The short film has a central theme of opposing racism?
Thomas Pollock
I think the film is subtle enough, effectively it is about opposing racism and that in most situations you have a choice as to how you can respond, that it gets the point across without being heavy handed. I think the young people did a really good job given they had never made a film before.
Were you happy with the final product?
Larry Cowan
Yes very much so. With a normal film project you are worried about a series of things, not least of all will you be able to sell the film, will you able to get a return from the box office, things like that.
The key thing with this project was teaching the young people how the film-making process works, passing on skills to them that they, hopefully, will be able to use in the future, but most importantly that the project built their confidence.
There was another consequence of this project in that these young people developed friendships through their experiences as well which is sort of an additional, and very positive, consequence.
Thomas Pollock
We have had plenty of feedback since the launch of the short film that we achieved the goals set for this specific project. A Master’s student from Queens University also did an assessment of the project and they were impressed by the fact that the young people were leading the work and it was a film written and produced by them.
Where to now?
Larry Cowan
We think we can expand this particular project and maybe take this template to use for other projects. In fact one of the actors in this film is going to work with us on another film and we have told all the young people if they are interested they can come and help us with other film making projects. All in all we were very happy with the end results.
For more information about Lamb Films, see the link below.
