Visual Stories of Youth
Real Tees Valley is a film project run over a year across the five boroughs of the Tees Valley, encouraging young people to use the medium of film to tell their own stories around their experiences of living in the area.
Our young prospective and developing film-makers worked alongside six professional film-maker mentors, including a lead mentor film-maker to make the short films which vary in length from one to ten minutes.
The project explored what place and culture meant to this group and wrote a new narrative for the Tees Valley, away from the traditional headlines of industrial boom and decline, through using real voices to illustrate life in contemporary Teesside directly from those who might carve out its future.
Impact
30+
young film-makers
25+
films made
8
artists employed
The Films
Our young film-makers and lead artists have co-produced 27 diverse, visually interesting and story-rich films, around the themes of place and culture, 25 of which the young film-makers have gracefully given consent to show in the public arena.
Working together, lead Film-maker Maxy Bianco supported Tees Valley Arts Curator Miki Rogers to curate these films into five collections which pick up the main themes observed through delving into all the work produced and recognising common threads as the films were being made. Additionally, the locations of the films, their length and how each themed set works together to make a whole body of work was considered.
The themes are: Place – Culture – Diversity – Community – Life
Place
Place features the following films: Roseberry by Harry Twohig, South Park by Jake Blakely-Fisher, Middlesbrough by Jared Boyle, Shoreline by Anna Nappa and Farming by Molly Drew.
You can watch the Place Playlist on YouTube here.
Culture
Culture features the following films: Pasteque by Ryan Welsh, Street Game by Max, Music Culture by Daniel D’Arcy, Deadland by Ryan Whitelock & Ryan Welsh and Surflepool by Elliot Whysall.
You can watch the Culture Playlist on YouTube here.
Diversity
Diversity features the following films: Football by Omran Al Koteishe, Build by Chris Healey, Luke by Luke Devey, Female Rugby Coach by Lucy Wealleans and Traditions on Teesside by Mohammed Miah.
You can watch the Diversity Playlist on YouTube here.
Community
Community features the following films: Football Coaching by Kieran Janicki, From Syria to Hartlepool by Nasim Daraj & Ammar Haskal, Darlo Dean by Dean, Tees Valley on My Mind by Nina Bianco and Corner House.
You can watch the Community Playlist on YouTube here.
Life
Life features the following films: Femininity by Ellie Craven, Sadie by Sadie Rogers, 3 Years by Adam Watson, Displaced by Mohammed Albedai and Alisha by Alisha.
You can watch the Life Playlist on YouTube here.
The Artists
Stories
25 films for 25 days of Christmas YouTube
Real Tees Valley YouTube playlist made up of 25 films from the Real Tees Valley Film Trail. In the order they were shared on social media.
Traditions On Teesside By Mohammed Miah
Mohammed wanted to show a world he might have been brought up in. Instead, personal turmoil at home changed his upbringing significantly.
#brilliantlyboro #creativefactory takeover!
Join us from 10am today for our week-long take-over of the #brilliantlyboro #creativefactory space in the Hill Street Centre, Middlesbrough.
Hi my name is Megan Dobbyn
Megan Dobbyn details how she enjoyed creating a map for the Real Tees Valley Film Trail and being part of a creative project so close to home.
Read More Stories about Real Tees Valley
In Collaboration With
Cornerhouse, Creative Darlington, Darlington Borough Council, Hartlepool Borough Council, Imagine You Can, Middlesbrough Borough Council, Open Shop, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, Tees Valley Combined Authority
The Funders
See our other Great Place Tees Valley projects here.