Informationfrom the UFFC Youth Wing Fund:
The UFFC fund is open for applications.
The United Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC) is awarding grants of £1,500 to grassroots projects across the UK supporting young people (approximately between the ages of 18 and 35) who are directly impacted by social injustice, systemic inequality and state violence i.e. institutional racism, classism, ableism etc. This may be in the form of prisons and policing, the immigration system and hostile environment, and mental health and psychiatric institutions.
We are looking for applications from projects focused on:
Providing emotional and wellbeing support e.g.
Peer support, mutual aid and/or self-help groups.
Therapeutic, holistic resources/activities. These may be, but are not
limited to, wellbeing activities e.g. educational, creative, sports activities and/or events.
Therapeutic, holistic resources/activities. These may be, but are not
limited to, wellbeing activities e.g. educational, creative, sports activities and/or events.
Campaigning and Activism
This could include protest, work to create change on a local or national level, sharing information and skills such as community organising training, or creating resources for members of your community to better advocate for themselves.
Application Questions:
Tell us about your group/project. (Max 2500 characters) *
Is this something new you are trying to start up? What is the history and purpose of the group/project?
Is this something new you are trying to start up? What is the history and purpose of the group/project?
On Wednesday 29th of July, 2015, my friend Jack Susianta died after being chased by police into a canal near our homes. He drowned in the River Lea, in the same spot we would come together with our group of friends as teenagers. He was only 17.
The series of events that lead to Jack’s death were all preventable. After taking recreational drugs at a music festival, Jack fell into a psychotic episode once he returned home. We were all together at the festival, and I remember hugging Jack goodbye at Kings Cross station, he seemed totally normal, I even remember telling him what a good hugger he was. As soon as he was home, Jack’s mental state deteriorated, and he ran away. Out looking for him that night, we could hear helicopters above us. He was eventually found in the early morning, ‘cold, wet and mentally unwell’, at Lea Bridge roundabout. He was detained and taken to Homerton Hospital.
After Jack was released and sent home, he quickly returned to the same mental state and ran away again, deeply distressed. The police chased Jack into the canal where he was caught in reeds and died. The police did not go into the water to help him.
I want to produce a documentary that will tell Jack’s story through the words of the people who loved him, and examine the failings of the systems that were supposed to take care of Jack. But even more important to me, is to tell the story of who Jack was to us.
The film will be approximately 20 minutes long, and will form part of my final project on my course at Goldsmith’s University, where I’m completing a Master’s degree in Screen Documentary Filmmaking. It will include interviews with individuals that will help tell his story, and details of what happened, including the Inquest after his death. As the project comes almost ten years after what happened, I want to use the film to bring together everyone that knew him and create a space where we can discuss him and his life. It would be a type of commemorative offering to his memory, as well as a landmark of the time spent without him.
The project will also focus on the local area of Hackney Marshes, where Jack died, but also where we grew up together. It is a peaceful place and brings much comfort to the people who knew him, who can now visit the bench that was erected in his memory. There will therefore be lots of details of the water and the natural landscape in that area in the film, to celebrate the vibrant community of Hackney where we were raised.
Tell us about what you would like to use the funding for and how this meets the grant * criteria and the UFFC mission.
(Max 2,500 characters)
(Max 2,500 characters)
The funding would largely go towards a screening of the film, this summer, to gather together all those who were involved, as well as anybody that knew and loved Jack. This would benefit my community and those effected by Jack’s death as we’ll be able to regather our thoughts and memories of him together.
A large motivation for this project has been a strange feeling of guilt and sadness as the years go by and that summer seems more and more distant. For people like Jack’s mother and family, this is not the case, there will always be a hole in their family. But as my friends grow older and continue their lives and careers into adulthood, Jack stays frozen as a teenager. He will never get to do the things we have done together, or celebrate those landmarks. The people I experienced Jack’s death with are still my best friends, and the people I spend all my free time with. It is important that we commemorate Jack as we go through life, because although we will never forget him - I do not want 10 years to pass and for us not to revisit what happened properly, respectfully, in a healing and collaborative way. This event, and this film would help us do that.
The funding could also help towards partial expenses of the film, including contributions to those who wish to be involved, such as interviewees, journalists, composers, camera assistants, etc. I believe that contributors (interviewees) that are the subjects of documentaries should be compensated for their time, because they are allowing access into their lives in order for me to make this film. These principles of paying subjects are often not able to realised with independent low-budget filmmaking. However because costs like camera equipment rental and editing software will all be covered by my course, this will free up a lot of the funding to hopefully go towards those willing to give up their time to be in it.
