‘Free To Be Me’

This is the second film I have collaborated on with Tom Hobden, and wow, what a wonderful, creative, open and enriching project Tom has crafted. We worked with the brilliant young people from The OutHouse Youth, the amazing dancer Richard Pye, writer Matt Gurr and supported by Mercury Theatre Colchester and The Essex County Council Arts and Cultural Fund, to create a film that told the story of these young people, a story of their name and place in the world, and how community, creativity, kindness and being heard is so important.

In Free to Be Me, you’ll hear from just a few members of The OutHouse Youth Project who through support and encouragement have found their voice and grown to feel free to simply just be.

Tom Hobden spent time doing workshops and getting to know everyone over the course of 5 weeks, and we would discuss plans and creative ideas during this time. I then came in for two filming days and we spent time capturing informal chats, hearing the stories of their names, how they feel about the word ‘freedom’ which would be crafted into narrative voiceover for the film, and the professional dancer Richard spent time with each young person in creating a duet using the natural space of The OutHouse. We then filmed these duets, some solo’s and group movements which would be pieced together to flow with the young peoples voices.

It really was a pleasure getting to know everyone, filming beautiful creative movement from young people who have never danced before, hearing these young peoples stories and thoughts and trusting our creative process along the way was truly wonderful. Thank you all who were involved for being so open and creative during this process!

Please do watch the film and have a look at some of the photos taken during the filming days.

ALSO - excitingly, our film has made it to the FINAL of the Smiley Charity Film Awards, so watch this space for any more news about the outcome!