Crowdfunding Campaign Needs Support

It was early 2000s and I'd asked the wonderful Shaheen Kaiser of Volunteer Centre, Slough if she could introduce me to someone local in the media industry and she pointed me to Dominique Unsworth MBE BEM. Our first meeting was in her small cubicle office in the Enterprise Hub of Thames Valley University. I may have rambled on about my unbridled ambitions which were made difficult by having a toddler in a new country with no support system. She listened patiently and put me in touch with several others including Lucy Lee who quickly became a dear friend and creative collaborator.

In due course, through her company Resource Productions I would attend a camera course at the BBC, attend a development programme at B3 Media and get funding to shoot a short film, have it shown at The ICA in London, attend an entrepreneurial course and get yet more funding to buy my first Macbook Pro, be asked to run several workshops for BAFTA, get to shake hands with the 2nd line to the throne, be funded by Creative SkillSet (now called Screen Skills) to attend a short course at NFTS, be part of a support group set up exclusively for creative practitioners and be the recipient of many, many opportunities that would I otherwise have had little access to.

So I was dutybound to let Dom know when I was becoming a sole trader, thus effectively becoming a competitor. Always full of grace, she had nothing but good wishes for me in my endeavour. A few years later, I would get in touch with her to tell her that this time I was moving to the continent and again, she wished me the very best and insisted that we stay in touch. By December 2018, I would be back in the UK and a chance meeting with Dom would lead me to becoming a part of team Resource Productions.

As project manager I would get to see first hand just how this small social enterprise manages to repeatedly punch above its weight in creating a more inclusive creative industry. I would get to see how it enables people who didn't see themselves represented on the creative scene find a voice, tell their story and challenge other people's perception of them.

"when I was awarded a Fellowship by Farnham Maltings, it is to Dom that I first shared the news after my family."        

It is this environment that gave me the courage to pursue a Master's degree at 46 and subsequently graduate with a distinction. And later, when I was awarded a Fellowship by Farnham Maltings, it is to Dom that I first shared the news after my family. I owe much of where I am today to the tireless cheerleading by team Resource Production with Dom at its helm.

You might be wondering why I am talking about my employer at this juncture (yes, I am doing this of my own volition). Resource Productions are running a #crowdfunding campaign to realise a long-pending dream and I wanted to personally vouch for the legacy of their good work. After decades of producing short films, we are at the cusp of producing our first feature film and we need just ￡50k to complete it.

This feature film is shining a new way to make things happen. And your help is needed.         

This feature film is ground-breaking - from working with hitherto unemployed young people to employing under-represent talent of all ages and backgrounds - it is shining a new way to make things happen. And your help is needed.

If you are one who's often wondered why the same people are seen and heard from on British screens, if you are one who has believed that people like you will never have a creative and fulfilling career, then do support this project that challenges those assumptions and shows how to break them.

I am also a mother whose son has found his tribe thanks to the weekly film club that we run for young people.        

Finally, I write this not just as a creative person who's benefitted enormously from my association with Resource Productions, I am also a mother whose son has found his tribe thanks to the weekly film club that we run for young people. My 13-year son whose stories and ideas were lost on his family, has suddenly found kinship amidst similarly inclined young people. And if he does go on to pursue a creative career, I know someone who can help him with his aspirations.