our work

mon-lon

Mon-Lon (Montreal-London)

Mon-Lon is a virtual exchange project between students in the two cities of Montreal (Canada) and London (UK); it explores the similarities and differences of teenage life through the medium of film making. Most young people studying French in London look to Paris for cultural input, we believe that it is equally important for students to learn about life in other Francophone regions, so Eastside linked up with Quebecois youth media company Studio Nexus based in Montreal, Canada, to create an exchange of films made in the student's second languages; Montreal is the second largest French speaking city after Paris. The French speaking Canadian students made their films in English and the young people from London made their films in French. Mon-Lon focused on youth activities and interests in each city including sports, shopping, history, diversity, fashion, culture, food and music. To get round the fact that the students were not able to cross the Atlantic to meet one another, Eastside worked with the same Associate Artist on both halves of the project - a Quebecois film director who taught bi-lingually in both countries. Not only did students learn the basics of filmmaking they were also posed the challenge of scripting their films in a way that would allow a response from their peers 'across the pond'. The project is devised so that the student reports intercut throughout the film and the young people in Canada directly respond to the students in England, giving a like for like account. Students were challenged to develop different skills including; interviewing, voice over and presentation to camera, as well as carrying out research about their own cities and about the city they were corresponding with. The films produced in London, include interviews carried out at Arsenal Football Club and at the Institut Francais, the students own take on the English ways to enjoy an egg (with soldiers of course!) and a tangle with chopsticks in china town. In Montreal, students demonstrated how to make pate chinois, introduced their sporting heroes (ice hockey and not football prevails) and through a series of vox pops, a diverse and fun city emerges. Although London continues to play an important role as a major European city, many European languages have now become community languages spoken by immigrant families in London and Mon-Lon will continue to explore these community languages and the cultures they originate from. Future projects will include explorations of French in Africa and the Caribbean (Senegal and Martinique) and Spanish as spoken in Latin America.