In that, this week starts off super sad but gets amazing by the end!

On Monday, as I was (attempting) to edit the interview we had done with Ayelign, I ran into Lindsay, who was editing the footage collected from the community center the previous week.  He came in and saw the trainwreck I was in the process of editing, and we again had a conversation about whether or not we would be able to actually complete this task.  I wish I had recorded it because it was a lot more interesting than the actual work we had.  He showed me the footage he’d collected on Friday and…  oh my goodness…
The center was empty.
Deserted.
No one was there.

Luckily we had our check in the next day with Kerrie from the museum and THE John Hughes, (not the) creator of The Breakfast Club, so this was a completely calm and helpful time for this all to happen!

Seeing everybody else’s progress reports was also not at all stressful and concerning.  The fact that their work was ridiculously professional and beautiful and interesting did not make me silently weep.
Kerrie and John were actually very helpful when we explained our situation.  People liked the idea of moving our documentary from typical “this is a place we’re going to explore” to “we are people who are going to explore a place”, or from expository to reflexive (and maybe a little performative).

I recorded our next conversation, in which we decided to try to find the real community center, or the center of the community, in Altona.  We would film as much as we could and let the people answer that question instead.  In this conversation, I was incredibly inspired by Darren Hercher’s Somewhere Special, one of the documentaries we watched early on that I felt pulled towards.  We already had a similar arc, we went to find something but were unable to find what we were looking for in time, so we’ll now go back to finish the job.

On the Thursday, we all went out to Altona Circle, as suggested by Kerrie, to find some people to get vox pops from on what they consider the center of community to be.
Something incredible happened on this shoot.
As we were turning on our cameras, getting test shots, and working out our plan of attack, a man came out of the store we were standing in front of.  He started organising to fruit to look more attractive for the camera.  He basically pulled us into his store, an international grocery, and had us meet everyone and set up an interview with his friend.  We immediately felt warmed and welcomed.  While there, we got two interviews, one with an older guy and one with a young guy who was friends with one of our group members.
We went around the corner and ran into a white guy we asked to interview.  Something fascinating was how different a response he had to the west than the men we had spoken to previously.  He felt it was a hole, that nothing good came from or to there.  The men in the shop loved it, they felt a strong sense of community and friendship and never wanted to leave.

The only disappointment of the day was the unprofessional behaviour of one of my group members.  I was shocked and embarrassed by their behaviour, and it completely changed my opinion of them.  They should not have come if they were unable to, and our job in editing became much harder as a result of this.  On the day, we were concerned that a camera would break and that is not something that we should have been worried about.

But, to end on a high note, we now know how to move forward with our project.  Next week, we’ll tackle Yarraville to see what kind of Western diversity we find.