DIDIHOOD ~ Issue 59

Author

The Didihood
February 28, 2024

Happy 2023, Didis!

Wishing you and your loved ones a happy and healthy new year! We're looking forward to meeting many of you in person this year at our events! Follow us on Instagram to stay posted on what we're up to! 

Meet the Didi:  

This month, we meet Ananya Ohri, an award-winning community-engaged creator who was born in India and moved to Canada at the age of 10. For seven years, she was the executive director at the Regent Park Film Festival (RPFF), Toronto’s longest running free community film festival. Recently, Ananya launched the pilot for Mixed Up, an animated CBC Kids series which was co-created with Fiona Raye Clarke.  

What inspired you to pursue a career in film and TV? How did you get started? 

My father was a photographer and I loved how he captured entire stories in one image.
My roots are in community arts and media — where a fundamental understanding is that art is critical to a healthy society and its processes, and artistic practice can manifest and, in turn, shape our everyday reality. I was the executive director at the Regent Park Film Festival for seven years. Thanks to great grant writing skills I developed while running the fest, I got some funding to develop a kids’ TV show — which resulted in Mixed Up. Now I’m growing my capacities as a producer and a writer. I’m curious how I can bring community engaged practices in creating film and TV content for kids.

 What obstacles have you faced in your industry, particularly as a South Asian woman?

South Asian women seem to occupy the stereotype of quiet leaders. Taking care of everything in the background. Making sure everything runs smoothly. 
I’ve realized this in moments when people are surprised, taken aback or even offended when I speak up, ask difficult questions, or set boundaries, even in the most gentle and respectful ways.
And this is internalized too. Sometimes, in order for change to take place things need to be uncomfortable, messy and slow.  I have had to work to undo my inclination to want to jump in and smooth things out. I’m getting better at telling when I should be taking something on, and when my doing so tethers me to a status quo I have no interest in upholding and undermines processes of change.

 You've made DEI and community engagement a staple in your career. Can you tell us more about some of this work (such as the Home Made Visible project)?

I never thought of DEI as a guiding concept or a framework when doing work, per se. Stories are for everyone. This is one of the core beliefs that fuels my work - and it feels very personal.
Home Made Visible was a nation-wide project I started through the Regent Park Film Festival, where we digitized old home movies (on film reels and VHS) for  BIPOC Canadian families for free, and with their permission, archived portions of the home movies at York University Libraries.
As racialized, displaced, colonized, enslaved and indentured people, we have difficult stories to tell about our past. These difficult stories are important to tell. With Home Made Visible, I also wanted to preserve and honour the moments of joy, peace, levity, abundance, pride, silliness (and so much more!) that are also a part of our lives. Together with the more challenging stories, they offer a more whole representation of who people are, and have always been. 
Home Made Visible digitized around 300 home movies. But there are still so many more out there to preserve.
You can see some of the archived home movies here.

The pilot for Mixed Up, the animated CBC Kids series you co-created with Fiona Raye Clarke, recently launched. What can you tell us about the show and how people can support it?

Mixed Up is an animated mystery adventure for 6 to 10-year-olds. It follows three best friends as they solve the mystery of green slime rising from the basement of their favourite hang out, the Sunshine Community Centre. I really wanted my kids to see other kids like them on TV, where the characters don’t have to explain their “diversity.” They just get to be, and have fun, and adventure.
The show is currently in development at CBC Kids. All views, likes and subscriptions we get through the pilot episode are very helpful. A quick message on CBCKids’ FB, IG, or a tweet to @CBCKids or an email to [email protected] asking for more Mixed Up also goes a long way!

 What kinds of projects do you hope to create in the future?

Right now I’m focused on kids’ content and engaging children through story and art. 

What advice do you have for younger Didis pursuing a career like yours?

Let yourself do bad work. (It’s the only way we get better.)

— Roohi Sahajpal 


Issue 59
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