University alumni nominated for Charity Film Award
A group of university alumni have been nominated for a Charity Film Award for a documentary they created during their time at Salford.
The former students created the film in 2022 as part of a collaboration module between MA Documentary Production, MA Drama Production and MA Editing for TV, Film and Digital Media, where they had to create short documentary films.
Film Director and MA Documentary Alumni, George Cooke said: “It was a good learning experience. It's a very cool way to learn to go out and make a film for a client and for that be part of your degree is crazy. It's also nice to work with people from the other courses as well, it was a good opportunity that was unique to this project.”
Simone Ziel, assistant producer, said: “I think for me, just being able to work with people that I probably wouldn't have been able to work with was one of the best things about the film.”
“I felt like it was a unique opportunity that was unique for degree and university.”
The group chose to do their documentary on Withington Walls, a community street art project based in a south Manchester suburb, due to their combined love of street art.
Henry Bolden was the producer of the documentary and previously lived in Withington, he said: “It felt quite close to home as it was at one of the things I loved about Withington, seeing all the art everywhere and it being done by local artists and just made the town feel really, bright and fresh.”
The project is run by volunteers and funded by donations by the local people of Withington.
Volunteers aim to add color to the community by creating street art pieces on walls and shop shutters around the town.
Simone said: “The reason why I selected the brief was because, I was born and raised in East London and street art is a part of the culture and the streets that we live in.”
When asked about how they felt about being nominated for the award George said: “It was a complete surprise. We didn't even enter, to be honest. The Smiley Charity Awards approached Whittington Walls because somebody there saw the film.
“We got a text message saying, ‘Congratulations you’ve been nominated’ and it was a great surprise.”
You can watch and vote for Make yourself at home in the Charity Film Awards.
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