Mediabox | News

BBC Blast and BFI Future Film Festival

Mediabox was delighted to be a part of the BBC Blast/BFI Future Film Festival this year, a free festival for 13 - 25 year olds packed with film screenings, workshops and debates. Mediabox hosted a filmmaking workshop at the event giving young aspiring filmmakers advice on how to prepare, shoot and edit short documentaries and films.

Jeff Leach, Mediabox ambassador and presenter of BBCs The Surgery, was also there to present a special Mediabox award.

Jeff Leach: "It was great to be here tonight celebrating the achievements of all of these talented young people and to present the award for Mediabox Best Film 2009. Mediabox is a fund that gives young people the chance to make creative media projects and get their voices heard. We have funded some amazing projects in the last year from radio shows and magazines to video games and film, enabling young people from across the country to tell their stories and talk about what matters to them.

With so many creative and courageous Mediabox filmmakers, it's was a tough decision for the panel to come up with a winner but 'Small Rabbits' really stood out.

'Small Rabbits' (link to project) is one of four films made by young unaccompanied asylum seekers aged between 15-17. The project, called Home to Home was managed by Kent Refugee Action Network at the Canterbury Riverside Youth Centre, produced with the support of Animate and Create. The young people involved in the project came from countries including Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and China. These young people are ordinary teenagers with extraordinary pressures, frustrations and worries yet due to their experiences they can help us look at our own culture in a unique way.

Made over a 5 day period, the young people produced all the scripts, designs, models, animation and sound for the films. The Small Rabbits escape danger in their homeland, mirroring events in the young filmmakers lives. The result is a remarkable film."