One Mile Away – C4 tonight (11th April) 11.10pm
Penny Woolcock’s award-winning documentary charts the attempts by two warring gangs, the Burger Bar Boys (B21) and the Johnson Crew (B6), to bring peace to their neighbourhoods in inner city Birmingham.
It follows Penny Woolcock’s hip hop musical 1 Day, which was partly informed by these postcode wars.
Penny made her first film at Film Oxford back in the 1980’s before going on to make numerious award-winning fims for TV and the Screen.
One Mile Away was initiated by Shabba, a young man affiliated to the Johnson side, who met Penny during her research for 1 Day. He saw her as neutral and as someone who had built trust on both sides.
Penny agreed to get involved and introduced Shabba to Dylan Duffus, the lead actor in 1 Day and affiliated to the Burger side.
The film follows their painstaking journey over two years to recruit supporters from both sides.
Along the way, they get advice from Jonathan Powell, who oversaw the Good Friday Agreement, and the riots erupt in Birmingham in summer 2011, with surprising consequences.
This compelling documentary demonstrates how film and the determination of ordinary people can transform entrenched social problems.
One Mile Away is now also a developing social enterprise, working with schools to reduce gang culture in the UK.
One Mile Away – Clip C 4
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/one-mile-away/video/series-1/episode-1/downing-street-meet
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