Youth film making and creative writing project: Designed to enable participants to acquire basic media skills, this project was started in October 2012 to give young people from communities in and around Peckham, South London the opportunity to learn how to use professional film making equipment, delve into social justice issues that matter to them and to produce a film depicting a chosen issue that is most significant to their experiences.
Participants agreed that the project helped to build and strengthen collaboration and networking at a number of levels among young people. It linked participants with other social networks and assisted them to engage with youth clubs and other institutions. They saw film as a medium through which discussions can begin on the challenges facing Peckham’s community, whilst providing opportunities to develop youth-led programmes and projects for implementation in collaboration with other agencies. Participants viewed the project as an on-going activity that would occupy young people’s leisure time in a productive and creative way and one that enables them to perform roles as peer educators.
Kofi (17) – South London
Played lead role of murdered teenager Isaac
“I was interested in acting before but this has really boosted my confidence. I didn’t feel as nervous as I thought I would”
Joel (21)
Played role of murderer in film
“I saw the casting and I wanted to be involved. When we were making it some people thought it was real and tried to stop the bullying. It was nice to see them prepared to step in and stop it so hopefully that can stop things like this happening”.
Neo (23) – South London
Producer of film
“What the Trust is doing (with projects like this) is very good. I don’t believe there should be any limitations on what people can do based on where they’re from.”
Joseph (24) – South London
Director, script writer, editor, casting on film
“The DTT is doing a really important job of raising awareness of knife crime and bullying. People think it’s died down but it really hasn’t, people just don’t cover the story as much as three or four years ago. People still don’t have a voice and the Trust are trying to be a voice for the people round here”.
“Not everyone here has been through the education system so they’ve got no credentials – no way to prove that they have the skills. Only a few of us from round here go to University and even after coming out we don’t get into the industries we want to get into. there should be more DTT projects enabling people to be creative and show they can do anything they want to do.”
We delivered this project with a larger group of participants a second time in financial year 2013/14. As long as we have funding we will deliver this project annually.