From where I stand

Being young in London

The Maudsley Charity supported the 'From Where I Stand' film project which gave eight young people a chance to make their own short film about life in London.

The project was run by GLUE - an innovative not-for-profit company that engages with young people in their communities to "reinvigorate the public domain and promote participation".

The participants, aged 12 to 15 years, were all contending with challenging life experiences and were not in mainstream education at the time of the project. The aim of the project was to have them work in pairs to produce a short film of their own telling the story of "hard life in London". It was hoped that each of the films would help to challenge negative perceptions of young people.

The group attended workshops and were mentored by writers and directors from Great Monday Films - a film company specialising in shorts, virals, music videos and commercials. They learnt about all aspects of films and filming including storytelling, film genres, special effects and camera techniques. They were then given the opportunity to make a practice film which they chose to be a zombie movie.

The group's four final films used a variety of imaginative filming techniques and included animation, poetry, rap, music and comedy to reflect "hard life in London" through their own distinct creative and personal journeys.

'Toy Soldiers' focused on life as a teenager in London through a rap written and recorded by one of the group.

 

'Abdul at the Beach' focused on one young man's memories of growing up in Somalia.

 

A third film, 'What the guy I see every day might do for a job', took only a few hours to make.

 

The fourth film is images set to a poem written by one young person as part of the project.