Movie night series attempts to rebrand Regent Park, but what’s going on behind the scenes?

Source: Regent Park Film Festival, Facebook page

“I must say, this is one of the more well attended movie nights we’ve had so far” explained one of the event organizers before the movie screening began.

The evening’s film screening, along with the “Under the Stars” Regent Park Film Series, was sponsored by The Sumach, a lucrative new housing development under construction in the Regent Park neighborhood.

The Sumach is just one of several new real estate ventures in the area initiated as a part of the revitalization project in Regent Park, aimed at developing a combination of private and subsidized public housing within the community.

While boasting a host of new recreational and state-of-the-art housing facilities, the revitalization project has not been without controversy.

Critics argue the revitalization project has been pushing former residents out, forcing them to relocate to the margins of the city to make room for sleek new developments. The renewal efforts have also begun shifting the demographics of the Regent Park community, which has historically hosted a vibrant community of immigrants and visible minorities.

Before the film began, the organizer’s played the trailer of “My Piece of the City,” a new documentary exploring the Regent Park revitalization project.

“I feel like they stomped all over Regent Park, like,’Hey, your history is not good enough for us to want to keep’” one young woman on the screen explained.

The audience shifted uneasily.

The movie screening itself, featuring the 90s classic Sister Act I was a resounding success. The audience laughed together and applauded after every song.

Still, after the show most of the audience members, a diverse mix of college students and young families, packed up their blankets and left. Groups of East African and South Asian women and children lingered at the park, playing games and chatting late into the night. After all, where should they go? This is where they live.  

Benjamin Bilgen