Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

Regent Park is a section of Cabbagetown in Toronto’s east end. After WWII, tenements were razed to the ground replaced with lowrise housing surrounded by grass parks. It was meant to lessen poverty and crime, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Now they are replacing it all with clean, market rent condos integrated with public housing. But what will become of the longtime residents of this unique piece of the city?

My Piece of the City is a new documentary that looks at Regent Park, then and now, in the form of a theatrical production performed there each summer. The Journey combines song, dance, spoken poetry and drama in a celebration of the neighbourhood, its history and the people who live there.

It is written and directed by award-winning Canadian filmmaker Moze Mossanen, known for performance-based documentaries like Nureyev, Roxanna, and The Rings of Saturn. His works play in cinemas and are broadcast across Canada and around the world.

My Piece of the City will have its world premier on November 18th, 2017 at the Regent Park Film Festival.

I spoke with Moze Mossanen in studio at CIUT 89.5 FM.