Sripriya Sudhakar (an architect from India) talks about urban design taking place in London in comparison to India. Sripriya expresses her views on; utopia, sustainability, social exclusion, poverty in London compared to India and lastly planning for a better London.
To watch the interview click below:
London Social Forum – Sripriya Sudhakar Interview
An interview with Katie Andrews on the consultation process of the London Olympics taking place in east London. Katie Andrews talks about the ways in which there was a lack of communication and information being delivered to the members of the public prior to the bid being being put in for the olympics to be held in London.
To watch interview click below:
Spectacle will be running a number of media workshops and taster sessions for the Well London project.
We welcome people local to the area to attend any of these. Please contact us to sign up for any of these of for more information at info@spectacle.co.uk or call 020 7223 6677 .
If you are a resident of Cossall or Brimmington please come along to the Southwark Launch, where, as well as a session from Spectacle, there will be sports activities, music and a variety of other activities designed to make you smile! Saturday 21st February, 12.30 – 4.30
Cossall Estate TRA Hall
48 Mortlock Close,
Queens Road Estate,
SE15 2QE
We will be in South Acton, at the Ealing Launch on 28th February and running a taster there around 3pm. Please pop down and get involved.
ADDRESS UPDATE!!
Oaktree Community Centre
Osbourne Road
Acton
W3 8SR
Following the launch Spectacle will be running a two day workshop 10-3pm, Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th March, where local residents can try there hand at filming, learn new skills and improve existing.
Acton Community Forum
112-114
Bollo Bridge Road
Acton
W38DD
Spectacle are planning to return to the infamous Tower on the Pepys Estate, as featured in the BBC documentary The Tower, to find out from residents what they thought of the programs representation of where they lived. We will be visiting the community centre on Monday night (9/02/09) so please come along and share your opinion with us.
Have you ever lived on the Pepys Estate?
What would you like to ask the makers of The Tower?
Do you think the The Tower is a good representation of the Pepys Estate?
For more clips from our Poverty and The Media project please visit our Archive
To find out more information about our Poverty and The Media project please visit our Project Page
This is a free introductory training day in digital production sponsored by Skillset. As well as learning the basics of using and operating a camera in a workshop environment participants will get the opportunity to learn about Digital Apprenticeships in Creative Media from a Skillset advisor. This is an excellent opportunity for anyone looking to expand their horizons and learn more about video production as well as those interested in getting some careers advice on working in the media.
Places are limited, to avoid disappointment please email training@spectacle.co.uk or call 02072236677 as soon as possible to book your place. To keep regularly updated with all our activities please join our Facebook group.
Iain Sinclair, novelist and long standing Hackney resident has been banned from reading extracts of his new book in Hackney libraries because of his criticisms of the 2012 olympics. In an interview that was published in the Guardian, Sinclair describes the measures taken by Hackney council to stifle debate on the Olympic issue.
“I was asked to go along to Stoke Newington library to speak to 20 people: old hippies and local history buffs, probably. But I’d written an anti-Olympics piece in the London Review of Books, and so the Hackney thought police decided: no, we can’t have this person in our library. They lied about this all the way down the line, insisting it was nothing to do with the Olympics but that they can’t have ‘controversial’ topics discussed in libraries. Eventually someone from the Hackney Citizen used the Freedom of Information Act to get the transcript [of what was said in a meeting] and, sure enough, it came directly from the Mayor, Jules Pipe, saying that this person is anti-Olympics, and he doesn’t go into our libraries. So Hackney Council is my co-sponsor, really – and, of course, this manipulation [on the part of the council] is also a big theme of the book.”
For more information on Spectacles Olympic Project please visit our Project Page
For Spectacles latest film on the Olympics please visit our archive page.
Rich Kid, Poor Kid, The Secret Millionaire, The Tower and Repossession, Repossession, Repossession are all programs that centre around ‘poor’ areas and attempt to explore social inequality through individual stories.
What happens to the individuals or areas in these programs when the film makers leave?
What are the consequences of putting peoples personal circumstances on television?
For more clips from our Poverty and The Media project please visit our Archive
To find out more information about our Poverty and The Media project please visit our Project Page
Below is some feedback from two events in London and Glasgow where clips of Spectacle’s Poverty and the Media Project were shown
Faces of Poverty: How do Images tell the Stories?: London
Spectacle film was really positive- people’s own voices and own directing etc. The film showed people who are knowledgeable commenting on things that mattered to them.
Alison Whyte: Mark Easton said he’s interviewed 100s of people like those in spectacle film. These people are not empowered like those on spectacle. There can be really bad examples of editing and stigmatising.
Glasgow
Tuesday 4 November 2008
Anne Marie-Smith: ‘Spiritual Poverty’ – very dangerous, causes lows and depression; Heart warming to hear this phrase on the Spectacle DVD
Problem of stereotypes. Judging people, by their image (e.g. gold chain, lipstick, nice clothes etc.)
http://www.socialevils.org.uk/2008/04/09/poverty-and-inequality/
Below is a short extract from one of Spectacle’s Poverty and the Media workshops on the Marsh Farm Estate. In this clip Glenn Jenkins, long-term community activist and part of Marsh Farm Out Reach, talks about the way television programs, such as Secret Millionaire, Big Brother and Jeremy Kyle, treat poorer people.
According to a newly published study by the Runnymede Trust, Who Cares about the White Working Class?, poverty is the biggest cause of discrimination against white working class people not race.
The report states “The white working classes are discriminated against on a range of different fronts, including their accent, their style, the food they eat, the clothes they wear, the social spaces they frequent, the post-code of their homes, possibly even their names. But they are not discriminated against because they are white,”.
The Guardian writes the report attacks middle class media commentators for simultaneously defending white working class interests against the false attack of politically correct multiculturalism whilst they simultaneously deride and ridicule the feckless and undeserving poor, who have squandered the opportunities offered by the welfare state.
The BBC’s The White Season and Channel 4’s Immigration-The Inconvenient Truth, come in for particular criticism. Of these programs the report says “The interests of the white working class are habitually pitched against those of minority ethnic groups and immigrants, while larger social and economic structures are left out of the debate altogether.”
Are the media really concerned with the white working class or are they just jumping on the scapegoating bandwagon?
Why do the media focus on race instead of class?
