Lydia mentioned documentary film idea today. Chronicling next generation of migrant writers in London. She wants to examine how technology reshapes displacement narratives compared to previous generations.
Asked me to think about it. How do Instagram, WhatsApp, Google Translate change the immigrant experience? My novels explore digital identity but documentary format would capture real-time transformation rather than fictional representation.
Interesting question. When my family arrived in UK, communication with homeland was expensive phone calls and delayed letters. Now it’s constant WhatsApp contact, Instagram stories showing both lives simultaneously. Displacement looks different when you maintain daily digital presence in two places.
But digital tools also create new kinds of alienation. Translation apps bridge language gaps but flatten nuance. Social media lets you curate identity performance for multiple audiences. Dating apps turn cultural navigation into swipeable categories.
She wants to document how younger migrant writers use technology not just for communication but as creative tools. Poets posting on Instagram. Fiction writers using Twitter threads. Essays born from WhatsApp group discussions. Different platforms creating different literary forms.
I’ve been exploring these themes across five novels without fully articulating the pattern. Documentary might systematize what I’ve been processing intuitively through fiction.
Told her I’d consider it. My role would probably be research and maybe interview subject rather than filmmaker. Different skill sets. But the project interests me.
— Writer Julia Zolotova
