We will be working with the charity Community Links, within their Create Your Future programme. This programme aims to develop opportunities and transferable skills for BAME (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic) women who need assistance overcoming barriers and finding employment to empower them in achieving their life goals. We strongly believe that our project will be a great stepping stone to expanding social inclusion within documentary film.

We will be leading a 6 week series of workshops, with the goal of developing technical understanding, confidence in expression and the ability to work collaboratively towards a united creative vision, along with other transferable skills needed to create any production from start to finish. We will provide one workshop a week. Over the course of the workshops, we will address film theory and practice (with the help of some established filmmakers within the industry), before guiding the participants through every stage of the production of their own films.

At the end of the programme we will host a screening of the 4 films made at Community Links; the groups will be able to introduce their work, discuss what they’ve learnt and what they’re trying to express with their films. We hope the screening will raise awareness of the work the charity is doing, and crucially benefit the participants by providing an otherwise inaccessible platform for their creativity and voice. All contributors will be cordially invited to a screening of the films they will be supporting.

Beyond this, Foreign Body (ourselves) will commit to establishing an online platform where people will be able to view the work produced by this project, and we will provide access to all of this equipment going forward to any participants of the course and our future workshops as well as Community Links. One of the productions of a previous workshop of ours has been shortlisted for a festival prize and will be screened at the Curzon in Soho. You can watch it here. We hope this project will have a similar impact.

Thank you for your support!

Luke, Mateo, Abi and Giacomo