My experience with Mouth That Roars

My name is Hannah Lashley and I am a current Year 11 student at Cardinal Pole School. I am writing this article about Mouth That Roars Studio based on Charlotte Road, EC2A. I first was told about Mouth That Roars (MTR), when I started my first voluntary work with the Learning Trust.

At MTR I and other students from Haggerston Girls and Cardinal Pole produced a film about ‘Our Lives’ and problems that young people faced. We learnt to use various recording equipment and also learnt how to edit our video. During producing the film within a week, I was told by Michael Connors about another project that MTR was doing – an International project with Palestinian young people.

This project was the biggest project I ever have been involved with. We planned for the Children’s Rights week happening in November 2007. We started planning around March 2007 and worked alongside Hear by Right co-author Bill Badham of the National Youth Agency.

The week the Palestinians arrived during November, we all went to celebrate the 18th Anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC). Later during the week with the 8 Palestinians’ we planned workshops with La Swap College and in my current school Cardinal Pole. We spoke about the situation that Palestine faced with the big massive wall surrounding Palestine, and their freedom to their own country gone. This was an emotional event to talk about with the students.

We presented the film made by the Palestinians and talked about our rights and compared them to the rights that were not being met in Palestine and also the ways we abuse the rights we have, when anyone in another part of the world would want that right. This made me think about the rights that I took advantage of and also, I learnt that we young people have rights to, and that’s how I got to know about the youth charter; this is a big set of rights that young people have.

Another event that also took place was an event that was also about the rights of a child, we worked alongside The Peer Outreach team, GLA children and Young People’s Unit. The UNCRC also combined with the abolishment of slavery bicentenary. Coming across the world to the event were young people from Brazil, Palestine (as we all know), South Africa and Eastern Europe which also participated and lead workshops. There were many young people involved and I also filmed that day. I got to meet a lot of people and had fun socializing and learning about others lifestyles.

From my own experience so far at MTR, I will recommend it to any young people interested in the media industry. Even acting, which I like doing, was put to good use and now I can make a portfolio from just being a part of MTR. I love being there, and from just one week, opened up a lot of other projects, even around the world. Everything I learn at Mouth That Roars studios has been with me in my everyday life at school and at home. I will never forget that first ever voluntary week with Simon and Kerry (MTR Facilitators) and I will never ever forget my experience that Denise (MTR Director) and Michael challenged me to, with the Palestinians.

But I am only 15 and my life is opening to a world full of opportunities that MTR brought me to. I have my GCSE’s coming up and colleges to apply for and I get a lot of help about courses and schedules from Kerry.

So the studio isn’t just about coming in and watching a film every Thursday at 5pm or making a film just for the fun of it, it is targeted at young people to explore your opinions, give you advice, help and guidance. I really like it there and I won’t stop going there either. The staff, well they are more like my friends, are so helpful to me and kind, honest and definitely reliable.

What more can I say? Just come down to Mouth That Roars Studio, and see what doors are opened for you, that take you on journey, giving yourself many opportunities and choices.

Hannah Lashley