Teme Valley Youth Project

During 2020 we worked with a group of 15-24-year-olds who live in the Teme Valley area. Together, we created two films exploring what it's like to be a young person living in a rural area.

The Teme Valley Youth Project group participated in a series of in person and online workshops on cine literacy, film development, scriptwriting, production, camera training, shot selection and finally the shoot for interface itself. Having found ourselves in the Covid19 lockdown with a vast change to filming practices, we set about devising, planning, writing and shooting a brand new film, all from homes.

Both films looked to examine the complexities of rural life from the perspective of people, not yet in charge of their own destiny – relying on intermittent public transport, experiencing social isolation and cultural poverty as well as poor access to mental health services.

 

• interface   explores a friendship that begins online with only a few necessary words shared and moves slowly towards friendship and the chance to meet face to face.

• The Followers   is a tense drama set in a very different 2020, where young people are monitored, restricted and challenging the status quo is a dangerous game when others are writing the rules.

  You can catch up and watch The Followers, below

 

 

Projects like this, that reach out into the heartlands of Herefordshire, offering young people meaningful creative experiences, lie at the core of Rural Media's charitable work and never has it been more important to listen and offer a platform for voices to be heard. Both films will be shared widely with young people and stakeholders and toured to rurally isolated schools, colleges and youth groups. A conversation will be started where we'll listen and share thoughts and response.

 

Funded by Hereford Community Foundation.