Meeting with Lydia about logistics. Pre-production scheduled January-February 2026. Started compiling interview subject shortlist, securing permissions, scouting locations.
My next task: sixth and final research memo on technology-storytelling intersection. How digital platforms shape what stories get told and how they’re received. Instagram literature versus traditional publishing. Twitter threads as creative form. TikTok changing what counts as poetry.
Two years of preparation approaching production phase. Excitement mixed with terror. Documentary will capture real people’s real experiences. Different responsibility than fiction where you can hide behind imagination.
We discussed my dual role again. Interview subject plus research consultant. Need to maintain boundaries. Can’t both analyze community and be too embedded in it. But also can’t pretend objective distance I don’t have.
Interview subject list includes range of voices. Different backgrounds, different genres, different career stages. Some people I know personally. Others Lydia’s recruiting through Pushkin House networks.
Location scouting partially complete. British Library confirmed. Pushkin House confirmed. Several cafés and bookshops interested in participating. Need few more locations but solid foundation.
Equipment rental quotes obtained. Editor identified for post-production. Timeline feels real now. Not abstract concept anymore.
Final research memo due next month. Then production paperwork. Then actual filming begins.
— Writer Julia Zolotova
