A big move: Am I crazy???

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 01:05:08 +0000

Back in 2020, or it might have even been late 2019, I was attending a meeting on community-campus engagement, and a colleague and friend of mine, Dayle Eshelby mentioned this festival called the Harmony Bazaar Festival of Women and Song. Ever since she mentioned it, the idea of doing a documentary on this festival has been at the back of my brain. Since one of my goals for 2021 was pitching a new project to CBC or Bell Media Fund, I thought I’d do some research on Harmony Bazaar to see if there might be a story there.

Over the course of January, I spoke to quite a few people about this festival. Each person I chatted with was incredibly friendly and generous. What made the research process even more exciting was that everyone was really proud to talk about Harmony Bazaar.

And frankly, they deserve to be proud. It is SUCH a cool festival with so many neat facets! Here are just a few of the reasons I am officially in love:

It started as a fundraiser for a women-led organization focused on women’s empowerment (the Shelburne County Women’s Fishnet)
It is Atlantic Canada’s only women’s music festival.
From day one, diversity and inclusion was a major focus, as was supporting local women with skills development. Volunteers learn how to run a festival and they are also encouraged to participate in the festival’s annual local talent event and its song-writing workshops.
Many of the artists who have performed at the festival in the past (including established artists), have contacted the festival in subsequent years to support it. This tells me there’s something magical about this festival.
The town that hosts the festival — Lockeport, Nova Scotia — is so small that attendees often end up boarding with locals and/or tenting on locals’ properties for the festival’s duration.
From what people have shared with me, the festival has had a big impact on the town, both in terms of social/cultural attitudes as well as economically (the festival was even a major contributor to Lockeport’s music stage).

I’ll stop there for now. Long story short, this festival is damn cool!!!

In addition to the festival’s backstory getting me geared up, I also met four really unique women who formed a band after meeting at the festival in 2019. In 2020, they started practicing together and even with COVID, they have found a way to continue playing.

This year, if Harmony Bazaar is able to resume (COVID-pending), the band is hoping to perform at the festival that birthed them!

Given how excited I felt just researching this documentary, I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tell its story by following this emerging band. So, like any sane documentarian (haha!), I made a very quick and dramatic decision: I am moving to Nova Scotia!

I have zero funding in place but I have a story and people who are willing to let me follow them around with a camera (I also did pitch the story to CBC, so we’ll see how that goes). Thanks to Dayle, I also have a place to stay. Get this: I will be living with the former mayor of Lockeport!!! How cool is that???

I leave for Nova Scotia in just over two weeks. I’ll be riding out my quarantine in Wolfville before heading to Lockeport for mid-March. And that’s when the fun will begin!

Am I crazy to just pick up and go in the midst of a pandemic? Probably. But is it worth it to have an adventure and see where this story takes me? Absolutely!

Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram @NicoleBedfordFilms to stay up to date on my adventures. For once I will have some beautiful-looking content to post on my mostly inactive pages (because seriously, how many shots of a person editing their first feature does social media really need?!?!).

Goals for a better 2021

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 22:28:06 +0000

Happy 2021 Y’All!

I’m not sure about you, but I feel good about this year!

The organizer that I am, though, I wasn’t about to leave it up to chance, so I made a point of taking a couple days over the holidays to do some goal-setting. (2020 felt like such an uncertain year so I was craving some structure, even though none of us yet know what 2021 holds.)

I followed the process outlined on Indiehustle.com by Suzanne Lyons, which suggests starting with the 25 to 30-year “obituary” (i.e. highlights of your long and successful life), and growing increasingly granular until you have a month-by-month set of milestones to achieve your main goal.

I found it pretty tough to think of the 25 to 30-year highlights to be honest. I’m still exploring. Plus, I’m not exactly the type who is craving an Oscar win or anything (not that I would ever say no!). After a long while staring at a blank page, I jotted down ‘rich relationships with friends and family’, followed closely by the standard “award-winning filmmaker and artist known for breaking the ‘rules’, carving her own path, and crafting films that really impacted people positively.” (I secretly want to be a rebel…)

The 5-year vision was much easier to create (again, another list), and then the 1-year goals even more so. In terms of my art, this year my goals include:

Completing my first feature documentary, the smallest steps, and screening it at least once
Crafting my first media arts piece (with or without funding)
Pitching a new project to either the CBC or Bell Media Fund (I already have ideas for both), and
Meeting and working with a new producer and a new cinematographer (hopefully a component of the previous goal)

After setting these 1-year goals, I broke them down into monthly ‘milestones’ – as Lyons says in the article, “These are not the long list of the daily and weekly action plans, it’s more a short list of the essential items that need to happen at each milestone.” As someone who is incredibly detailed-oriented, Lyons’ reminder was necessary, and allowed me to create a simple chart outlining a few tasks for each month. I plan to scratch them out as I achieve them each month (my favourite part of to-do lists!).

One thing I also learned last year through the Arts Network Ottawa mentorship was the usefulness of having an accountability partner. So over the holidays, though I was nervous about doing so, I started to advertise for one! I created a post on a Facebook group called Kinnd, which aims to “revolutionize digital connection by providing a platform that encourages all members to (a) be vulnerable by sharing what you need and (b) by offering freely what you can (for example, knowledge, skills, mentorship, time to hang out etc.) – with one rule ‘no coin allowed.’”

I ended up getting quite a few responses to my post. I couldn’t respond to all of them, but of those I did, a few were eager to set up a meeting to see if we’d work well together as accountability partners. I also got invited to a new co-working group AND I scored a pen pal through the process (for the win! Let’s just hope they can read my writing – cursive baby!).

Overall, I am feeling very positive and prepared for 2021. It might still have some surprising things in store (like the freaking USA coup d’état happening as I type – WTF America???), but here’s hoping it’ll be fairly smooth sailing, at least in terms of my artistic creations!

Nicole Bedford |

A big move: Am I crazy???

Goals for a better 2021