The Work Behind the Work: Making films with communities

It’s easy to judge a charity film by what you see on the big screen. How cinematic they are. How emotional they feel. How well they perform once they’re released into the world. Those things matter; storytelling still needs craft, clarity and impact. But in my time producing films with Media Trust, I’ve realised that what I’m proudest of isn’t always the final cut, but actually the behind-the-scenes work that led us there.

Storytelling and simplification

Each film asks something different of us as filmmakers. The charities work with different communities, face different challenges, and centre people with very different lived experiences. But the films are all shaped by the same underlying question: How can we make films with communities, not just about them?

That question sounds simple. But in practice, it asks us to rethink almost every instinct that we develop when working in media, especially the instinct to simplify, to dramatise, or to resolve complex realities into neat narratives. When you’re working with sensitive stories, the pressure to “make it land” can easily slip into sensationalism. Our challenge with this year’s slate of films, funded by City Bridge Foundation, as it is with every slate, was to resist that pull, and instead create films rooted in trust, dignity and shared authorship. 

Lived experience as the lead

That approach was central to ROOTS, a short film made with Action for Race Equality. The film traces 40 years of lived experience in multicultural Britain, but its power doesn’t come from compressing that history into a single message. It comes from recognising the people within it as experts in their own lives.   

Action for Race Equality’s long-term work only comes through on screen because we didn’t try to flatten layers of complexity. We focused on giving people the space to talk about their own experiences. Too often, communities are either ignored altogether or reduced to numbers. This film avoids that by treating lived experience as something to learn from.  

Destiney McCatty, film contributor, shared, “I really love the work that ARE does. The fact that I’m here as a young person really shows the value they put on the next generation.” 

That same principle shaped The Gap; a short film made in collaboration with AFRUCA Safeguarding Children. Safeguarding is not a subject to be rushed. The film explores the emotional rupture that occurs when a child is removed from their family, and the slow, considered work required to rebuild trust and connection. 

Listening to real experiences was central to the project. Before developing the concept, the director and writer, Jolade Olusanya, met with families who had lived through the cultural complexities of safeguarding. What we learned shaped every creative decision, ensuring these layered experiences were portrayed with honesty and authenticity. 

Who gets to shape the story matters

This is where the magic happens, finding the right director, someone able to connect deeply with the charity through lived experience and cultural sensitivity. Jolade, an African director, brought a profound understanding of the cultural nuances and challenges faced by the charity’s beneficiaries. This insight allowed him to create an environment of trust and safety, and to assemble a film team that was culturally connected to the subject matter. 

The entire cast and crew came from African descent, which is one of the many reasons I love what I do. This magic goes beyond the vital work of the charity itself it also lies in creating meaningful opportunities for diverse filmmakers to work on projects that are representative, authentic, and truly matter.  

The actors then worked closely with those families to understand the historical legacy of safeguarding practices, grounding their performances in that reality and further strengthening the film’s sense of authorship. The Gap stands as an example of how, when care is taken, stories can be told with communities at the helm. 

Then there’s You Make It, a film about mentoring, loneliness, and the difference it can make when someone truly believes in you. The film resists the idea of mentoring as one person fixing another’s problems. Instead, it presents a reciprocal relationship in which both people learn, grow, and change. That two-way dynamic is central to the story and reflects the reality that meaningful change often affects everyone involved. 

The You Make It charity is launching a major campaign around the film, including a billboard campaign courtesy of Hollywood Billboards and a digital rollout across Meta platforms. Asma Shah, Charity Lead, worked closely with director Michelle Bonnard to ensure that the young women supported by the charity were represented with authenticity and care. 

What it means to actually listen

Across all the films, the thread for me has been this: Trust is not an optional add-on. It’s a production requirement. 

You can’t fake it. You can’t rush it. And you certainly can’t script it without truth. 

The greatest lesson I’ve learned from this slate is simple. We all need to stop talking and start listening. Real expertise is built through lived experience, and those voices must be treated with the same respect as any professional consultant shaping responses to life’s most complex challenges.  

Wisdom doesn’t come in one form or from one place. Our films exist to honour, amplify, and learn from the charities and beneficiaries whose experiences hold profound insight not just into the work itself, but into life. 

The process is the point

At Media Trust Films, our job isn’t just to make things look good. It’s to work collaboratively, to listen deeply, and to respect when something doesn’t feel right. Because the real power of these films doesn’t come from polish alone. It comes from people recognising themselves in what’s been made and feeling seen rather than used.

So yes, I’m proud of how these films look. But I’m prouder of how they were made, carefully, collaboratively, and with communities at the centre. Communities that will hopefully feel heard, valued and taken seriously long after the camera stops rolling.