Spreading Love to the World

Je suis et Je t’aime which translates to “I am and I love you” in English is a video project I made during my one month stay in Montreal for the Explore Program. 

The Explore Program gives college and university students around Canada the opportunity to transfer to other places in the country and learn a new language – either French or English. The program is split into eight different levels – one being the lowest level of French learning, eight being the highest.  

I originally made this video in English in 2023, the title being “I am and I love you.”  

My inspiration came from a video made by another creator from Windsor, Ontario. The creator of the video is anonymous but she was involved with a place called “The Unity Spiritual Center of Windsor.”  

When I saw this video made by the Center, I was inspired to set out and recreate a new version of this video. A shorter, more condensed and straight to the point, simply, I am and I love you. I went all about Windsor asking Windsorites to say, “I am” (their name) and “I love you”. 

The intent motivating me to pursue this video was for when I feel bad, I could watch the and it would make me feel better. The video “I Am and I Love You” contains members from The Unity Spiritual Center of Windsor and different varieties of different dialogues in between segments of the message. 

I received a positive reception from people for the video shared to my YouTube channel. 

About one year later I released the French edition of the video. “Je suis et Je t’aime” during my one-month experience being in the Explore program. I applied the same methods and pitch I used for the filming of the English edition. 

I asked over one hundred people to say, “I am (their name) and I love you,” in French. If they questioned why, I replied “to spread love to the world.”  

I pursued the project with equity regarding the inclusivity of both genders. It was tougher to get groups of males than females, but I managed through persistence. When I finished recording them saying the message, I made sure to share my YouTube channel with them and inform them when it will be uploaded. 

I spent thirty-one days in Montreal for the Explore program giving me a lot of time to film the project. However, due to being very anxious about the project and hoping that it could potentially be projected before the entirety of the Explore program (which it did) I only started filming the last four days of my stay. 

I met a lot of amazing individuals during the filming of this project, but I wish if I could go back in time and do it again, I would make better use of the thirty-one days’ time I had to make this more patiently and slowly. 

I remember the first person I asked to be in the French edition was a street guitarist named Daniel Lalonde. He seemed so anxious when asking him to be in this project but seemed to love the message.  

After asking ninety-nine more people to pass the message of love recorded in 4K quality the video was complete and ready to be viewed. 

The day the video was published on June 30, was the same day the Explore program students and teachers saw the video together in a University of Quebec in Montreal auditorium projected on a projector. 

I believe some people may have been put off by the video a little bit because it was just the same message repeated for four minutes and twenty-four seconds and if you do not believe in love, that can be awkward.