The Templehall Project

Harry Brown, Jamie Clunie, Leigh Clunie, Chevonne Leggat

with Cat Aitken, Neill Patton, Jane McInally. Scotland, 2010

Film makers Jane McInally and Neill Patton, worked with a group of young people from Kirkcaldy High School using their day-to-day environment, to challenge their understandings of poverty and encourage them to think about it more critically.
Through an investigation of and re-acquaintance with Templehall, an area of Kirkcaldy with high levels of deprivation, they gained a deeper understanding of poverty, what it means to them and their peers and began to re-understand and challenge received stereotypes of those living in poverty.

In their investigation the young people interviewed a wide range of people from the local area including councilors, community campaigners, residents of a homeless hostel, members of the public and their local Member of Parliament, ex-prime minister Gordon Brown.

They found as many opinions of what poverty is as people they interviewed, and that everyone has different ideas about how to tackle it.

Thanks to:

• Clr David Ross
• Clr Neill Crooks
• Mary Walls
• Susan Drybourgh
• Fiona McHardy, Community Research Officer, The Poverty Alliance
• Mr Alan, Headteacher, Kirkcaldy High School
• Gordon Brown
• Templehall Library
• TRUST in FIFE, Valley Accomodation Unit
• Root System
• Susan Muir
• Ronnie Byrne
• Louise Trow
• Alex Rowley
• John Patton 
• All our vox-pop interviewees

Filmmakers: Fast Forward Play

Fast Forward Play is a non-profit organisation dedicated to education and information in the community via the Arts, utilising primarily the moving-image, video, new media and visual art.

Since 2002, participants of different ages, abilities and backgrounds have taken part in workshop programmes across Scotland, including documentary-making, animation, theatre design, photography and visual art. Fast Forward Play aims to deliver projects that are fun and challenging, designed to develop creative and technical skills and to enhance social skills, confidence and self esteem.

Fast Forward Play also offers a video production service for arts groups and the voluntary sector, specialising in the production of documentation / evaluation and documentary video.

Jane McInally

Jane McInally is co-founder and Creative Director of Fast Forward Play and has designed and delivered projects for schools and groups in the community since leaving Glasgow School of Art in 1994.

As a video-maker, she works mainly within the area of social documentary, and Arts documentation and evaluation video.

In her practice as a visual artist she works mainly with the moving image and audio, creating artworks for installation. Her interests lie with observational and structural or experimental techniques of recording and editing, and also in animation and compositing moving-imagery. Recently she has worked collaboratively to explore the moving-image and performance.

Neill Patton

Neill Patton is an award winning film education practitioner, and educational researcher. Since graduating from a Film and TV and Sociology degree at the University of Glasgow in 2005 he has worked on a number of community projects and completed a post graduate certificate in Community Education.

Neill is about to commence a practice based PhD at the University of West of Scotland which will use creative documentary and mapping techniques as part of an anthropological study of a Glasgow community. In his spare time he is one of the coordinators of the Document festival and the proud father of his baby son Leo.