My 2006 anti-racist educational DVD for primary schools Only Human is frequently cited in The Myth of Racist Kids.  View or download the film on Teachers TV here.

Commissioned by Essex County Council, Only Human was the end result of a project called Watch Out for Racism!  This project was managed and coordinated by Greenwich & Lewisham Young People's Theatre (GLYPT) and utilised the approach of working directly with children in schools in order to establish the direction and content of the film.   Tensions developed between myself and GLYPT which brought into sharp relief a clash between orthodox approaches to anti-racism and my resistence to the mantra-like approval of 'celebrating difference'. The tendancy to exaggerate both the significance of 'race' and the widespead (and very often hidden) existence of racism just made these tensions worse.

However, it was the vogue for 'child-centred' working that allowed us a way forward.  Children were openly saying 'yes we're fascinated with difference but what we value is sameness'.  They were unimpressed with "racial identity" ('surely its whats on the inside that counts') and nonplussed by the proposition that they or their schools could be described as in any way troubled by racism.  They knew they sometimes picked on each others differences but, as one child put it, 'its nasty, we shouldn't do it, but we're kids!'

And so Only Human managed to unshackle itself from that very adult-centred obesession with 'race' and the distinctly paranoid hunt for racist behaviour to catch young and 'nip in the bud'. What began as 'Watch Out for Racism!' ended with a forward-looking, humanist film that didnt view 21st century Britain as dripping in racism and its children as bad seeds but rather celebrated their longing to transcend race.

The film was, of course, obligated to fulfil certain requirements (it was, after all, supposed to be an anti-racist educational resource).  For example, I recognised that I had to depict the very serious and sometimes murderous consequences of racism.  But given that my colleagues wanted to demonstrate how racism plays out in school it was interesting that no-one could provide me with a single example of severe, targetted or sustained bullying or violence from within Essex's school system.  In the end a scene was filmed by GLYPT which reconstructed the only anecdote they had ascertained from the LEA.  This was a scene depicting a 15 year old black girl bullied and assaulted on the bus to school by two other pupils.  For the primary school 9 - 11 year old audience this was supposed to be evidence of racism - not in the past (like the Holocaust), not recently (like the murder of Anthony Walker) but in Essex schools - or at least going to school.  In its dramatised form this incident seemed like a caricature with aggressors conforming, ironicaly, to a racial/social sterotype of white, working class racists.  A number of teachers have commented on this scene as the scene producing the most classroom discussion and worry over what happened next - but several referred to it as the 'chavs on the bus' scene.  I'm not happy with this scene (It wouldn't appear in any directors cut).  I'd be interested to know what others think.

Overall Only Human was my best attempt to make a film that I could live with.  It was at least an alternative to the usual resources that pour into schools for use in KS2 Citizenship and PHSE classes.  I would urge schools to resist them all. They should concentrate on facilitating the intrinsically anti-racist process that make schools in 2010 increasingly exciting places as disparate groups converge and affirm that which is universal and shared.  Playgrounds are only hotbeds of racism and bullying if we choose to ignore who children really are and re-imagine them as miscreant mini-adults.  But we shouldn't forget the universalising effects of children entering classrooms and engaging in the shared experience of subject knowledge. 

The website for Coyote Films is being re-structured to reflect the re-launch of a new direction in filmmaking.

2000 – 2010 Celebrating ten years.

Coyote Films is a not for profit company which I established ten years ago.  Working alongside drama tutors, camera operators and editors, the company has developed a particular way of working with young people (or 'children' as I secretly like to call them).  From drama sessions emerge ideas for films which are then shot on small cameras and low budgets.  These are projects that only happen because they're free from the clutter of production technique and shooting schedules.  The kids are very often poorly motivated and/or unaware of what can be accomplished with video cameras.  The purpose of this kind of work varies but falls broadly under the banner of ‘enabling’ or giving a leg-up to particular groups for whom school-life contains an extra element of struggle.  These might include groups of new arrival kids (refugees, asylum seekers, migrants), kids with moderate learning or behavioural difficulties or kids that are dropping out due to their own low expectations. 

Safe.

As these children travel through the filmmaking process the penny usually drops.  A film like Safe (2002) took a fairly reluctant group of five refugee teenagers and encouraged them to seize the opportunity of describing their experiences of life on the streets of Lewisham, south London.  By the time the film had won LWTs Whose London? competition all the participants had gained a powerful sense of what filmmaking can accomplish. 

Allow It!

Unlike school-based projects like Safe, a summer school project titled Allow It! (2005) relied on recruiting its participants from the neighborhood of New Cross Gate (also in south London).  Again, through the work of drama tutors, a film emerged which, in this case, told the vivid story of how a group of inner city kids felt about gangs and being trapped inside post-code territories. 

Imelda Marcos of Bethnal Green.

Although both Safe and Allow It! involved a hands-on video training element, Imelda Marcos of Bethnal Green departed from Coyote’s typical work.  Here, a film industry-standard experience was on offer to young adults who’d previously sampled filmmaking via school or arts organisations but now wanted more.  Shot on super 16mm film, this project brought in working professionals to act as crew-mentors for a three-day shoot.  The script had secured a grant from Tower Hamlets Film Fund and told the story of a child’s resilience in the face of harsh circumstances on an estate in Bethnal Green, east London (also the base of Coyote Films).  The project offered the trainees post-production experience and Alice Callari (referred to us by Anna Sher Theatre) her first film role.

A new direction.

Coyote doesn’t stand for Call Off Your Orthodox Top-down Ethics but it could do!  This year Coyote Films will re-launch as a youth filmmaking project with a clear sense of mission.  If you want to make a film that tackles difficult questions about ‘identity’, that targets a particular group and gives expression to their sense of victimhood, that seeks to ‘educate’ kids on the importance of ‘race’ or healthy-eating or raises ‘awareness’ on any number of issues according to the latest government check-list … then don’t call us.  There are plenty of other companies that will make these kinds of films for you.

Don’t ask me where I’m from, ask me where I’m going!

If Coyote has a mission statement for its continued work with schools and youth arts organisations we might describe it as forward looking, dedicated to enabling resilience in children and raising not their awareness but their aspirations.  The context for this stance is our concern that for too long the emphasis has been on a kind of risk-averse, therapeutic approach to the content of youth arts.  This approach seems to pass down to children a host of contemporary fears underpinned by a loss of faith in humanity and in collective solutions – in short, a loss of faith in the future.   Somewhere in the mix, people (and especially children) get cast as endlessly vulnerable.  Whether its under the banner of anti-bullying, anti-racism, self-esteem building, embracing personal, cultural, racial or religious identities – or raising awareness over obesity, child abuse, guns and gangs, stranger danger or catastrophic climate change (the list goes on) the assumption is that education must intervene in childhood.  It must correct its excesses (nipping bad behaviour in the bud) and offer therapy to its victims.  Perhaps then, according to this fantasy, the future will turn out right.

This isn’t how children work. Few stop to ask if it might be better to refrain from projecting adult fears onto children and instead allow them the freedom to grow and flourish.   Offer guidance, inspiration and firm adult authority of course, but recognise what child development means.

The future for Coyote Films will be work that celebrates and promotes the resilience of children, their amibitions to change the world and knock down barriers.  Also worth celebrating are schools themselves and what should be the universalising, exhilirating, shared-experience of gaining subject-knowledge in class.  If we want to get past the platitudes and be serious about cohesive communities then maybe we should restore our faith in children, in schools and inspiring and equipping a new generation to go out and make history.  

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