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LET’S TALK Knife Crime Project 2019-2022

“CHANGE OF THOUGHT” [cert 12A, 73 mins, 2022]

This documentary film features Southwark boys facing permanent school exclusion who now deliver training sessions to London’s Police recruits.

Here is a trailer. Alternatively watch the film.

Early feedback: “It’s a very important film.” … “I was both encouraged and troubled by all of this” … “shows what can be changed with the right intervention at the right time” … “I did wonder if black kids could do some training exercises for teachers as well as for the police.”

Local organisation Elevated Minds, run by Doreen Sinclair-McCollin, coached the boys and aim to create sustainable change between Black communities and the Police. The film itself comes from LET’S TALK, CTVT’s four year project looking for breakthrough initiatives to confront knife crime and youth violence. It has produced discussion videos since Autumn 2020, run Forums in schools and youth clubs, and in September 2022 launched “CHANGE OF THOUGHT” at Peckhamplex cinema – part of Peckham & Nunhead Free Film Festival 2022.

Other voices in the documentary include many young people from local schools – Harris Academy Peckham and Surrey Square Primary School,  plus barrister Stephen Akinsanya, playground manager Stephney Bent, Sherifa Carr of Passion For Change, and Sayce Holmes-Lewis of Mentivity.

LET’S TALK videos LT#8 and LT#9 have been dedicated to this work. Check them out on the Films page of the LET’S TALK project website.

LET’S TALK produced a range of videos across 2021 with young people and professionals. Across 2020 five out of six events involving schools and youth clubs took place as planned before the national lockdown. 

See also LET’S TALK Video Report 2020.

Community TV Trust [CTVT] offers media training & filmmaking in schools and PRUs and in workshops for the disabled and marginalised. Engaging young people in open-ended creative work, links Community to Education.

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CTVT has produced a large number of videos, film dramas and a one-hour documentary, “It’s A Cavendish Thing”, with students and staff at Cavendish School in Bermondsey.

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Chris Haydon, who founded Community TV Trust in 1999, worked in broadcast TV as a director and producer, learning his trade as a documentary filmmaker on 16mm at Granada TV in Manchester.

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Southwark.TV Report available for download

“An open-minded, fun and accessible community ‘TV’ service, run as a forum for debate, the supply of information and promotion of local initiatives, talent and needs, has a vital role to play in multi-cultural, multi-faith C21st century Britain. Digital/cable TV and new media will be playing their part in urban regeneration and social cohesion.”

Community TV Trust from its launch in 1999 sought ways to innovative in community media. How might engagement be achieved?

Southwark.TV – a ‘horizontal’ community project – ran from a pilot in early 2003 to 2014 when the site was archived. You can find it under the CTVT Projects menu or click HERE to read it. Once you have read the report you can also browse the Southwark.TV website from HERE

It foresaw the rise of social media and online activity, shifting away from mainstream media to portable/mobile devices and citizen journalism.

 

BBD3 film

“Belt, Braces & Disability 3”

This film, produced by Troy, Rachel and Daniel, was two years in the making, partly due to the pandemic. It features three remarkable people each of whom has shown that disability can be an inspiring sphere of human life just as it can be difficult, bullied and disadvantaged. Lisa says,

“It’s shocking the standards that disabled people have to put up with and in this day and age, but to be honest it wasn’t that surprising to me, as someone who cares for a person with a disability. I loved the film’s life affirming message.”

One participant, Ralph, said: “it’s a shame we have to fight so hard to get our voices heard.”

It is the third in an occasional series of films which dates back to 2010 and then 2017, when the first two largely autobiographical films were produced. All three films in the series were directed by Chris Haydon.

The film features former Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and Baroness Jane Campbell, a legendary campaigner for disability rights. Both sit in the House of Lords on the Cross Benches.
Joining them is Mike Newman who was born blind, became a bank manager, and now runs a charity for disabled people to try their hand at driving a racing car on a racetrack. For good measure he set world land and water speed records in excess of 200mph and 100mph respectively.
Three outstanding people and role models to us all.
It launched on Facebook on World Disability Day Saturday 3 December and was followed by a Q+A featuring Baroness Campbell:
vimeo.com/778956759

BROOKWOOD: The Living and The Dead

CTVT’s documentary, produced with Ole Jensen who brought the recent Millwall FC film project, explores the world of minority burial grounds and Victorian foundations of today’s multicultural Britain.

There are powerful stories in this film of migration, sometimes over centuries, of refugees fleeing war, of economic migrants who find they have put down roots and stay, of community, of respect and love.

EMILY WILDING DAVISON

In the second half of 2021 we produced a film about a sculpture project created in Epsom, Surrey. It was to commemorate the suffragette famous for having died under the hooves of the King’s horse in the 1913 Epsom Derby. This was not the full story of a brave and committed campaigner who played a role in changing British society. The sculptor is Christine Charlesworth. Her work now sits in Epsom Town Centre and is greatly enjoyed.

 

Plans in 2022

Alongside our 4-year LET’S TALK project, we are in production on a film with Ole Jensen on the Brookwood Cemetery exploring minority burial grounds. This is due for completion in the summer. Previously Jensen produced the film about Millwall FC which Chris Haydon directed.

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We’re also  filming “BELT, BRACES & DISABILITY 3“, a documentary about disability in Britain. This is a sequel to two films made with previous client Freewheelers Theatre & Media Company and features three adults from the films who are now taking stock of the extraordinary world around them. This has led them to meet two Baronesses in the House of Lords and a totally blind man with a fascination for speed. Mike Newman has driven a car on his own at 200mph and runs a charity helping other disabled people develop a taste for speed. It’s true. No word of a lie. Disabled? Then there’s a gentleman with Cerebral Palsy who is married, in full employment, drives, and has started a family. Where’s the disability in that? On the other hand, Troy needs care 24/7 and the world is a different proposition for him.

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“BELT, BRACES & DISABILITY 3” will also launch in the summer.

A third documentary, and one that has emerge from the “LET’S TALK”  project, is”CHANGE OF THOUGHT“, telling the story of Southwark Black teenagers creating a positive future with the Police. Screening is aimed for Black History Month 2022.

LET’S TALK filmed a Musical and a Drama

LET’S TALK filmed is scenes from a musical written, composed and performed by students at Harris Academy Peckham. The script came from real life and the murder of a former pupil in south London when he tried to intervene in a fight.

This formed part of the film screening in autumn 2019 of schools and youth clubs in Southwark.

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Filming also took place of “One Road, Two Paths“, a powerful drama by local company Movement Factory, a Peckham-based dance group for 11-19 year olds. Five dancers from the company attended the final LET’S TALK Forum at HAP and performed extracts from their production.