The Corona Documentary; A Project Shaped by the People

BY SELINA McCALLUM

“I figured out the key to winning for me was trade for trade, before trade for pay. So, I reached out to restaurants to do food videos and photos.” Javon Martin

Javon Martin, also known as Javon.ca, is talented young, black man from Toronto who knows how to capture great moments.

Martin defined four different regions; his business works in which are culture, real estate, food and corporate. It’s hard to believe that he only started in September 2018 when he has covered countless events and restaurants.

“Real estate, culture and food really carried me throughout the whole year. I really dove deep into those, really enjoyed the process,” said Martin.

One year later after starting his business, he decided to take a month off.

“I thought let me celebrate my one year of business by taking one month off, but then I got bored a couple days in,” said Martin.

He started to do research on tech conferences that were coming to Toronto like Elevate, Websummit and Collosion, and signed up to become a volunteer.

“Opportunities happen when you say yes to different things,” said Martin. “If it involves connecting with new people, learning new skills or trying something that you never tried before, growth is on the other side of that.”

He used the opportunity to also give out his business cards. That is how his introduction to filming conferences started out, and from then on, conference teams let other teams know about his work too.

Covid 19 has impacted Martin due to all events over the next few months having to cancel to enforce social distancing.

Inspired by how the whole world seems to be affected by the coronavirus on some degree, he decided to start a project in his free time called Coronavirus Documentary. The project is a call out for people from all over the world to submit a video of themselves answering specific questions.

“I will be encouraging everyone to film their own video in the way that they want to from their own home or where they are,” said Martin.

Martin has also opened up the project to other creatives who may want to help him out, calling the recently formed team the Rona Team, who helped draft the questions.

“A big thing that was on my mind was the loss of time. Time that we’re not going to be able to get back, and a lot of people were looking forward to the opportunities that were going help build their resume this summer. This way they can still build their network and sharpen their skills,” said Martin.

“This is really valuable, and this is going to be shaped by the people,” said Martin. “I want the people that are going to be involved feel like they are being heard.”

So far Martin has received video diaries from participants in Canada, China, France, Barbados, America and the UK.

“How can we be with people, without being with people is a question that I’m playing with right now,” said Martin.

To get involved in the Coronavirus Documentary or see Martin’s work, visit javon.ca