2845 Oh to be 21! Just look at what they can achieve!
austraLasia #2845 Oh to be 21! Just look at what they can achieve!
SLIEMA and EDINBURGH: 18 April 2011 -- From time to
time, when the material comes in, we run something on an
outstanding youth or two: someone who has demonstrated
extraordinary bravery as in the earlier case of Sam, and the
other lad from Dominic College, Tas, who set out to swim the
English Channel.
Now two other items have come in - one
from Malta, the other from Edinburgh - both about 21 year
olds. Inspiring stuff. read on....
MALTA From Fr
Eric Cachia, with a link to the Sunday
Times of Malta, 17-04-11: Local production makes it
to Cannes
When a group of volunteers last summer set out to make a
short film, they were thinking of a small flick that would
provoke discussion. But when Stenbaħ! was premiered at the
Salesian Theatre in January, the feedback was so good they
decided to try promote it at a festival.
Fast forward a couple of months, and the
film, 21-year-old student director James Spiteri’s first,
has been selected for a short film showcase corner at none
other than the Cannes Film festival. The short film corner
is a section of the prestigious festival where upcoming
directors and producers have their films shown after being
vetted by the festival. It acts as a bridge between short
films and the far costlier world of feature films.
It also increases the chances of films
being selected by international festivals and exposes talent
and ideas to potential partners or distributors. Last year,
more than 1,700 films from 86 countries took part in the
showcase.
Barely 11 minutes long, Stenbaħ! (Wake
Up) deals with the impact of domestic violence and broken
families on their children and victims.
Shot in Senglea, Mount Carmel Hospital and private homes, it
was produced by Boscocrew, an audiovisual unit of the
Salesians in Malta, where youngsters as young as 15 can
develop their talents in cinema.
One of the Salesians’ main concerns is
children who come from broken families, and this is
reflected in the film’s content.
“It is based on several true stories we
encountered, and the main theme is that if we don’t deal
with the problems of our past, they will keep haunting us,”
said Fr Eric Cachia, the film’s producer. Aged 34, Fr Cachia
is by some distance the eldest person working on the film.
“There is also the idea of the family,
that it is natural that a person from a broken home suffers
emotional and psychological problems,” Fr Cachia said.
Mr Spiteri wants to use his first film as
a passport to a directorial career once he completes his
course at University.
“It is intended to provoke discussion,
because our intention is to take it into schools. The vibe
was that there’s quality, and we thought why not?” the
lively youth said.
Filmed with no budget and using equipment
on loan and a camera from the Salesians in Turin, the
production faced problems when trying to tap funding –
mostly because they were not professionals.
“All the work on set was done by students
– with no budget at all, and when we came to talk to the EU
media desk about funding, we realised that all the
opportunities were given to already established companies,
which we feel is unfair,” Mr Spiteri said.
Two follow-ups are in the pipeline, but
the Stenbaħ! producers aim to take it to other festivals.
But whatever happens on the festival front, Fr Cachia thinks
the film is a winner.
“Firstly, we put people’s talents to good
use while making the film, but we’re discovering that
through this medium, we’re reaching out to kids who
otherwise would not bother with discussions or the Church.
“It’s all about respect towards the human
person and finding things which unite us,” Fr Cachia said.
EDINBURGH From Fr Jim McGarry via Fr Patrick Sherlock GBR with
links to Saturday's 16-04-11 Glasgow Herald and the North
Edinburgh News:
"In Saturday's Glasgow Herald, magazine section, there is a
terrific feature entitled "Real Lives" - and this week it is
the story of 21 year old Harry Munro and his mother Sandra
Hughes, from Muirhouse, Edinburgh (Salesian activity).
Encouraged by youth worker Peter Johnson, Harry spent seven
months volunteering in Uganda, and then brought his mother
out to see what he was doing - her first time flying!. It
was television footage that first inspired Harry to want to
travel to Africa. Rather than feeling numbed by the
starvation and poverty he saw on screen, he thought that
some day he would like to go there. Maybe, he felt, he could
help.
Harry is not a gap-year student fitting
his charitable adventures in between courses. He is a young
man from an Edinburgh scheme who used to be, in the words of
his former youth worker, Peter Johnson, "very quiet, but
always on the edge of things. A lot of his peers were ones
that would be getting into trouble". Yet this quiet youth
was driven by the urge to go to help. "He said he wanted to
do something different", recalls Johnson.
To find out more about the projects Harry
Munro and other Muirhouse residents are involved in, visit
http://www.mydg.org.uk
You can also read a full page about
Harry, with a photograph, in the June 2010 edition of the
North Edinburgh News. _________________
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