Project Background
The riots and looting of August 2011 began after peaceful protests by locals outside Tottenham Police Station in north London. People wanted answers from the police about the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan. The chaos spread quickly and within days, spread into the neighbouring borough of Hackney and quickly nationwide. The BBC, Sky News and other broadcasters were there quickly to report live on the events as they unfolded.
We were in Hackney when the riots kicked off, together with a friend who was reporting for the BBC Panorama documentary and the Times newspaper. A seemingly one-sided coverage and understanding of the riots motivated us to make our own feature documentary about the situation.
Film Project: End of the Roads
So far we have composed two short trailers, which you can view above.
We aim to produce a feature length documentary which serves as a platform to give a voice to a demographic that usually is and has again in this case been ignored, blamed and portrayed in a negative way.
What we found out meeting the youth was that the whole situation was far more complex than what the media had projected it to be. Through gripping voices and perspectives the youth, whom themselves raised questions of hypocrisy within the justice and class system in the UK, believe that too many of them are living under marginalized conditions. At the same time the general media tends to idealize materialism and consumerism. The youth in this film did not support the lootings, nor did they participate in the riots, as they want to see their communities thrive.
The Team
Director: Ghin Liew is a male of Malaysian and English decent, who grew up in Reading but has lived in Hackney for the past 13 years. He studied his degree in BA Graphic Design at St Martins College in London, where he also spent 8 years working in the moving image department. However due to the recent government cuts and coporate restructure, he lost his job.
Producer: Mizgin Oktem, is Kurdish-Swedish woman who has been living in East London for the past 6 years. She has a degree in Psychology from Goldsmiths College.
Production Assistants: Thad @ BIG Promo Camden Town, Selom, Alexander Haughton.
Soundtrack: Ksana
Why we come to wefund.com
We, the team, have been affected by the government cuts in a way that makes it hard to make ends meet in finishing this film before February. We have so far invested 3 months of our time to this project and we no longer have funds to continue the production full time. This is why we need support from those who can give it @ wefund.com in order for us to realize the feature as we intend and so we can meet deadlines in submitting the final film to festivals in 2012, such as London, Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and Toronto.
The money we can raise through wefund.com will be spent on hiring a 300 mm zoom lens. We need to pay for post-production such as editing, colour grading, titles, audio mixing and soundtrack production. The rest will be will be spent on administrative costs, submission fees for the film festivals, and anything left over will be spent on producing DVD’s.
End of the Roads Teasers.
Teaser 1 http://vimeo.com/30816427
Teaser 2 http://vimeo.com/31837932
An End of the Road Vice blog interview @
http://www.kollektivnye.com/?p=2162
If you are not in a position to make a pledge, please help us by spreading the word. Join End of the Roads on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/endoftheroads?sk=wall
Thank very much you for your time and interest,
Ghin and Mizgin
