Hate crime victims become movie-makers

Above: James Brett and Luca Matthews

A new hate crime video resource which has been produced by victims of the crime is set to shown to young people in Cheshire’s schools and community groups.

The powerful film tells the story of people throughout Cheshire who have experienced hate crime and how it has impacted their lives. It will be shown at hate crime workshops facilitated by Halton Got Your Back, a service run by restorative justice charity, Remedi, which supports victims of crime under the age of 18 whether they’ve reported the crime to the police or not.

The video has been produced by Luca Matthews and James Brett, two media students from Warrington & Vale Royal College who have been victims of hate crime themselves. They’ve channelled their experiences to produce a film which raises awareness of the effects of hate crime among other young people in Cheshire.

 Luca Matthews, who produced the film with James Brett, concluded: “”From the very beginning, James and I have felt extremely privileged to have been asked to work on such an important and poignant project. We were initially attracted to the brief because we have both, unfortunately, been the victims of hate crime. Through this opportunity, we can now both stand up against hate and use our knowledge of it to educate those watching, which is something we believe has been effectively shown in the film.”

“It is an honour to have been chosen to undertake the job, particularly because this will be our first accomplished credit within our chosen creative fields and has given us both the right knowledge and tools to step into the industry. We have worked alongside a team of great people, who have supported and nurtured us through a process that we haven’t always been so familiar with, but with lots of hard work, determination and elbow grease, we have created a film that we are extremely proud of.”

You can watch a preview of the Cheshire hate crime video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQFoe-3wcLE