The Great Debate at Hull Guildhall

Examining slave shackles with Billy Wilberforce 

Winifred Holtby Media Week :: Film # 1

Click above to start the film. A week of workshops hosted by Jon Robson & Matt Stephenson at Winifred Holtby School - Hull. Supported by Aim Higher & Creative Partnerships to develop students creative approach to learning.

Our Voice :: Our Media :: Film # 2

Click above to start the film playing.... A week of workshops hosted by Jon Robson & Matt Stephenson at Winifred Holtby School - Hull. Supported by Aim Higher & Creative Partnerships to develop students creative approach to learning.

big fat monkey....

Freetown - Sierra Leone Originally uploaded by Jon - Cafesociety.org.

i thought this picture was funny because all you can see is about 20 monkeys in rows and thats the only light in the entire room. plus it was irnonic because people from a far away place going to america and americans going to a far away place lol. this is why i found it very very funny!!!!!!

Matt + Jon on first day in Sierra Leone...Matt looks wrecked

Freetown - Sierra Leone Originally uploaded by Jon - Cafesociety.org.

Brilliant work - message from Matt

FANTASTIC - this week we've got loads of footage and interviews taken around the school site, we've got literally hundreds of photos on the Flickr site (check the links at the side of the page), we've recorded audio clips about attitudes to life at school, life on Bransholme, life in Hull, life in the UK and how everyone feels about the world and their place in it. People have tackled jobs that they've found difficult, but discovered they could do it. Other people have overcome their shyness to speak on camera or into a microphone. Chelsey wrote a brilliant piece about the way African nations are portrayed in the media and how here views have changed during the course of the week. Rebekah, Stephanie and Paige conducted a survey into attitudes toward control and discipline around the school and followed this up with a very well thought out and expressed article. Claire and Becky showed excellent written skills, Laura proved to be a visual whizz and a great organiser, Nozza and Dan proved what they can do technically, Kurt and Phil threw themselves into everything (including paper aeroplanes!), Alex, Vicky and James too, and Chris and Terri helped and supported each other throughout. Through the whole week, the single thing that has knitted everyone together has been an awareness and empathy with the audience for our work - kids in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Look at all this stuff - there's bags of life, creativity and intelligence in Bransholme... and a link has been made between an isolated city in the east of England and av struggling city in the west of Africa.

three friends

Freetown
Originally uploaded by Jon - Cafesociety.org.

i chose this pic coz its shows not all africans are unhappy these 3 children look happy and look like there ernjoying life as they should i hope there like this every day happy

A week in Hull, learning about Sierra Leone

Hi my name is Chelsey Turner. I’m writing this to show you my strong feelings on Africa.

I feel we are all human so why should Africans just have to live in poverty because of greed and selfishness. They shouldn’t. I believe it’s because of their colour.

The way they are shown on TV they just look like beggars and wanters they look like they’ve got no chance of survival.

But then Matt Stephenson and Jon Robson came to our school Winifred Holtby Technology College. Matt’s a writer and Jon’s a film maker. They’re great. They showed me the real Africa, the humans who have fun who’ve had a bad life but learnt to get on with it.

When I see the Africans on TV they just beg but when Matt and Jon went to Freetown Sierra Leone, Hull’s twinned city, they brought back some images and films on how they live and that really made me want to get involved. They didn’t look like beggars, they were normal happy people, and they just haven’t got what we’ve got. That makes me feel like wanting to donate as they aren’t asking for anything showing there happy as they are. People are quick to call them racist names and call them beggars but they’re not, they’re just humans like us. Just because they’re a different colour doesn’t mean nothing. They’ve been held back by their government’s greed greed greed.

Why can’t the bigger countries donate directly to the people? They’ve got pride, they don’t just need money, and even them just having links to people like us helps them feel more involved in the world. By communicating with them you can show them that you can sympathise and understand their position. I used to think that they were just beggars and it was their own fault, but it isn’t. Money is a big problem. We need to help them.

Education is a big thing in England. You don’t have to pay for it. If your parents don’t work you get free dinners and the parents still get dole money that they need to buy clothes, food, gas, electric, but I think people here still feel like they have no money and are skint, but people in Africa don’t have clean water, electric, gas,, nice roof over there head, money, dole, clean clothes, shoes, nice fancy schools, well one where there kids can get a really good education, but we do. So if we do why don’t they? Because of their government, because of their colour, I don’t know it’s not their fault. Their country may need to be more organised with money, more nice places to live, more places to go, and more jobs.

We have 3 meals a day, snacks and other treats, ice cream, chocolate, goodies. For what we have in one day they’d be grateful for that in a week. When you get hungry you can go straight to the fridge or freezer a grab what you want but over there they are lucky to have a fridge.

The civil war in Africa has left children with bad memories. For what they’ve been through in one week, we’ve never been through, in a lifetime. They’ve been named child soldiers, the younger soldiers that is. I’ve learnt to not judge them by what I used to see on the TV I’ve seen the real Africa.

Why does everyone think that they only want money? They are human as well. And as soon as the world realises that the better, as they can’t carry on living the way they are. It’s not acceptable they’re living in sheds, no clean water, the heat out there may be really hot as well - why do we have all this and they have nothing?

if i was primeminister- by James Patrick

if i was primeminister- by James Patrick

If I was the Prime Minster I would make and equal law. Which would make all things equal in the Court of law e.g.: if a man murders another man the man who committed the crime will be murdered.

Secondly I would I would decrease pollution by increasing the fine if you are caught committing the crime and I will put more police officers patrolling the streets to witness the crimes in action.

Next I would bring back the cane as I believe it will improve grades in the school and will decrease the amount of silliness.

I would give homeless people a free education so they have a qualification so they can get a job so they can earn money so they can eventually buy somewhere to live and not be homeless again.

Fourthly I would stop charities from keeping some of the money that people donate to people that have breast cancer and give all the money to that cause.

james patrick

If I was Prime Minister- by Claire Cutts

I would stop taxes and make homeless people get a job. People who are unable to work, the government shall pay for.

I would make things cheaper in the UK. I would ban smoking in public areas, people shall only smoke in their homes.

I would make sure that more bins were placed around the UK to prevent pollution. I would ban illegal drugs from being sent into the UK.

I would make the price of going to university cheaper. I would ban debt.

I would bring back capital punishment if the accused is found guilty of murder etc.

I would support gay marriage and make it legal in the UK.

If a child is abused, the abuser shall be sent to prison and banned from having any further children. I would bring back the cane in all schools across the UK. This would insure correct behaviour in schools.

I would reduce the cost of bus fares in the UK. I would make internet access free.

I would stop illegal immigrants and asylum seekers from entering the UK. I would make sure there were fire alarms and burglar alarms in every home.

I would make a national holiday called “Daughters Day”. It would be placed around either March or September time. I would also create a “Son’s Day” this would be around the same time as Daughter’s day,It would be during the same week.

Matt on yesterday's work...

Busy day, hectic schedules. First thing was to develop and organise all of the work we'd started on the previous day: big lists of hopes, dreams, aspirations and ambitions - personal, local, national and international. Then looking at how we could handle those ideas with interviews, words, still images and film. We were also visited by guests from Creative Partnerships, and everyone in the group presented and discussed their work - very intelligent comments, very articulate - well done everybody. We did lots more work during the afternoon - different groups out and about around the school site interviewing teachers, others working on the blog, writing lists about favourite things, things we love and hate, looking at photos by Martin Parr and Richard Billingham - preparation work for taking digital cameras home to take pictures which will give an insight into our lives here in Hull (keeping in mind that the audience for the work will be kids in Sierra Leone). Naturally, one or two problems along the way - as usual, mainly of the technical variety. One of the video cameras stopped working which left us a little short of resources, and the particularly hot weather meant the classroom was stuffy and hot, everyone's concentration drifted a little toward the end of the day... But hey, not really a problem. Working with problems and finding a creative solution is all part of the fun.

Our First Day

DSC07866a Originally uploaded by Jon - Cafesociety.org.

I hope you enjoyed your first day working with Matt and myself. You are some of the first young people we have shown the Sierra Leone films to and we hope you found them interesting and inspiring. Just to sum up - today you've learned about the two different audiences we'll be producing work for - the commercial audience of the the head, governors and parents - and the audience in Sierra Leone - kids like you who want to know all about your lives. You've all contributed your ideas about your hopes and aspirations for yourselves, your community, your nation and the world, and we've worked together to develop these ideas visually and journalistically, ready to begin filming tomorrow. Thanks for all your hard work.