School Swap: Korea Style

scn0s.com

Kids in South Korea can rack up a huge 90 hours of learning in just 5 days. In fact, it is even considered the norm. Kids here in the UK spend only 6.5hrs or so at school each day - sometimes less - dedicating themselves to education. Of course there are exceptions, but the differences across the two education systems, are staggering and plain to see.

South Korea is rated at the top of the PISA education rankings table, Wales is (at the time of broadcast) rated 36th. However, if you look at the happiness levels of the same pupils, it becomes increasingly obvious that South Korea falls at the bottom of the table. So why the disparity?

bbc.co.uk

The suicide rate of young men aged between 10 and 30 in South Korea, is the highest in the world. we meet one man, who lost two close friends to suicide along the way, put down to educational pressures and exertion. And with up to 18hrs of studying a day leaving kids sleeping at their desks, it's no wonder that the figures are that bad. In a country that's economy has rocketed over the last ten years, where illiteracy feels almost phased out and where education is embedded as part of religious ceremony, exam results might just be the most important date in the calendar, which is an undeniable achievement, but is also putting an incredible amount of pressure on young people.

bbc.co.uk

In South Korea teachers are respected and education is valued, seeing approx 99% of students continue to study beyond the age of 16, as opposed to around 50% of Brits. As our Welsh students maintain, there is definitely something to be learned from their education system, though perhaps the way forward is to find a middle ground. There needs to be a culture of self-improvement, a desire to be educated in the UK, that simply isn't there at the moment. The 6 kids seemed to unanimously agree that a system somewhere in between the two cultures would be a healthy compromise. A system that allows time for creativity, for free expression for recreation and relaxation but one that also values learning, offers additional support and encourages educational engagement.

dailymail.co.uk

The show couldn't have chosen more polite kids to partake in the 3 day experiment. After 3 days of intense study and lack of sleep, our kids from Wales were definitely pleased to get back to the UK's more relaxed approach to schooling. There may not be roads filled with private tutors open until 10pm, nor schools that are open until midnight but there is an education system that allows us not just to memorise facts but to learn, think, form our own opinions and challenge our knowledge and others. Perhaps trips like this are the way to inform our governments on how to reach a happy medium that will allow us all to better ourselves intellectually but never at the expense of our happiness.

Read more about the School Swap here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-38080752

'Sweatshop: Deadly Fashion'

'Sweatshop' is a Norwegian Format, created by Norway's largest newspaper Aftenposten, that sends young clothes lovers to experience life for sweatshop workers in Cambodia and although it may have thrown out mixed opinions online, I absolutely loved it. It's not our usual, pack your naughty teens off to a third world country and let them see how lucky they really are, it's a wake up call to all of us and I think it has the potential to branch out to other issues too.

Watch the 5 x 10mins episodes here: http://www.aftenposten.no/webtv/SWEATSHOP-ep-1---How-many-will-die-here-every-year-7800843.html?mostSeen=true

Spending the night with Oudum - khmertimeskh.com

What makes it even more brilliant is the fact that it exists in 10min episodes online - I think Norwegians are grasping the future of television quicker than the rest of us perhaps (even if it's not intended as such). We watch everything online now, and don't want to dedicate hours of our dwindling spare time, watching a depressing programme about how life is unfair. But in 10min stints, we find ourselves wanting to watch on, wanting to click through to the next link. And I don't think it's a format that couldn't just as easily return in Norway, but also work here in the UK. It would work to pack normal everyday people off to other cultures to learn, not what amazing sights the countries have to offer (this isn't another Joanna Lumley special) but to see what life has to offer for those whom live there. Ordinary people, meet ordinary people and create some rather spectacular television.

Not only was the platform great, the content was too. It had reasonable production value although, as contributor Ludwig shares, it was difficult trying to get any sweatshop to allow them to film. With conditions exploiting a lack of toilet facilities, lack of good food and with employees earning just $3 a day and working long hours - I wonder why!

sobadsogood.com

But the team succeeded and what came out of that, was a glimpse at what life might be like for the average working class Cambodian. We follow our three young protagonists, Frida, Ludvig and Anniken as they stand surrounded by overcrowded trucks delivering hundreds of workers to factories to earn their living. With them, we meet Oudum who earns $130 a month and pays $30 of that for a small room in Phnom Penh and with water & electricity, it often reaches up $50 a month. That's 17 days work and she works 7 days a week for between 11 & 13hours a day, except Sundays when she works for 8 hours. Oudum is incredibly blunt about her situation, she does not cry, she does not falter. She is perhaps, the strongest woman our teens have ever met.

dressedandstripped.nl

Ludvig is from Oslo, he seems like a normal laid back kind of guy, who enjoys looking good. He is moved often by the struggle of those he meets in Cambodia and seems more sympathetic to their plight than the girls. He is a character with whom the viewer can really identify and he’s very likeable.

During their stay, the three Norwegians see protests for a fair wage and are moved by the determination of the Cambodians to get up each morning and go to work. Their main plight is just for their minimum wage to increase from just £60 to £100 ($160) a month to feed their families. Ludvig was moved by this so much that he decided to tattoo this sticker used in the worker's protests, on his ankle...

Ludvig: His passion to their cause really impressed me.

so-trendy.fr

Frida is young and naïve but you can see she genuinely cares about the lack of worker’s rights and is particularly moved by a lady who tells her that her mother died of starvation when she was young. Although she is moved by the situation of those she meets, she does not seem like the type of person to act upon it. 

The teens come out with some pretty strong opinions off the back of this day spent listen to the woes of activists and garment workers:

rifeoffame.com

Frida: I had to hold her hand to show how grateful I was to hear her story.

Anniken: When you begin talking to a person you see she is just as valuable as you are… She is just 19 and she tells me that her mother died of starvation. What kind of life is that? How must it be yo begin life like that? Her mother did not die because of illness or because she was killed. She starved to death because they did not have money for food.

Ludvig: I don’t have words for it. It’s just so extremely unfair. And the truth is that we are rich because they are poor

Frida: I am just put out by all this. I never imagined these things were real.

Anniken: We will influence people to care. That is our work now.

fr-fr.facebook.com

However, I wondered for 17yr old fashion blogger Anniken, will this change anything about her career in clothes? Will it truly be her work now? She went to Cambodia having run one of the most successful blogs in Norway, with 10,000 readers a day, and hadn't paid for any clothing for a year as it was sent to her free. She was moved to tears in the programme and came to some profound conclusions about their role in motivating change, but I wondered if it would change the way she approached her blog... and indeed, her 81,000 Instagram followers - why not read her blog for yourself and see just how much of an impact it really had: http://annijor.blogg.no/

 

The programme, if it didn’t necessarily have an impact on the lives of our Norwegian teens, it certainly changed their opinion from, ‘it’s always been like this so they’re used to it’ to ‘it’s not acceptable’ and at least Anniken is standing up for the values she gained from her trip. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/01/29/what-three-fashion-bloggers-learned-after-month-cambodian-sweatshop

And it made an impact on me. I, like so many others have an eye for a bargain, and now again it does cross our mind that people work long hours on no pay to make them for us. But you just don’t think that because you buy an item of clothing for £5, that people die of starvation because they cannot afford food. It most certainly made me think more about my love for bargains. I’d be interested to see Frida, Ludvig and Anniken a year from now and see what differences the experience really inspired in them too. 

Oudum & Anniken

The production was one of unexpected quality from my point of view with some well-chosen, and well-timed changes in tone throughout with a suitable soundtrack. Overall, I think I'm really going to look into taking a similar format on myself. It has so much potential, not only to work well as a format but also to act as aid to leverage change. Definitely can't wait to start brainstorming this one.

Make sure you watch the series yourself, go on, it's only 5 x 10mins of your life and might just change just a little part of it!

WATCH IT HERE:

http://www.aftenposten.no/webtv/SWEATSHOP-ep-1---How-many-will-die-here-every-year-7800843.html?mostSeen=true

Here's what others said about it: http://www.reddit.com/r/Documentaries/comments/2tedx5/sweatshop_deadly_fashion_2014_norwegian_fashion/ 

Waiting for 'Superman'

Director Davis Guggenheim has been endlessly praised for his 2010 title 'Waiting for 'Superman'. The title swept the awards ceremonies clean, picking up 14 awards amongst 25 nominations. I feel however, I should have learned by now, not to trust awards when it comes to choosing documentaries to watch.

flaglerlive.com

Waiting for 'Superman' is of course a documentary that will have captured the hearts of American film festival judges, not just for bureaucratic reasons, but because they can relate to the story within the film. For us, as an audience (an overseas audience at that), it is less of a documentary, more of a visual proposal, a presentation of far too many statistics for any one person to take in first time round. Perhaps the most fitting award nomination the film received then is this one (IMDB):

Alliance of Women Film Journalists 2010

Nominated EDA Special Mention Award

Movie You Wanted to Love, But Just Couldn't

http://www.dvdbeaver.com

Mainly I wanted to challenge the unnecessary inclusion of archive of 'The Simpsons', and 'School of Rock' that seemed to attempt to break up the endless narration that never actually arrived at a solid conclusion. Surely it's just a waste of money. Then I remembered Guggenheim made 'An Inconvenient Truth' and probably still has the money to spend on idle content. If the point was to highlight that bad education had become so much a part of the US education infrastructure that it was even embedded within popular culture, then ok, I get the link. But Guggenheim instead could have spent the time and money showing us real representations of the issues. I wanted to hear personal accounts, testimonies, not just watch yet another persons fictional interpretation of the system. Is that what the issue is, fictional?

http://www.dvdbeaver.com

It just didn't move me to want to make a difference, nor did it make me feel as though there was a way I could help at all. Although Guggenheim's graphical finale supports that no big changes have ever started in the White House, they have started with people, started with you... I felt there was nothing willing me to support the cause, nothing compelling me to do so.

The film consisted of far too many accounts of failure, far too many interviews, far too much description and narration and nowhere near enough visual evidence. I read somewhere that a good documentary will have the power to persuade you of it's cause by images alone, and 'Waiting for Superman' just didn't. I felt, nothing.

Michelle Rhee - nytimes.com

It may have taken us through some of the attempts to alter the US education system with some nice archive of Michelle Rhee in her battles against angry parents. But I had no real emotional attachment to any of our featured children that allowed me to really feel for them at their acceptance/rejections into better schools at the ever anticipated 'lottery'.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com

The film wasn't completely elusive, it had some great graphical elements and held at least one memorable moment with young Anthony who is already planning for the future of his children as his own is still being decided. But I don't think that Guggenheim completely succeeded in humanising the statistics flooding out of the academic sinkholes of the US.

graphical elements - http://www.dvdbeaver.com

Many say it's well made, others say it's an important documentary to watch, some say it compels change... I disagree. I think to compel an audience to act, they need to SEE real people's experiences, not just HEAR them. In this I don't think Guggenheim did as well as he could. It's a commentary, not a documentary. On the subject of commentary, for a film about children, I also wanted to hear a lot more from them than I did. For a film about education, I wanted to see a lot more REAL on-location footage in classrooms, like the shot of Anthony holding his hand up, rather than just that single token shot. That single shot, did not lay down a narrative of reality for me, the visuals were not enough to convince me. But that's just me. Who knows, you might think differently. 

Waiting for Superman is available on Amazon for the modest UK price of £2.86 so why not decide for yourself! http://www.amazon.co.uk/Waiting-For-Superman-Davis-Guggenheim/dp/B004OBZLO6

Religion is People

It seems for most of us, it's harder to have faith in people than it is to assume the worst. I must be a bit of a weird one in that I am often blown away by human actions for good reasons, far more often than I am by bad.

Ok, so he wasn't dressed like this - but still

For example, I think I found Santa! My partner and I were on the overground on our way to support a friend at his comedy gig, and a child was tired and crying. It didn't matter what her dad tried to do to make her stop, she kept crying. A man sat nearby had clearly just been Christmas shopping and was laden with gifts. He reached into his bag and pulled out a teddy bear. He gave it to the dad to calm the child down and lo and behold, it worked.

The tube stopped a few stops down the line and the father and daughter turned to get off the train. The dad reached out to the man to give him back his teddy bear and the man simply said, 'no, don't worry, keep it'. What a lovely man! It was certainly an easy way to cheer up an entire carriage. As I looked around everyone in the train was smiling having just witnessed a very natural and spontaneous act of kindness. It was definitely Santa in disguise!

Alan Turing

I find it quite hard to explain even to my partner how much people inspire me. I honestly think they are amazing. Having just seen 'The Imitation Game' and seeing how much Alan Turing achieved, even though he found it hard to make friends and was labelled an odd ball, really got to me. As I tried to explain why I have so much faith in people, I found I couldn't even finish my sentence. I was crying. And that is why I cannot explain why people amaze me so much, because it is so overpowering that there just aren't words to express it. 

Others say such faith is naive, but I disagree. I think it's wonderful. I don't follow a religion but if I had to choose one, my religion would be people. Call it what you like, but take some time to look around this Christmas. There are lots of horrible things happening in the world but people, even amidst a world of suffering, can be wonderful. For example, my 88yr old grandmother had her purse stolen from her bag this week, and the thief ran off with an old lady's pension money she was hoping to spend on looking nice at her grandson's wedding. At this point, yes, people suck. Then comes a young policeman who's duty was to take down what happened. He didn't stop there though. He walked arm in arm with my grandmother to the post office to cancel her card before ensuring that an elderly lady was escorted home in a police car in case she was shaken up by what had happened. That last bit, is not in his job description, but he did it anyway, because he really cared about my grandmother getting home safe. At this point, people are great!

So, like I say, look around this Christmas, maybe you'll find yourself being wonderful too!

Merry Christmas!

Behind the Fence

'Behind the Fence' is a 12min Polish documentary with no voiceover nor narration. But it doesn't need either to be brilliant.

Film-maker Marcin Sauter manages to capture on film some of the best moments of childhood. Through merely observing, we are allowed to assume our own narrative whilst being treated to the gentile nature of children and their devotion to discovery, learning and determination.

A particular favourite moment is when the young girl is dressing herself. She shows such determination in trying that it's almost infectious. I couldn't help but feel a smile spread across my face and a will for her to complete her task!

In reading Barry Hampe's 'Making Documentary Films & Reality Videos' he speaks often of the need for visual representation of the story. He says that images should speak as images alone, without the need for narration and this film not only illustrates but proves his point, innocently and beautifully.

The film is available to view for free here: http://dafilms.com/download/key/PR0JqK6Cdx
So why not give it 12mins of your time?

'The Happiness Hypothesis'

I don't normally write blogposts about books but this time I feel as though I have to, or I won't sleep. What sounds like a self-help book is actually one of the most intelligently written publications I have ever read, so much so that I found myself regularly looking up definitions to work out what author Jonathan Haidt was talking about.

happinesshypothesis.com

What I found within this brightly coloured little book, were the keys to the kingdom. I was treated to a bundle of well-chosen, inspirational quotations promoting human understanding and the need for coherence between the sciences and humanities. What followed was a deep satisfaction for finding someone else in this universe who seemed to believe in the importance of sociology and of peace and tolerance, but not in the way that would see me confined to a country teepee around a bonfire, smoking grass and playing the didgeridoo - although that's fine too. Instead it offers an insight into the greatest psychological findings from across the globe, both ancient and contemporary, explaining not just how we find happiness in ourselves, but promoting an understanding of why humans act in the way we do, what is built into our physiological being and what we ourselves have conjured to cover our traits. It seems there is no categorical imperative for any ethical decision based upon these findings.

Our tongues are quick to lawyer the actions of our unconscious being, our biological reactions to nurture, empathy and 'divine experience' are bonds between all fellow social beings, regardless of where they may come from or which beliefs they may hold. We find honour in accepting our own misgivings, we find joy in love and love in work, we work towards virtue whilst simultaneously dismissing the virtue of others as 'pure evil' because we, through our own 'naive realism' expect that we and we alone see the world for what it truly is - regardless of whether this paragraph makes any sense to you or not, it champions how wonderfully complicated we as humans are. It depicts our very creation as a work of art to be cherished, to be studied, to be read and read it can be... all within the pages of a little yellow book (with the assistance of a dictionary).

My reading was indeed a happy experience, it made me feel somewhat lighter and has inspired me to make my own investigation using certain theories within Haidt's book. My investigation will be based around the reasoning behind the rise in entertainment television and the gradual extinction of specialist factual programming, drawing upon the psychology that accompanies the emotions we share with our TV screens and perhaps, the benefits we are denying ourselves by not experiencing adversity or disappointment through what we watch, that could consequently provide us the opportunity to learn and to grow.

I could be here all night, and I'm not convinced that writing any of this down will help me sleep but I thoroughly recommend this book. You might just stumble across your very own happiness hypothesis along the way.

Oh and help Haidt and his friends in their research by taking part in their online surveys and questionnaires here: https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/

Roma

Apologies that it's been a  while...I've been moving house. Although I don't officially move in until tomorrow, I thought I'd get one documentary blogpost out the door, as it looks at an issue quite close to my heart and is made by some brilliant young professionals whom I happen to know.

opensocietyfoundations.org

Firstly Roma is stunning, both visually and aurally. With a bunch of top-notch students from Ravensbourne I expected nothing less but it all comes together to create a short documentary you can't tear your eyes from.

The slow-mo shots really add to the expressive nature of the film. The music is a good mix of cultural inclination and emotion for this almost-charitable appeal. I'm not quite sure how but it manages to convey a genuineness and honesty amongst shots of the Roma settlements, rubbish dumps and people, which is testament to DoP Chris Seager and the team.

IF I were to pick holes, it would be in the interview content, in that I sometimes lost the appeal or purpose of the story amongst the contributors. The Roma interviewees brought it swiftly back home though, and as it drew together in the second half of the film, the narrative got stronger.

The beauty of this forgotten community is often overlooked but with shots filmed from the carts used to collect materials from the rubbish dump to sell, with wedding celebrations, kids playing and music, the team have captured the heart of it in this ten minute film. We see in the credits examples of them laughing with the contributors and that, is testament to who they are and where they are going in their careers. They are upbeat, talented and genuine professionals and anyone who doesn't snap them up quick is missing out.

Roma is certainly an achievement and I truly hope that it gets the recognition it deserves. Judge for yourselves:


Roma from Sam Davis on Vimeo.

Roma is a documentary that brings to light a community that has been somewhat forgotten.

Featured as Doc X on Dazed Digital - http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/21301/1/life-is-tough-in-albanias-roma-camps

To find out more visit: http://www.fivedills.com

Director: Sam Davis
Producer: Alex Lloyd
DoP: Chris Seager
Sound Recordist & Dubbing Mixer:  Matthew Alston (http://www.matthewalstonsounddesign.com)
Original Music: Ben Brannan (http://www.benbrannanmusic.com)
Editor: Joe walton
Colourist: Susumu Asano

A Burning Dream

Are you an escapist? A socialist? All for freedom of expression? Then 'A Burning Dream' is a film worth watching - although perhaps not if you are a long term sufferer of acute wanderlust, as I am.

It's not the first documentary that's explored the Burning Man Festival but it was almost enough for me to book my tickets to Nevada and never look back. It follows the experiences of Massimiliano Davoli, who on the death of his best friend , discovered £10,000 in an envelope on the street. The debate over whether it was moral or not to keep it is almost irrelevant as he embarks upon a journey that transforms his way of thinking and ours alike. 

In a journey from Rome to London (where people turn their back on answering what it means to be Londoner) on to San Francisco, Massimiliano finally rests in Nevada at The Burning Man Festival. Here, a wonder we all wish to behold is presented as a haven for all of us free-thinking hippies. Black Rock City is hive of creativity and togetherness against a backdrop of a desert that seems to stretch for miles.

abcnews.go.com

At first I wasn't entirely sure what to make of the film, unsure of what our presenter set out to find, but soon enough, it unfolded into a beautiful journey of self-discovery for both contributors and audience. As he drives blind through the stormy sand dunes of the desert and as dust settles on the sunrise, we are bombarded with a huge 60,000 people celebrating in costumes, face paint, dancing, singing, meditating and wholly embracing togetherness.

It's fresh because we aren't diving in to the festival, it's not a film about that. It's a film about finding yourself, about seeing things that aren't normal for you and about asking questions and meeting people you perhaps would never talk to on the street. This is what makes it relevant to any audience. Massimiliano is a little awed at the festival and finds it more difficult to embrace its culture than the 'regulars'. His own personal discovery and the process of just letting go, is what makes this film so charming.

There isn't a lot I can say about the camerawork, I mean the camera goes through so many sandstorms I don't know how they actually filmed anything at all. But the story, whether it was ever intended to be a documentary or just a personal film, turned out to be one that resonated with me and I feel that it would with many others. The height of the film, when Massimiliano writes a note to his deceased friend, the film feels to have come full circle.

I want to watch it again and again. The credits rolled and left me feeling fulfilled, at peace and ready to take on the world with a new perspective. The voiceover and narration would normally seem too much, a little indulgent but it's the burning Man Festival, it's what it's all about. It help that it comes in a French accent though, I don't think a Londoner would get away with the same script.

If the film is released into the public realm, you should certainly devote an hour to watching it. Even if it's just to listen to the French poetry and to watch some free-willed people dance naked through the fire. Here's a sample of what you'd be getting:


And here's the Trailer:

8 Questions to Define You

I read online the other day that there are eight questions that when answered, can define you. I was intrigued and so I set out to answer them myself, having a felt a little lost lately. Here's the result...

Are you seriously going through with this?

What's your tennis ball? (What pulls you towards it, what are you chasing after)

What am I chasing, success I suppose like any other. More than that though, happiness. In all honesty though, right now, I'm chasing me. I'm being pulled towards finding myself again, as amongst all of the excitement of growing up and finding jobs and not knowing what the hell this council tax letter ACTUALLY means, I think I lost I bit of me somewhere.

For example, I don't usually read these things on the internet and actually try to implement the findings in my life but here I am writing a blog about some article that told me these eight questions could define me again. Well, I suppose I should start somewhere...

What am I doing when I feel most beautiful?

There are two answers to this. One answer is when I am travelling or exploring. I feel... freer and feel the twinkle come back to my eyes. Kamal often says he finds me most beautiful outdoors and it's because I feel free. Even in my bedroom there are walls to keep me in but by being outside, by walking through fields or staring across mountain tops knowing that I've climbed to the top to be able to see it... that to me is beauty and in turn, makes ME feel truly beautiful too (even if the rest of the world sees a sweaty, freckly mess!)

The second answer is when I am speaking passionately about something. As part of my role as Regional Ambassador for the Holocaust Educational Trust, it means I often find myself speaking in front of large groups of people - often quite important people too! When I'm on a mission to say something or get to the bottom of something, when my adrenaline allows my confidence to soar, I feel beautiful then. I'm in my element.

What is something you believe that almost no-one agrees with you on?

Cucumber should only be eaten with salt? No, not good enough...

I suppose, that history is there for us to learn from. It's easy to dismiss history as something of the past but unless we heed history's warnings and celebrate it's offering, we will only ever repeat the mistakes of those who lived before us. People agree with me but mostly, people just think that history is about a bunch of dead people, which it is. But we'll all be dead one day, wouldn't it be nice to think that people might care about us?

Hmm what else?

I know: that the world was once one massive piece of land. It makes me really passionate about the fact that wars between us, are all wars between our own people. It's not a concept that most of us will ever adopt, but it's true nevertheless! And I will not refrain from making people aware of that. Ok, so it's not going to bring about world peace in a day but I like the notion all the same. It makes me feel less lonely.

What are your superpowers, character traits?

Superpowers... I'm not sure about. If we're looking at character traits, then we should start at my complete inability to heed my own advice. Next, we should journey to my setting of ridiculously impossible tasks that only I would consider embarking upon. Perhaps then, we could stop at my failure to believe that anything is ever finished. In terms of character traits, my brain is my worst enemy. It means I think far too much at any given minute and leaves my emotions running wild all too often, although I'm not one for letting that show.

My Best Superhero Pose

I'm not sure what my superpowers are. Kamal always says he loves that I am open to anything, so I guess that might be one. I guess another is something my lecturer told my parents at my graduation last year, in that according to him I 'have a pretty high emotional intelligence when it comes to reading people'. That's not always necessarily a good thing, it can get a bit annoying too so superpower...perhaps not. But I guess in terms of all the other questions on this list, emotional intelligence is something that's certainly going to help me approach those sensitive subjects that I wish to when film-making and one that might go some way into revealing how to get my head back in the game. It's no superpower, but it's all I got. I guess I'm quite good at climbing too.

What did you enjoy doing at the age of 10?

Playing football and writing stories.
I think that moves some way towards proving the existence of a returning rift in my personality. Which one means more to me? Two years ago I told myself that I could make documentaries as a career and keep football as a hobby. I told myself it was a lot harder to do it the other way around. That was before I realised how much of my sanity lay in playing football and playing it well at that. I do sometimes think I could very easily work a normal day job in Sainsburys or Wetherspoons and live to play football with Maidenhead Ladies again. Although, having met all the people I have and realised also how much it means to me to have something to say about society through making films, I'm not so sure the decision is that easy.

Ten year old me is still in there. I want to runaway, explore, climb trees, laugh and pretend that I don't have rent to pay every month. My inner child is not completely suffocated... oh no! The weekend is just enough enough time to rejuvenate the youth and be a little reckless with adulthood. I just sometimes wish it could last a little longer.

What are you willing to try now?

Anything and everything - except weird seafood and skydiving. I've recently realised how much I thrive on new experiences, on change, on travel. Every time I travel I return revitalised and more knowledgeable about the world which in turn, drives my passion to make documentaries about all those things you come across along the way. For example, last year I went to Israel and amongst trying Falafel and rugelach and floating in the Dead Sea, I found a hugely differing outlook on politics. It seemed odd to me that somewhere with so much conflict could be so peaceful. Similarly it seemed odd that you never heard of the conflict, which made me feel a little more uneasy about how it seemed to sit so comfortably in the foundations of society. 

Back to willingness to try - I've tried recently to stop being so sensible with my money and allow myself a little time to have fun. For the three years I've lived in London, I have always worked, always saved and not really given myself the chance to truly enjoy the city. It made it hard for me to love London. London is a very lonely place when you don't allow yourself a fiver to get the tube to where things happen. Trying this new outlook has left me feeling a little more optimistic about life in the city. 

To try, is to learn. To learn, is to see. To see, is to show.
What will I try? I don't know, anything I guess... Try me?! 

Looking back on your career 20, 30 years from now what do you want to say you have accomplished?

Again, this is a hard one for me. After making a speech at City Hall earlier this year, I was approached by a Tory canvasser who told me I'd make a good politician. My instant response - an unexpected reflex - was to say 'never'. When asked why, I said without hesitation, because you can never keep your promises to everyone. You can't win.

The amazing Susan Pollack - Holocaust Survivor

I couldn't stop thinking about that for the whole journey home. It was as if something about my desire was released within me without me planning for it. I realised then that I wanted a career that would help people. I wanted a career that would help people say what they needed to say. That for me comes with factual film-making. The films I want to make will tell of wars and of inspiration and of the past and of the future, as my recent documentary attempted to do. I want to look back on my career and say I accomplished the making of a film that really made a difference to its contributors or to its audience. The feeling I got from speaking to the holocaust survivors for my doc 'After Auschwitz' truly inspired me and from that I learned that I want to accomplish the need within me to help tell someone else's story to the world, in the hope that it might just make it, just that little bit better.

What is your sentence? (One that sums you up, who you are and what you want to achieve)

I used to be good at this. Summing up a lot of information in one sentence but as you can tell from this blogpost, it's no longer a talent I maintain. Perhaps a philosophy will do. Someone else's sentence:

'Life is easier than you think...all you have to do is: accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, bear the intolerable and be able to smile at anything'

This is something I live by, not always intentionally. My aim is always to be able to smile again. It falters. I cry. I take a deep breath and tell myself to pull myself together.

We are stronger, bigger and better than we think and thinking, is almost always the problem. I think too much. For that reason I am going to heed my own advice for the first time in as long I can remember. I'm not going to think and I will admit defeat at this question... I don't have a sentence. Perhaps one day I will. But right now, I am 21 years old and my sentence is changing.

When in Rome...