UNB assistant professor to showcase video essay on creative housing solutions
Author: UNB Newsroom
Posted on Nov 20, 2019
Category: UNB Saint John
A University of New Brunswick faculty member’s video essay focusing on creative solutions to affordable housing will be shown at the New Brunswick Museum on Wednesday, Nov. 20.
Dr. Eric Weissman, an assistant professor of sociology at UNB’s Saint John campus, will show “Subtext – Real Stories” as part of the national housing day event “Creative Housing Solutions,” organized by the Saint John Human Development Council.
Dr. Weissman, a member of the Institute for Urban and Community Studies at UNB, created his visual essay using a variety of digital media captured over the last 20 years across a number of different cities. Beginning in Toronto in 2000 and ending in Fredericton and Moncton in 2019, the film offers an intimate and gritty study of tiny home villages built by and for homeless people, as well as an examination of tent camps, the Housing First model and conventional housing for people experiencing homelessness.
“The film is what I’d call an experimental video essay,” explains Dr. Weissman. “It’s crafted from bits and pieces of a number of smaller films I made over the years in different tent camps and tiny home villages, and other housing places. It is designed to inform the audience and prime a serious discussion on the role tiny homes can play in solving homelessness.”
The screening will be followed by an open conversation with audience members on creative solutions to the affordable housing crisis and the viability of tiny home communities as a potential solution in New Brunswick.
The event takes place at 7 p.m. in the Mary Oland Theatre, 1 Market Square. It is open to everyone and admission is free. Those interested in attending are asked to RSVP to admin@sjhdc.ca.
Media contact: Fiona Hendrie