Hartlepool filmmakers help young people bring their personal stories to screen

Two Hartlepool filmmakers have helped budding storytellers and directors to bring their personal tales to the screen in an exciting new project.
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Maxy Bianco and Adam Bouabda have mentored young filmmakers in Hartlepool as part of a six-month project called Real Tees Valley.

Its aim was to hear and share the voices of young people from across the Tees Valley through filmmaking around the themes of culture and place.

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A number of the finished articles are now being screened at Hartlepool Rail Station and The BIS Centre in Whitby Street.

Film makers Maxy Bianco and Adam Boubda (right) who have mentored young people for the project.Film makers Maxy Bianco and Adam Boubda (right) who have mentored young people for the project.
Film makers Maxy Bianco and Adam Boubda (right) who have mentored young people for the project.

Maxy, who has overseen the whole project, said: “It has been great. It is getting grass roots level creativity flowing and getting people used to making films and exhibiting them.”

Among the films made in Hartlepool are Pasteque by Ryan welsh about the town’s skate culture, one called Displaced by Mohamad Albadei made from mobile phone footage he shot on his journey from Syria to Hartlepool, and Surflepool By Elliot who talks about his life in the waves and the welcome the community have given him.

Maxy added: “None of the people involved have really been taught media or been to film school, but they had great instincts.”

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Maxy’s son, also called Maxy, made a film about football, while his daughter Nina carried out a vox pop of people and filmed their surprising answers.

And Anna Nappa’s film looks at inspiration she found around Hartlepool’s coast in Shoreline.

Filmmakers in Stockton and Redcar, Middlesbrough and Darlington also took part in the project and made films about subjects such as mental health, bodybuilding and student life.

Real Tees Valley is a Great Place Tees Valley project which is an ambitious three-year programme devised by partners across the Tees Valley and brought together by Tees Valley Combined Authority.

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It is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England, working with Historic England.

Kate James at Hartlepool Borough Council helped to organise Hartlepool’s involvement and Miki Rogers of Tees Valley Arts organised the full project.

Maxy is encouraging people to take the time to watch them including visiting The BIS, which provides a base for creative industries in the town.

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