Knife crime film created by Bristol teens to be used in schools across UK

A Bristol youth-led charity is creating a film to help raise awareness on knife crime. Integrate UK based in Montpellier is currently working with children and young people from four different schools in Bristol and Empire Fighting chance.

The young people will get the chance to act in the film but the real purpose of the project is on prevention and understanding knife crime from the perspective of those directly impacted. The creative process itself is also a chance for them to build confidence and learn new skills.

When the film is finished it will form part of an educational resource package that will be used to deliver workshops on knife crime in schools throughout the UK. The charity is also keen to work with other organisations, including the Local Authority in Bristol, to help tackle the growing problem of knife violence in our city.

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They are currently working with young people in John Cabot Academy, Montpelier High School, Fairfield, Orchard School and Empire Fighting chance. The young people in Bristol are currently developing a storyline and filming is set to begin in July.

In the process of making the film, the project lead, Priya Kaur who is 19-years-old, has been doing additional research and discussing the issues with young people who have lived experience of knife violence. Priya who became involved in Integrate UK when she was in year nine at school, said that like the young people who are involved in the film, she is also very passionate about ending knife crime.

Priya said: “I have a younger brother and I would never like him to feel that somebody is going to attack him or that he doesn’t feel safe to go outside because of the current situation in Bristol. A lot of our young people have concerns about the treatment of young people in the media and feel that there is a lack of empathy, specifically towards young black males.

“Our work is focused around deterring people from getting involved in knife crime in the first place. It’s not just about saying, ‘put the knives down’, it’s about working with young people and finding out what the root causes are.

“Through some of the research we have done ourselves we have found that there are huge links with knife crime, poverty, and high rates of exclusion. Once they have been excluded from school there has been little effort to re-engage them in education.

“They feel there is a need for more positive role models and the chance for those who have made a wrong decision to do something more positive.Young people have voiced a lack of support in terms of what happens afterwards, they may not have been the best friend of a person who was fatally stabbed but it’s impacted them.”

Priya and others working on Project Fearless at Integrate UK hope that they can work with other organisations in Bristol in a more collaborative way. They are currently working on a campaign around the sale of zombie knives and machetes on Amazon which is set to launch soon.