Mosaic Films Partners with Joseph Rowntree Foundation and BBC to Host Why Poverty Pitch at Sheffield
- Posted: 17th Aug 2010
- Category: Industry News
DFG's sister company, the award-winning Mosaic Films hosted a pitching session for short films that take a fresh view on the often misreported and misunderstood issues surrounding poverty in the UK.
In partnership with BBC Storyville and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, three short documentaries exploring poverty in the UK will be commissioned as part of the forthcoming Why Poverty? season from STEPS International, the organisation behind the global success Why Democracy?
Three films from established documentary directors will be selected from a public pitch at Sheffield Doc/Fest in November, and produced by Mosaic Films over the following six months. The project is supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation: an endowed charity that funds a large, UK-wide research and development programme seeking to understand the root causes of social problems, to identify ways of overcoming them, and to show how social needs can be met in practice.
As part of session Does Poverty Have to be a Spectator Sport?, Sheffield Doc/Fest featured a special focus on the factual television industry's representation of poverty. The first half of the session consisted of a heated debate chaired by Julia Lewis, the panel consisted of Nick Fraser, Jim Boyle, Alex Goodman, Mark Saunders and Brian Hill. They examined the question of representing people living in poverty in the UK, the general conscencus was that there needs to be a more diverse depiction of poverty in the media, and increased analysis of issues around poverty.
The second half the session saw six filmmakers pitch their ideas for the Why Poverty? strand. The cover topics such as footaball, child poverty, evictions, choirs, homlessness and reposessions. The winning pitch will be announced at the festival.
The Why Poverty? season is a groundbreaking global cross media project launching in 2012 that asks why, in the 21st century, a billion people still live in poverty, and informs audiences across the world what they can do about it. The UK Shorts will premiere as part of a special session at Sheffield Doc/Fest in June 2011.
Nick Fraser, BBC Storyville: "We're delighted to be working with JRF and Mosaic Films to use the potential of short documentaries to engage audiences - both the public and decision makers - with different perspectives. The Why Poverty? season will look at global poverty and inequality with a focus on what people are doing to change their lives and get out of poverty, and on what keeps people from changing their lives and reducing poverty. Poverty in the UK is a misunderstood issue, and these films will work to redress that in a creative way."
Chris Goulden, JRF Research Manager said: "JRF believes in the power of the media to inform people and their attitudes. We hope that this partnership will generate some really exciting new ideas about how to portray the realities of living in poverty sensitively, in order to help build public support for anti-poverty measures."