Young Filmmakers Promote Community Farm

A NEW film created by a group of Sunderland youngsters aims to promote a unique community resource centre in the city.

The film, Hoofbeats and Heartbeats, has been made to promote the brilliant work of Sunderland Training and Education Farm (STEF), which is based in South Hylton.

Funding for the film, made by STEF’s Girls Film Making Group, came from The Cultural Spring, an Arts Council England (ACE) project working to increase arts engagement in Sunderland and South Tyneside and the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

The Hoofbeats and Heartbeats project was led by film-maker Julie Ballands.

Jeanette Chapman, CEO at STEF, said: “We’re working with The Cultural Spring through it’s A Space to Create programme, which helps organisations like us grow our capacity to work with communities, focusing on identifying and then programming creative activities.

“During an earlier phase of the A Space to Create project we worked with animator Sheryl Jenkins to make a short animated film which our young people really enjoyed.

“We asked them what they’d like to do next and they said they’d like to make a longer, live action film which is what they’ve done. The animation had a Barbie theme and was about the importance of good mental health.

“Their latest film, Hoofbeats and Heartbeats, is about STEF and the work we do here. We have so much going on – a Pony Club that meets Monday and Saturdays, a Girls Group that meets on Wednesdays and the Film Makers who meet on Thursdays.

“There are 18 young people in the Girls Film Making Group, aged from 12 to 16 and they were fully involved in the process of making Hoofbeats and Heartbeats, including choosing Julie as their film maker lead. They were involved in the interviews, the shortlisting of Julie and then helped with writing the script and filming.

“Julie was great to work with, and the girls thoroughly enjoyed the process. She wanted to make sure they were involved as much as possible and worked hard to make sure there wasn’t a ‘classroom’ atmosphere. She really listened to the girls and was very adaptable and supportive.”

Emma Biggins, Community Engagement Co-ordinator for The Cultural Spring, said: “We were delighted to welcome STEF to the A Space to Create programme in 2023.

“We’ve enjoyed working with them on Hoofbeats and Heartbeats – which is brilliant -and other projects. They recently hosted a performance of Here Be Dragons, one of our Bitesize shows and we’ve also arranged Go and See visits with them. We’re looking forward to further partnership working with them in the future.”

To see the film, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7blXH_wau4I

STEF is a non-profit making organisation based on 40 acres of land at South Hylton. It was commissioned by Jeanette in December 2003 who saw an opportunity to create a community resource centre for locals.

It is led by an independent management team of ten members, consisting of local residents, community development workers, a farmer, a mental health worker and a counselling advisor. The farm is open to all ages for educational visits, training, work experience opportunities and leisure activities. 

For more information go to https://sunderlandfarm.co.uk

A Space to Create is part-funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment.