As the end of my undergraduate studies at 平特五不中 approaches, I am preparing for the switch to the past tense when describing my fields of study. That linguistic shift will occur in December, and as of now, I am currently still majoring in Art History and minoring in both Marketing and Communication Studies. I am excited to delve into the art world and pursue a master鈥檚 degree surrounding the management of artistic and cultural institutions.
I was excited to work as a programming intern for the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal (SAFFM) to experience types of work at different cultural institutions and events that I can both expect and seriously pursue with my art-meets-business field of study. I wanted to specifically experience and practice non-profit fundraising in the cultural sector. Furthermore, I relished the opportunity to, in tangent, learn more about South Asian culture through the medium of film. Narratives of diaspora are both interesting and important to me, as growing up alongside New York City鈥檚 Haitian diasporic community 鈥搃ntroduced to me by my Haitian grandmother鈥� and culture is a cherished part of my childhood.
Throughout a much-anticipated week in November, the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal showcases the works of filmmakers from South Asian countries and their diaspora. The festival encourages young, independent filmmakers to submit their work. This is the only festival to share their often multi-lingual films with both English and French subtitles. SAFFM is presented by the Kabir Centre, a non-profit cultural organization that showcases South Asian classical arts. Both the festival and the organization share similar artistic and social missions. Indeed, their shared artistic mission is to present high-quality artistic events pertaining to South Asian performing arts. Their shared social mission is to promote harmony among South Asian diaspora in Canada.
As an intern, my main responsibility was to aid in the programming of the festival which entailed watching, rating, and delivering screening verdicts on five to six or more films per week. Other duties included creating and managing posts for SAFFM鈥檚 social media pages, developing local fundraising opportunities, and creating email templates to be sent to directors of scouted films. I am also responsible for note taking during meetings.
The overall highlight of my internship was being regarded as an equal member of the SAFFM team. I have rarely been regarded as such in other workplaces as an intern. Thus, it was motivating to have my opinions during the semi-finalist film screening decision rounds to be considered seriously and bear equal weight to the senior members of the SAFFM team. Another highlight has been the ability to practice a form of fundraising and to consult with a graphic designer about the design of the brochure I copywrote (I picked up on some design tips, notably that Sans Serif fonts are more in vogue than Serif-sporting fonts). Furthermore, I feel fortunate to have been able to watch such unique and stellar films that I may not have had the chance to watch otherwise if I was not attending the festival this year. I highly recommend the film 鈥楤iriyanni鈥� for a quiet, yet twisted revenge plot.
As aforementioned in my one-month report, the main challenge I encountered had to do with the start dates of the internship, which was a concern I brought to the attention of the internship office and was dealt with in a professional, supportive, and prompt manner. A persisting 鈥揳lbeit minor鈥� challenge is the lack of organized archives from past editions of the festival which would have made some assignments a little easier to complete with easily accessible past references. The possibility for more structured organization is something that is acknowledged by my supervisor. My supervisor regards our work together as building more clear structure and templates for future editions of the festival. I would not fully regard these situations as 鈥榗hallenges鈥�. It was easy to address them and we could work cohesively together with an environment of professional honesty.
Having almost completed this internship, I am approaching a feeling of pride in regards to how robust my university experience has been. Working at SAFFM has asked me to pull what I have learned in Art History and Communications (visual criticism, artistic references) and in Marketing. Furthermore, it gave me an opportunity to apply it to my assigned tasks. In turn, I feel much more confident in my decision to have studied my major and minors and increasingly prepared for the workforce and master program applications. I begin an internship in the Development Department as Montreal鈥檚 Pointe-脿-Calli猫re Museum soon, and my academic and professional and cultural experience help me feel more prepared and confident for it.
