Award Winning: ✅
Young People Reached: 200,000
Platforms: Cinemas, Billboards, Schools and Events

🏙️ Mile End Community Project: First Responders

A community-led campaign. A response to violence. A story told by the kids from the community.

A film made in collaboration with local youth to educate and empower – shown in cinemas across East London.

The Brief

We partnered with the Mile End Community Project to create a film that would make a difference where it matters most: our own neighbourhood.

There’s a rising issue in East London – a surge in knife crime, and a growing fear around what to do when someone is hurt. This film aimed to tackle that, head-on. Not through shock tactics or fear, but through education, collaboration, and representation – told from the inside out.

The Approach

We didn’t just want to show East London as a “dangerous” place. It’s more complicated than that – and that nuance matters.

Yes, these incidents happen. But so does culture, creativity, resilience, and community. We wanted to reflect that complexity – a film that could speak to the harsh realities young people face without reinforcing negative stereotypes.

This wasn’t about painting Mile End in a bad light. It was about shining a light from within – and showing the full picture.

So we built the entire project around the community itself:

🧠 We ran workshops with local kids – from research to writing, to camera and performance
🎬 The youth were central to every stage: developing the concept, featuring in the film, and shaping its message
🎥 Filmed over 5 days across Mile End with a small, nimble crew
💡 The goal: teach first response skills, without losing the humanity and heart of East London
🧡 We took on this project pro bono, as part of our ongoing community commitment

The Result

The final film – First Responders – is visceral, urgent, and human.

It’s a film about saving lives, but more than that, it’s about belonging, empowerment, and complicated truths.

🎞️ Shown in cinemas across East London, before feature films
💬 Used in schools and youth programmes as a conversation starter
🙌 Built real, lasting collaboration with local young people
📍 Rooted in Mile End – made for, with, and by the community

Why It Mattered

This wasn’t a client job. It was a commitment.

We’re based in Mile End, and we believe in investing in where we are — not just financially, but creatively and socially.

First Responders is one of the projects we’re proudest of — not just because of the message, but because of how it was made. It’s a film that shows East London for what it is: vibrant, tough, full of life, and worthy of more than just headlines.

Big thanks to the Mile End Community Project and all the brilliant young people who shaped this from start to finish.