Why did I do this?
I chose this topic because as a kid, whenever I traveled and was asked at immigration point ‘where are you from’, that was a very tricky question because my ethnicity is Indian Asian, with my parents being born in Tanzania, Africa, and holding a Canadian Passport. They are residing in the UAE. This always raised many eyebrows and what could have been a better opportunity than now to explore my identity as in who and where I am exactly from. It's a challenge many people face, especially going to an international school. I wanted to learn more about myself and my identity. I wanted a better understanding of who I truly am.
How did I do this?
My final idea was to create a documentary by creating an interview. Since I had to conduct an interview, I decided to prepare by compiling a list of 13 questions. The questions were created for my maternal and paternal grandparents. My paternal grandparents live in a different country, therefore, I interviewed them online through an app called zoom. However, my maternal grandparents live close to me so I produced a precise interview. I found it more difficult to interview my maternal grandparents because I had to take into account the camera techniques such as different camera angles, shoulder shot, etc. Filming was one of the main skills I learned in the project followed by editing. I was lousy when it came to filming and editing as they are 2 complete new skills I learned. However, despite the challenges, I saw a drastic improvement. I learned a lot throughout the whole process of the documentary as well as the interview itself.