Image: Marty Bourgeois (left) sits down for an interview with Robert Mackay, an organizer with the NB Common Front for Social Justice (right) as NB Media Co-op reporter David Gordon Koch operates the camera, at the Moncton Public Library on Feb. 8, 2024. Screengrab from video by Connor Kelly.
Unemployment has been a tough experience for Moncton resident Marty Bourgeois. By mid-February, he had been out of work for about seven months, after applying for jobs flipping burgers everywhere he could. In his words, he's handed out résumés from "halfway to Scoudouc to a pretty much-abandoned zoo."
Bourgeois, 40, struggles with high-functioning autism. In an interview, he said that everything about him, from his tall six-foot-two-inch height to his general demeanour and "personhood," seems to set off alarm bells for potential employers, "They consider you too intelligent, or too stupid, or too much, or too little, or too whatever."
Bourgeois is part of a group of people from the NB Common Front for Social Justice, a grassroots anti-poverty group, who are participating in media production workshops with the NB Media Co-op. So far, three sessions have taken place, focussing on some basics of DIY journalism and video production: interview skills, how to use a smartphone to gather footage, and basic legal and ethical considerations. The NB Media Co-op rented a room in the Moncton Public Library called the Learning Lab, which became a kind of temporary studio during these February sessions. The otherwise drab room came alive with a green screen, umbrella light diffusers and other gear.
During the first session, Bourgeois sat down for an interview with Robert Mackay, an organizer with the Common Front. The interview reached its climax as Bourgeois described how, at a previous employer, he suffered workplace bullying at a time when he was "deep in the throes of depression." During one intense moment, he stated: "I seek only to maintain a degree of quality of life that I would dare share with others if only given a chance."
The members of Common Front in attendance broke into applause as the interview wrapped up.
In discussions following the interview, the participants decided to create a documentary about mental health and poverty, with the concept of the "misfit" as the central theme. The dramatic interview with Bourgeois, a co-creator of the documentary, would serve as an anchor.
Since then, members of the group have met several times, conducting interviews, discussing the topic, and filming B-roll at local soup kitchens in downtown Moncton to drive home their message. The work is ongoing and two more workshops are planned in the series, and while one documentary cannot solve the problem of social exclusion experienced by neurodivergent people, it can perhaps raise awareness about the issue.
"The cheapest thing of all that would bring the greatest value to life is just a smidgen of empathy," Bourgeois said.
David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).
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LJI Impact is the section of commediaportal.ca where the journalists and their organizations participating in CACTUS' Local Journalism Initiative can share their greatest successes.
Through the written stories, photos and videos you see in the LJI Impact section, you'll be able to read first hand accounts about how the presence of a community journalist is making a difference in communities across Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative and the Community Media Portal.
The Community Media Portal is a gateway to the audio-visual media created by community media centres across Canada. These include traditional community TV and radio stations, as well as online and new media production centres.
Community media are not-for-profit production hubs owned and operated by the communities they serve, established both to provide local content and reflection for their communities, as well as media training and access for ordinary citizens to the latest tools of media production, whether traditional TV and radio, social and online media, virtual reality, augmented reality or video games.
The Community Media Portal has been funded by the Local Journalism Initiative (the LJI) of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) in association with the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec (the Fédération). Under the LJI, over 100 journalists have been placed in underserved communities and asked to produce civic content that underpins Canadian democratic life.
