‘Ahead of the Game’ is a feature length documentary set in the heart of the neighbourhoods hosting the London 2012 Olympics.
It is a personal exploration of the multi billion pound project as seen through the eyes of AJ, a 20 year old who grew up in poverty on the estates of the East End.
With the world’s media focused on the Games, AJ exposes the reality of development in one of the poorest places in the UK.
- ‘I felt like I was just another nigger. I definitely felt like a nigger. That’s the first time I’ve actually thought, man, I’m a nigger’
Whilst overtly, the film is the story of one young man’s view of what is happening in his neighbourhood, the subtext will resonate globally with all who have had development thrust upon them. All too often we as film makers travel to exotic locations to explore such issues. For once, this is not about the other, but instead about us. 2012 is a great opportunity to be able to deconstruct the themes of money, power and promises right here in London.
AJ will take the viewer on a journey through the side of a neighbourhood they otherwise would not be able to access, and present a view of The Games from those who live in the areas surrounding the Olympics Park - which critics say risks becoming an ‘island of prosperity’ separating rich from poor.
- ‘There are so many problems - deprivation, girls getting raped on the estates, kids having kids. So I hate it when they come up on the TV talking about solving the problems, or trying to find solutions ‘cause they ain’t’.
We have already identified key characters who AJ grew up amongst whose stories link to local neighbourhood issues that government have promised to change.
We have access to school leavers, teachers, youth workers, local shop keepers, young men who are leaving prison seeking work, local police, the local MP, single mothers and young families who are being relocated.
We intend to spend the latter part of 2010 casting further people, and then throughout 2011 document how their lives change in the run up to 2012.
AJ has an incredibly disarming power and is able to express with humour the real experiences of the people he grew up amongst.
These stories will be bound together, intercut, and set within the changing landscape of East London.
The neighbourhood will be presented as a character in itself, as it faces dramatic change. We will use this as the narrative spine of the film, with peoples’ lives taking place in and around it.
As our trailer shows, we intend to intercut AJ’s revelations with archive material providing juxtaposition and comic relief, revealing what is really being achieved behind a smokescreen of upbeat PR. The film will investigate the rhetoric versus the reality of life on the estates in one of London’s most deprived boroughs.
‘This is business. They’re investing in the area. They’re not investing in the people. It’s not necessarily changing people’s mentality. And that’s the thing you should be developing, not the area, but their mentality. Because if their mentality is straight, and their way of thinking is straight, and their understanding is straight, the area is beautiful.’
The legacy of The Games has consistently been prioritised by policy makers to be as important as the sporting memories.
‘Ahead Of The Game’ will reveal what type of legacy East London is left with by the summer of 2012.
Our journey through the neighbourhood will explore the assumption that reshaping such a large swathe of London is necessarily positive for all.
It will ask if the same level of attention is being given to the community and people, as it is to property and places.
Our characters’ stories reveal a deeper truth about the real human impact of this type of economic development, and question whether this has been a missed opportunity for London.
AJ asks if it’s possible to find another way to meet the needs of his neighbourhood.
We intend to galvinise debate around the issues raised in the film - poverty, access to jobs, affordable housing and the quality of neighbourhoods. Our outreach will advocate for more public involvement and bottom-up approaches to community regeneration.
We intend to use the film as a mouthpiece for these issues and a stimulus for local action, by connecting people to things they can actually do. For example, the film shows how jobs are key for young people in Newham to break the cycle of poverty. Meanwhile, the Council has identified a skills gap in local talent needed to fill jobs after the Olympics and to address this, there are apprenticeship schemes being developed to train local young people. Using the film as a catalyst, our aim is to raise awareness of and connect people to opportunities like these.
It is our goal to make make a film that is local in it’s story, but that resonates globally.
Locally we want the film, and parallel social action campaign, to hold policy makers to account and amplify specific local campaigns relating to housing, jobs, quality of life and grass roots democracy.
Globally we aim for the film to connect with all those who are interested in the politics and power at play within the paradigm of development.
We want the film to be used by planners and policy makers advocating for people-led regeneration in the future.
Shot hand held on a Canon 7D with an EF 50 mm F1.2L USM lens, during rehearsals for the Don Bigg / Omar Sosa show at the ‘Festival Mawazine Rythmes Du Monde’ in Rabat, Morocco.
Ushered in to a darkened room in a single line, as if to enter a ride at a theme park, the audience is seated on cushions laid in a wide circle. I lay back and rest my head against the soft backing. I’m breathing out the week, legs stretched and enjoying the bestowed gift of anonymity in the dark. The room falls silent, I feel relaxed, alone, even though I am surrounded. I am comfortable, I feel gentle in my body; I stop.
Projected on to a floating backdrop I am taken in to the tunnel of my thoughts, I’m lead to thoughts about death, the anxiety I have held on to fades and I am thinking that perhaps this is the space I am in when it happens. Should one be so lucky to know that they are dead and they could get to wander through a landscape of sunrise and sunset calmly until they understand ‘death’! Thoughts alternate and perhaps this is some type of hell? Am I stuck? The realising that you have passed in between the living and the dying without any more days to wake to. I think, did I appreciate my life, did I spend each day eating the landscape, or experiencing ‘happy’? The discord that runs between the parallel landscapes that is night and day. The wondering ‘where am I’?
en masse is part concert, part film, part installation and the creation of renowned recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey and filmmaker Marc Silver. I hardly want to write too much lest I say too much! It is an experiential piece, by which I mean – you really need to go, and sit, and watch, and listen, and go on your own trip. We can be amongst many and watch, but you won’t feel or think what I feel or think. In some ways it is like koyaanisqatsi translating as ‘Life out of Balance’ a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Phillip Glass and cinematography by Ron Fricke.
en masse is a performance piece that came about from experiences and ideas based within nature. Silver says ‘We wanted to make a world that would hold you, yet one that also gives you space’. The music began as a series of improvisations and was responded to by six sound artists. Musical collaborators include John Rodgers Christian Fennesz, DJ Olive, Nico Muhly, Ben Frost, Steve Adam and Taylor Deupree. Each with a variety of experience, some working alongside Phillip Glass and Bjork, classical composers and others with the experimental fusion of sound, photography and architecture. The combination of Lacey, whose repertoire spans ten centuries, and the computer generated sounds creates an atmosphere of altering transformations that are unique to each performance. Redefining it as ‘electrocoustic’ they are able to wrap the audience in sound and movement.
This is a sensual experience and without being overt, en masse addresses themes like the impact of globalisation, individualism and consumerism. The subtle message of order in chaos is alluded to through the projected imagery of birds. The piece is as much about space as it is about the sound and the image, as well as, the collaborators and audience working together en masse. I don’t want to say anymore, because I really think it deserves what can only come from first hand experience. A refreshing piece that although is perfect at 30 minutes long, I wanted to indulge in the space for longer, as if returning to the mother’s womb – I did not want to leave to face the chaos that is life.
We’ve entered an open funding challenge with the Knight Foundation in the US. It’s ‘open’ in that it can be critiqued and enhanced ahead of the deadline, Dec 15th. If you have a few minutes and would like to support our project in East London, please have a read and comment here.
Having received hundreds of stories of resistance from all over the world, we’ve spent the last few months focusing on the Wall that is being built along the entire USA border with Mexico.
It is one of the greatest symbols of the divisions between rich and poor, and inspires a major investigation into the systemic causes of poverty and migration.
We’ve followed the death of one migrant and are currently seeking funding to expand the film to expose a global network of new Walls and the divisive impact they will have on all of our futures.
(Shot on the Canon EOS 7d with the Canon EF 50 mm F1.2L USM lens & Canon EF 14 mm F2.8 L II USM lens).
For the last few weeks I’ve been researching the impact of the Wall that is being built at the border between the USA & Mexico, and how it is leading to the deaths of migrants in the Sonora desert in Arizona.
