New Brunswick Filmmakers Explore The Millennial Dream
SAINT JOHN – What do millennials want?
Who are they? What makes them tick? Why aren’t they like us? GET OFF MY LAWN!
Millennials, also known as those born (approximately) between 1981 and 1996, have been the subject of thousands of think pieces either loving them or condemning their approach to work and how they live their lives.
But whether you love them or bitch about them, the reality is that they are the incoming workforce – you need them.
The shift in mentality happening in this generation is the focus The Millennial Dream, a film by New Brunswick’s Hemmings House Pictures.
The idea for the film came from a conversation between New Brunswick technology executives David Alston and Marcel LeBrun, filmmaker Greg Hemmings and Karina LeBlanc of the Pond Deshpande Centre about, well, millennials.
“It started with a discussion about youth in New Brunswick and what encourages young people to move to a place, and exploring that question. As we started to explore that question, the values of the generation started to come up,” says LeBrun, who is one of the film’s financial backers.
“Then we started to talk about what would it take to become and grow as the place that excels in those attributes that young people want to be a part of and shape. The seed of it was how could we benefit our region by doing more of the things that this millennial generation wants to pursue.”
So what is it that millennials want to pursue?
“One of the biggest things we found is how millennials prioritize purpose and impact. They want to make an impact, they want to have a meaningful pursuit above financial gain,” LeBrun says.
The film argues that The American Dream is long outdated. Millennials want something more from their jobs. Money isn’t the only driving factor in their careers, they want to make an impact. They want to do things and work at places that contribute more broadly to society; places where shareholder value isn’t everything.
“Where in previous generations the ‘American Dream‘ had more of an individualistic, more self-centred view, the ‘Millennial Dream’ is more community centred, more purpose driven.”
Though some parts of the film take place in New Brunswick, a good chunk of it does not. The team also travelled to Boston, India, New York and Toronto. They wanted the film to look at the topic with a wider lens.
“We went on a bit of a journey literally and figuratively in terms of discovering what we needed to cover,” says David Alston, another one of the film’s backers. “It’s a broad mix and it’s really about how do we get at this thread of this shift that’s happening from the values.”
Though many businesses in North America, including some in New Brunswick, have been embracing this shift, many others are behind.
“What we want to do with the documentary was reflect the change that’s taking place, but also accelerate that change,” LeBrun says. “Add more intentionality so Canadian businesses can go ‘yes, I see the importance of purpose-driven business and so I’m going to adapt my business to become that way.'”
The Millennial Dream will be screened on March 15 in Saint John, March 17 in Moncton and March 18 in Fredericton at the YES Atlantic Summit. The plan is to show the film and follow it with a panel discussion.
“We created the film not to be the definitive answer to the question ‘what is the millennial dream?’ but to stimulate conversation,” LeBruns says.
“We’ll be successful with it if we stimulate a lot of discussion. We welcome dissenters, supporters, all those voices. We would really just like to start a conversation with this.”
*Disclaimer*: The writer of this article is, in fact, a millennial.