PITCHING MATERIALS
The northern suburbs of Melbourne, traditionally the home of the city’s working class and migrant communities, have been undergoing an ever-faster process of “gentrification”, stretching back over 30 years ago and continuing rapidly to this day. We see these neighbourhoods changing before our eyes, as independent grocers are replaced by chain supermarkets, massive shopping centres emerge and small retailers are pushed out by avocado-on-toast cafes and craft beer-serving bars. A lot of gentrification is seen as something being replaced by something else, whether that’s a business, a space or a community. However, what we also see a lot of in these northern suburbs is REPURPOSING. When a business is faltering, or a space is abandoned, someone enterprising comes in and repurposes said space into something positive, creative and community-oriented. In our documentary (I forgot what title we decided on) we will be talking to people who have taken a space in these neighbourhoods and repurposed it, through which they both preserve the old and create something undeniably new.
Our subject focus for this documentary is going to be on two businesses that sit right on the Brunswick-Coburg border: Noir Darkroom and Mesma Studio. Noir Darkroom is a chemistry based photography facility and exhibition space based in a shop front on the arterial Moreland Road, catering towards both professional photographers and amateurs who want a space to practice and develop their art, surviving in part off crowdfunding and the good will of the local arts community. Mesma Studio is a collaborative, multimedia arts space based in an old warehouse, with artists and businesses currently in residence spanning from graphic design and web development to ceramics and communications. It also hosts a number of music and arts events and is open to some use to the public. We will be finding out how these businesses started and how they fit into the community: what was there before them? How did they reinvent the space to fit their needs? What do they think of the supposed gentrification of the area?
Our characters will of course be the proprietors of the two businesses, creative people who have been drawn to the neighbourhood and the space for one reason or another. Their two interviews will compose the basis of our video. However, we also want the characters of Brunswick and Coburg, suburbs full of diversity and repurposed spaces, to come through in our video. These are neighbourhoods that have as much to show and say about repurposing as the people in them.
Overall, what we want to get across in this documentary is that just because you are losing something old, doesn’t mean what you gain has any less worth. It’s true that gentrification does threaten communities and businesses, but there are also lots and lots of great people out there turning dead spaces into something new.
