ani Dingamtar, Kelsey Arnouse, Nila Fisher, Inder Gill and Janay Foulkes founded an initiative exploring how varied and subjective views on social justice can be.

Our Social Justice Movement has inspired an accompanying art exhibit that will debut alongside the group’s documentary this Saturday — the first project in what they hope is a much larger local movement.

“I think social justice is a topic that people maybe shy away from,” said Aliy Nash-McLeod. “Not a lot of people maybe think about the concept on a daily basis.

“So, what we’re trying to do is evoke some feeling toward social justice and have people maybe be inspired — and, well, change the world — but we want to make our community a better place. We’re hoping this film will inspire people to think about social justice and what it means to them.”

The group has been working since January to produce the 20 minute documentary. It features interviews with several community members, including Amy Baskin of Ask Wellness, human rights lawyer Bill Sundhu, Valerie Janz of Interior Community Services and professors and students from TRU, among others.

"Our Social Justice Movement" had the honor of interviewing Jeffrey McNeil. Jeffrey is from the unceded territory of Tk'emlups te Secwepemc and an instructor at Thompson Rivers University within the faculty of education and social work, teaching the Ingenious Decolonization Social Work Practice class. Jeffrey is active in our community and recently lead a team of students in facilitating the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples March that happens annually on February 14 in Kamloops. We had the great pleasure of interviewing this inspirational instructor last week. Here are some words that resonated with us! "Social justice is about building relationships and it's about becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable, in terms of thinking, doing, living, being and moving forward" - Jeffrey McNeil

A post shared by Our Social Justice Movement (@oursjmkamloops) on Mar 13, 2017 at 4:06pm PDT

In considering creative ways to present the film, they teamed up with Padlock Studios, which has developed a fine-arts show influenced by the same theme. It will feature up to eight artists who have created works inspired by the movement and concept.

Padlock co-creator Miranda Dean said they love doing thematic shows, ones that have a purpose, to say something or raise awareness. She said this exhibit is a testament to the power the Our Social Justice Movement has and she was drawn to the inclusivity of it: How all social justice movements work together to promote a more socially equitable world.

“Art is about having a voice,” said co-creator and artist Robin Hodgson. “You can draw cute and funny pictures all day but what is that really going to do or say about the state of the society we live in.

“It’s the times we are living in, too. Our generation I think there’s a lot of momentum and power between our youth and millennials trying to change things, to make a better planet for ourselves to live in.”

Local spoken word poet Zeru Asress will help introduce the film at the Saturday event, the first public screening of the documentary. Things get going at 7 p.m. and donations are appreciated at the door.

The film will also be screened at the Downtown Library on April 27th at 6 p.m.

Nash McLeod said the documentary is the first initiative by Our Social Justice Movement, but future plans are in the works to continue propelling the conversation. Watch their Facebook page for ongoing projects.