Authority?

Protégé works with young people who are at risk of exclusion, or have already been excluded from school.  These young people have many different and complex reasons for their exclusion, they come from diverse backgrounds and have diverse outlooks. However, the one thing that they do have in common is that their exclusion can separate them from other young people of their own age.  They end up prematurely trying to make their way through a world of adults who make “important decisions” about them.  While kids in school are negotiating exams and school rules, those who get excluded are trying to cope with their sense of rejection, failure and lost opportunities.

These differences can be overwhelming, sometimes creating an insurmountable sense of not belonging to your peer group, of being misunderstood by adults and of ‘not fitting’  in with your community.

Our ‘Authority?” project has enabled excluded young people to emerge from their gangs, tribes and mindsets and to step outside of their comfort zone and find some common ground with people they would not normally meet for a ‘friendly conversation’.

After an intensive three months of research, brainstorming, filming and editing these young people, guided by a youth panel, learned to use the raw material of their experiences as an asset from which to question, challenge and analyse their situation.  They have harnessed the power of film and advertising to share ideas with figures of authority like Chief Inspector Shaun de Souza Brady of the Metropolitan Police and Liberal Democrat politican Andrew Dakers.   They have collaborated in the shared goal of making an advertising campaign to challenge stereotypes,  to express their creativity, to learn how to ask difficult questions, and to really think hard about the answers.

And in the process they have learned how to be a first assistant director, how to operate camera, how to edit, how to storyboard, how to write compelling copy for an attention-grabbing poster.

We hope you enjoy viewing the work shown here, with guiding text by Amy’s evaluation, from our youth panel.  If you would like to share your ideas we’d love to hear from you – and one of our youth panel will reply to you.   please get in touch.

Protégé would like to thank Mediabox, Somerset House and the Metropolitan Police for their invaluable support of this project.

Sabita Kumari-Dass, Director, Protégé.