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‘Creative Canary’ – east London pupils pass screen test for major short film festival

Friday 29 August 2008

A group of east London pupils put their team-work and film-making skills to the test on a two-day workshop held as part of the Canary Wharf Film Festival on 23-24 August.

The project, entitled ‘Creative Canary’, involved an Apprentice-style challenge, in which the team of four local students had to create their own documentary about the commercial and creative life of Canary Wharf.

Giovanni Dacosta and Cleevan Baron, Year 11 pupils at St Bonaventure’s School in Forest Gate, and Antonia Awyemi and Vanessa Onalo, Year 12 pupils at St Angela’s School Ursuline, also in Forest Gate, took part in the project under the guidance of University of East London (UEL) Media Studies graduate Awad Bhenick.

Awad, who now runs his own successful media production company, Blue Sky Media, enlisted current UEL students Amesh Sharma and Ratan Pamber and a team of successful entrepreneurs and media professionals to support the budding film-makers.

Awad said: “Through Blue Sky Media, I regularly organise projects with local pupils and am always impressed by the enormous talent and enthusiasm of young people in east London. The pupils involved in this workshop were extremely keen to learn from the experts, and it’s been great to see them use their new skills and insights to create a really interesting short film.”   

The final documentary features interviews with Canary Wharf workers and visitors, and will be screened on Saturday 30 August at the Museum in Docklands, as part of the Film Festival’s free ‘Young Talent’ event. An awards evening to celebrate the success of the students will be held on Monday 1 September, the day after the Festival finishes.

Antonia Awyemi, of Beckton, said: “This workshop has been a great experience, and talking to all the experts and motivational speakers has really helped me to gain a great deal of knowledge about media industries like journalism and script writing. Everything that we learnt we put into making our film.”

The pupils gathered advice from industry experts including Liz Hobbs, of Moviescope Magazine, Stephanie Busrai, a features producer at CNN, and Olivia Bellas, Director of the Canary Wharf Film Festival.

Olivia said: ”The Canary Wharf Film Festival aims not only to showcase creative talent, but to nurture it from the roots up, putting cameras in teenagers’ hands and providing them with an exclusive opportunity to make a documentary and screen it as part of the Festival. Having access to people in the film and media business, such as our experts from CNN, gave the attendees some real 'insider knowledge', which is a huge asset in any industry."

UEL's School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies brings together the UK’s largest centre for media, communications and screen studies with highly-rated programmes in cultural and innovation studies, social work, sociology, anthropology, social policy, creative industries, and international development. For further information, visit www.uel.ac.uk/ssmcs.

For details and pictures contact Daniel Cherry: 020 8223 2194

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

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