Grantham filmmaker captures uncertainty of youth in her latest documentary
A young filmmaker has captured the doubts and dilemmas facing students during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Maddie Barnes, of Old Somerby, has created the short documentary ‘Uncertainty Is...’ to give her peers a platform to voice their concerns about their exams and their futures.
The 17-year-old is a student at Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ School and, like many others her age, has had her A-levels cancelled in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
Maddie is a young filmmaker who has created short documentaries and also some short dramas, but her most recent project came after she decided young people were not being heard.
What made you make ‘Uncertainty Is...’?
I made it because at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, we young people were really forgotten about by the Government and the media. We didn’t really have a platform to express what we were feeling and so I decided that as a filmmaker I kind of had a responsibility to express these views and feelings of my peers.
I also feel like we have been left out of it all, the young people. We haven’t really had much help or guidance, we have just been left to it ourselves and hope to find our way out of it through the end, missing out on key moments like our last day, our prom, our final goodbye – it’s all gone and we don’t know if it will happen. It also provides a sort of memory for us, so in five, 10 years’ time, when we look back on this period of time, we can explain why we made certain decisions and how we were all feeling.
How does it feel to be a teenager and student during the lockdown?
Being a teenager in lockdown, has had a lot of ups and downs. At first, we were just left with the uncertainty of our grades because we had been told exams were not happening, but they hadn’t told us how we were going to be given our grades and so I was just a bit worried about the whole business. Now it’s just kind of everyday life, going out to my job to stack shelves and work on the tills, coming back home to watch some films...all the days roll into one.
What were your plans after A-levels?
My plans were to hopefully go on to a few sets and get some experience, possibly make a few more short films. But now my summer seems pretty empty, as the film and TV industry is going to take a while to come back after Covid-19. After summer I am hoping to go to Arts University Bournemouth and study film production, which I am very excited for and just progress from there.
I was also a part of the team who were putting together a film festival in Grantham and Lincolnshire. I was leading the Grantham area, and I would have been planning this and going into more primary schools to teach them about filmmaking, and helping them to make their own short film for the competition.
How did you get into film-making?
Like many people, I loved film. I think the earliest memory I have of it is watching Finding Nemo and it scaring me so much I never watched it again. As I grew older it became a chance to spend time with my friends and family going to the cinema, but I never really thought I could be the person making it till I watched my favourite film, Moonlight by Barry Jenkins. If you haven’t seen it you should, it is incredible.
The film introduced me to a new world of cinema and this meant, for me, going back and watching all these foreign and arthouse films that most people hadn’t seen. This really made me dig deeper into the directors’ pasts and think if they came from there and managed to make it into this world, I can, even if I come from Grantham. About a year later I saw an opportunity to apply for the BFI Film Academy in Lincoln and this really started my journey. The amazing leaders and helpers pushed me into the director role and that was my first short film I made. I met some incredible people and I still work with them now.
This year I was very lucky enough to have multiple opportunities, one of which was to be mentored by an account manager at the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson (now Wunderman Thompson) down in London. This meant meeting people who make the adverts we see on TV. I am apart of the Into Film Youth Advisory Council, which means giving advice and a voice of young people into the film industry.
Lastly, this year I was very lucky enough to be selected for the BFI Film Academy documentary-making residential. Again, I was selected for the director role and it was my idea for the short film which centred around a young competitive swimmer. This was due to the fact I have swum competitively for Grantham Swimming Club, making nationals twice, and I thought not many people know a lot about this world of competitive swimming. It was really incredible to open this world up to my crew and having to shoot in a swimming pool was probably one of the hardest but most rewarding chances I will ever get.
You can view Maddie's documentary here.