Mayor gives video thumbs down
Ryerson students’ depiction of Falls not ‘fair or accurate’ says Diodati
The president of Ryerson University has apologized to Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati for a student film depicting the city in a harsh light.
The four-minute documentary As Niagara Falls is listed as a “Ryerson University Production” on the Facebook page of its student filmmakers, known collectively as Mayday Pictures. The film claims to reveal “what truly lies within the city” by showing images of dilapidated houses and boardedup buildings, while unnamed people comment on the wide divide between tourism and the rest of Niagara Falls.
Diodati responded to the video in a lengthy Facebook post Tuesday which has been shared more than 160 times. He was most puzzled by the film’s connection to Ryerson, which the city has been in discussions with to possibly bring programming to downtown Niagara Falls.
The Ryerson logo is displayed at the end of the film, along with its School of Image Arts.
“The opinions expressed in this film by some of our junior students do not represent the opinions of Ryerson University or the School of Image Arts,” wrote Ryerson president Mohamed Lachemi. “We will be asking them to remove the Ryerson University logo from their documentary.
“We do apologize for any negative feeling generated by their work.”
The film, made by Christian Bunea, Taylor Ness, Valentin Bacalu and Justin Diezmo, begins with colourful, energetic scenes of the tourist district intercut with tourists asked about their impressions of the city. Someone off-camera then asks “the local areas around here … what do you think about them?,” to which there’s no reply.
At the one-minute mark, the film then retreats from the tourist district to show several empty, run-down buildings and properties as the music takes a sombre tone.
Several people then comment on the plight off-camera, with no names listed.
“To be honest, this whole place is just a money grab,” says one. “It just sucks seeing so much money come in here and not going back to the city.”
Another criticizes “mayor after mayor” for putting money into the tourist industry, “while people work for $13 an hour with four kids. What the f—k you think’s going to happen? They can’t afford s—t all.”
While recognizing there are problems in Niagara Falls, Diodati said the film “was not a fair or accurate representation of a cross-section of the city.
“There is not one city in the world that I couldn’t go in and do the exact kind of video, and give a one-sided view to make someone look bad.”
When contacted Tuesday, Mayday Pictures agreed to an e-mail interview regarding the film. But later that night, the interview was declined.
“Following Jim Diodati’s (Facebook) statement, we decided to issue a public post regarding the documentary and everything we needed to make clear,” responded Diezmo in an e-mail. “We decided it would be best for everyone at Mayday Pictures to not continue with any other interviews and let the film, statement and public response speak for the project.”
On its Facebook page, Mayday Pictures states “we stand by the film’s message” and that many have shared the film because they’re concerned about the problems it spotlights.
“If this was not an issue the city was facing, then the film wouldn’t have received the attention it has.”
Diodati was amused to learn one of the film’s producers actually works at a Niagara Falls hotel in the tourism district.
“Everybody’s so quick to blame tourism for everything, and yet, how many of us worked in tourism?”
He added that one of the buildings shown in the video has actually been purchased by an investor for development.
Despite the film’s message, Diodati says the dialogue it has created is useful.
“Some people are downright negative and cynical, and they probably always will be, but I do really appreciate constructive criticism.”
Diodati also sees the “irony” of objecting to how the city is depicted after he created a series of videos two years ago mocking Niagara Falls, New York. The videos were meant to tempt Jimmy Fallon to bring The Tonight Show to the Canadian side after Fallon called the American side “sad” and “like a Lemony Snicker book cover.”
Diodati says he’s now “eating crow” over the videos.
“Fair enough,” he says. “I always tell people, it’s okay to make mistakes, so long as you learn from it. And don’t repeat the same mistake.
“That was definitely ringing in my mind, the idea that we had used some similar tactics when we were trying to get Jimmy Fallon here.”