Episode 7 Plant Power Film Neurodiverse Focus Group

In Episode 7 we screen a new Award winning documentary film that is part of a series of documentaries Directed by Florence Ayisi. We invited a group of Neurodiverse individuals to view the film and then we ask each participant to answer a couple of questions and discuss their impressions, views and how their perceptions of minority ethnic communities are affected by this type of film. Some individual participants have asked to have their identities protected as they want to participate but are not comfortable with being on public display. The full length Episode 7 will be available to subscribers on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/smashyswan .

Synopsis 

Judith and Amrish, from Bristol, UK, re-discover the power of plants during the COVID-19 lockdown.  Having been transformed, both share their experiences of tending to plants during the bleak and lonely  days of living under the lockdown. 

The COVID-19 pandemic shook humanity in different ways. Fear. Death. Upheaval. Loneliness. Forced  isolation, during the lockdown, gave many people time to rethink their relationships with nature,  through questions like: How does one cope with loneliness and melancholy during a lockdown? What does one do, under such extreme circumstances, to build resilience and maintain wellbeing?  

While the answers may not be easy, Judith, a guerrilla gardener who is passionate about green spaces,  launches a mission to reclaim desolate public spaces, and safeguard the environment in her Bristol neighbourhood, St. Paul’s. She initiates a ‘Memorial Roses’ project in memory of black people who died  from the coronavirus. Comprehensively, she aspires to make communal spaces greener, more pleasant  to be in, and to uplift community spirit, especially after the troubling times of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Is she nervous about encroaching on City Council property? No. Undaunted, she and others begin a  private garden, at the Malcolm X Community Centre, to tend plants as well as provide accessible green  spaces for promoting community resilience and wellbeing. 

Correspondingly, Amrish, from the Bristol Rainforest, is passionate about cultivating more Banyan trees and bringing these into learning and leisure spaces. He introduces Banyan plants to schools, making the  children, as observed by a head teacher, calmer and quieter. In another remarkable instance, a Banyan  

tree Amrish planted, during the lockdown, becomes, proudly, transported to the Bristol Aquarium, by  community members. Significantly, he calls it a “living sculpture”. 

Ultimately, life after lockdown brings renewed hope as Judith and Amrish, busily, share their passion  and ideas with community members about how plants promote better mental health and general  wellbeing. Through their experiences, nature, and its relationship to human wellbeing glow. PLANT POWER is part of a series of documentaries exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on  Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities in the U.K. 

This Podcast was requisitioned by Florence Ayisi, Professor of Documentary Film at the University of South Wales, Trefforest. More film screenings and research focus group podcasts are being organised for other films by Florence Ayisi. The next one will be on the film “Belonging” about the Cardiff based Tiger Bay Boxing Club, Wasem Said  and the impact of this community club during the Covid 19 lockdowns.

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