Tijana Martin
Lethbridge Herald
Director Jeff Bingley prepares the projection prior to showing his documentary “The Story Bridge from Bhutan to Lethbridge” at the Galt Museum on Thursday evening.
More than 100 residents gathered at the Galt Museum on Thursday evening for the screening of the community-made documentary “The Story Bridge from Bhutan to Lethbridge.”
The participatory documentary was produced in co-operation with the Canadian Bhutanese Society and Jeff Bingley, a master of arts candidate at the Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy at the University of Lethbridge.
He has completed an interdisciplinary master’s degree which engages participatory research through video production, which makes it why he chose to make his documentary participatory.
“It’s different from most other styles of creating media,” said Bingley. “It involved helping each of the volunteer participants to be able to have skills in video production including camera, lighting, sound as well as some theory background.”
Bingley worked with 10 members of the Bhutanese community to create a film that explores the generational differences among the former Bhutanese refugees.
He began working with the Bhutanese community in October 2014 but participatory action research allowed Bingley to assess the results and then modify plans.
“It’s a revision process, so after December we had shown it to the Bhutanese community here and they said that it was wonderful what it did, but could we do this and this as well.”
His research behind the film asks “does participatory oral history filmmaking with resettling refugees reduce intergenerational tension towards second culture acquisition?”