Great Places has recently teamed up with ReelMcr, a community based drama and participant-led social history documentary film makers, to work with young people in Salford to make a documentary about the impact knife crime in the area.
The 12-week project funded by Great Places and £10,000 from Engie as part of its social value commitments, was an opportunity for the young people involved to develop their film making skills.
The project was spearheaded by Lisa Newns, area services manager for Great Places’ Seedley and Langworthy neighbourhood after becoming inspired by the success of a previous project the company worked on.
“We produced a loan shark play with young people which they performed at Salford University,” Lisa explained.
“It really got the message across which I believe was made more powerful that it was done by young people, so I had the idea to do something similar with knife crime. It’s escalating everywhere, but particularly across Salford. If it makes just one young person think twice about carrying a knife, then it’s done its job.
“We plan to use the documentary which is in schools, pupil referral units, and youth clubs in the local area to raise awareness on knife crime. We hope the documentary will be hard hitting but age appropriate reminder that can be used by schools and online for years to come.”
The project, directed by youngsters aged 11–16, has also received backing from the local police. Lisa continued:
“There’s a lot of funding going into this project, so it’s important we get it right and they did agree it was the best thing for us to cover.
“If we can raise awareness of such an important topic but also help raise aspirations among the young people involved, they might discover a passion to pursue a career in the media industry and this will give them real experience to help do that.”
The young filmmakers will also have input on the direction and final content expected to be complete by spring 2022.
