THE CANAL & RIVER TRUST PROJECT

We partnered with The Canal & River Trust’s Community Roots programme to reach non-users and low-users of our waterways within Tottenham, North London and make the waterways relevant to them.
We decided to do this is two phases:

PHASE 1

In Sept 2021, we engaged Year 2 Media students from Big Creative Academy, as part of their course curriculum, giving them a brief to create a short visual piece exploring the benefits of the canal and wetlands to mental and physical health, community and wellbeing post-lockdown. We also incorporated a competitive element by offering a £1000 development prize to the winning group.
Below are some images taken by the students and curriculum lead, Jon Corden:

After months of collaboration, immersive experiences and excellent group projects (some of which received distinction grades) we held a showcase evening at the academy and Group G were voted as winners.
However we didn’t want to only engage the students in Phase 1, we also wanted to give them some work experience and empower them to lead on a creative project for the trust. So, as the academic year came to an end, we put out another project brief for interested students to sign up to be part of Phase 2 in their free time.

PHASE 2

We started with a brainstorming session in June 2022 where the idea of a short film was put forward by one of the students. The team loved it but with the summer looming we had to move quickly but efficiently. In just under a month the team of six came together to write a powerful script before planning, shooting and editing a short film.

The film featured Year 9 students from Harris Academy Tottenham, who following an assembly from Amani, also signed up to be part of Phase 2. The students were excellent and all committed to the process. For example we met them on the Monday to cast for speaking role and read through the script and, by the Wednesday, we were on set shooting the film!

The film, ‘Markfield Memories’ written by first-time writer Amario Allen, follows a group of school students are on trip to the historical Markfield Beam Museum; what they don’t know is that they are about to go on a journey that will impact them forever!
You can watch the final film below:
You can also see some BTS photos from the shoot day below taken by BCA student, Angele Gordon:

On Wed 13th July 2022, we held a special screening for family, friends and teachers of the students involved. We also had a keynote speech from 4x Former Mayor of Haringey, Councillor Sheila Peacock.
CLICK HERE to check out our feature in the Haringey Community Post: