Amplifying voices through film: CSM MA students develop impactful community collaborations
- Written byAriella Fisher
- Published date 05 December 2025
Share story
Students from MA Performance: Screen at Central Saint Martins have developed a series of socially engaged filmmaking collaborations, using screen-based storytelling to build connections, deepen understanding, and amplify voices often left out of mainstream narratives.
Trauma-informed filmmaking with Cardboard Citizens
In collaboration with Cardboard Citizens, students led a filmmaking workshop for people with lived experience of homelessness. Participants were introduced to camera work, performance for screen and visual storytelling. Together, they created short pieces that reflected participants’ perspectives.
Feedback was exceptionally positive; participants commented: “That was an amazing workshop — one of the best that I’ve been to,” and “At the beginning you think, I won’t be able to do this, but by the end you’d learned so much.”
Ahead of leading the session, students took part in trauma-informed training, learning how to adapt their methods to create safe, accessible, and collaborative environments for people with diverse lived experiences.
Documentary storytelling with Graeae Theatre Company
One group of students worked with Graeae Theatre Company — an international leader and innovator in accessible theatre. Students produced a short documentary exploring the production Bad Lads, which tells the devastating true story of the boys held at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre in the 1980s.
Students filmed over six days, capturing rehearsals in Newcastle and the press night in London. The documentary examines how Graeae's creative team approach accessibility, remembrance and responsibility when working with challenging historical material. It highlights the integrated access practices at the heart of the show, including the use of a British Sign Language (BSL) performer as a central storytelling voice. The final edit was shaped with sensitivity, incorporating creative subtitling and BSL to reflect Graeae’s ethos.
The Bad Lads documentary premiered at Unveiling Connections, a two-day festival hosted at CSM on 2–3 December 2025.
Intergenerational collaboration with Age UK
In partnership with Age UK Lewisham and Southwark, a group of students and older community members engaged in a five-week co-creation process.
Over weekly visits students and participants built relationships, shared stories, played games, and developed a short film shaped by the lived experiences of the group.
Community members who took part shared that the experience was “Absolutely brilliant” and that they “felt like a movie star!”
Student reflection: Leah (Xingyu) Li
Leah, who directed the film at Age UK, shared her experience of the collaboration:
“The phrase we heard most often was simple but deeply meaningful: "I come here to meet people". Some older people hesitate to join Age UK due to fear of stigma or misunderstanding — I wanted my film to gently challenge those misconceptions and show the genuine warmth of this space.
This project helped me understand working with a real community and continually reflecting on who tells the story and what ethical responsibilities we hold. In community filmmaking, artistic intention must always yield to the lived reality, needs, and comfort of the people we work with. It is a form of relationship-building, listening, and care.”
Chuck Lowry, Lecturer on MA Performance: Screen, praised the students’ commitment across these community collaborations, commenting:
“It’s been powerful seeing the students’ growth — not just in their social and facilitation skills, but in how they think about their own positionality, and how to make their work accessible to wider and more diverse audiences. It gives me real hope for how younger artists can make shifts in society and engage meaningfully with communities.”
Related Links:
- Watch the short film co-created with members of Age UK Lewisham & Southwark
- See more from our Performance Programme at CSM
- Discover MA Performance: Screen at CSM