CityShapers in Schools Coordinator

Monica Cheema (she/her) is a filmmaker, facilitator, and researcher based between Fleetwood-Surrey and East Vancouver. She works at the intersection of art, education, urbanism, and community organizing, weaving these disciplines together to foster critical thinking and engagement. Her work in classrooms encourages young people to reflect on their connection to land and each other. She values students as knowledge holders and tailors place-based programs to meet diverse learning needs, fostering accessible and engaging experiences for all.

Her background in schools has included leading film workshops at the VSB, where students explored placemaking and historic neighborhoods while thinking critically about the relationship between power and space. This approach to education is deeply informed by several years of experience as a community engagement specialist where she has worked to build spaces for discussion about harm reduction, and has also contributed as a researcher for the City of Vancouver’s Historical Discrimination Against South Asian People project.

Currently, she consults on various public space planning initiatives in South Vancouver, where she bridges her work in film and education with her interest in community-led urban planning. Monica sees storytelling as a transformative tool for fostering dialogue. Her films blend fiction and non-fiction to explore the politics of memory, labor, family, and public space. She has had the privilege of sharing her media-based work at The Polygon Gallery, Surrey Art Gallery, James Black Gallery, Mayworks Festival, Vines Festival, DOXA Documentary Film Festival, and Gallery Gachet.