Short doc looks at snow-covered sidewalks in St. John's

A documentary about trying to walk around the city of St. John's in the winter has been made available online.

Two Memorial University professors put the film together over the past few years. The documentary follows activists fighting city hall for the right to get around town.

"We hope that that this continues a conversation that has been ongoing for some years about the need to improve sidewalk clearing in St. John's for reasons of social equity, and to obviously promote active transportation," co-director Sharon Roseman told CBC's On The Go.

The documentary, released online Saturday, features many people from St. John's who share their stories, and experiences, about trying to navigate the capital city's streets after a snowfall.

Co-director Elizabeth Yeoman said the two were interested in film and photography and felt the short film was the best medium to get message out.

"[It's a] way of getting the information from our research out there," Yeoman said.

"We were both interested in this topic so we decided that we would use our research on the topic and at the same time learn something about filmmaking."

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Throughout the film Yeoman can be seen demonstrating the reality of walking busy city streets with sidewalks covered in snow.

The film discusses a consultation St. John's conducted in 2014 and compared it with four other cities of about the same size. The city did a good job of cleaning the streets, but not as well when it came to the pedestrian walkways.

"I think the real key issue is that sidewalks should be on par with streets," Roseman said. "I think in St. John's, historically, they were seen as secondary."

The pair believe the city of St. John's is doing much better than when they began the project a few years ago.

"They've listened to some extent but we think that more needs to be done," said Roseman.

"We hope that this can provoke more conversation and more change."

The filmmaking duo hasn't spoken to the city yet for their film, but hope to have a chance to chat in the future about sidewalk snow-clearing.