I've been collaborating with ace multimedia journalist Meera Senthilingam on some multimedia features for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Piece one on Chemsex in the MSM community:
Meera has spent a longer time researching the topics, and writing the features. I have three days budgeted to work on coming up with some visual concept for the films, film them and execute the edit. It is a very tight turnaround, and I’d obviously like more time, but there is also great creative power in having boundaries. You can get a lot done in three days.
There are plenty of people like Arif and Duncan whose stories deserve to be heard. It’s possible to do these quickly, particularly when collaborating with someone, like Meera, who has had more time to get deeply involved in the topic, and who understands multimedia. Anyway I’m pretty happy with how they turned out.
It was a real privilege to tell Arif’s story of forced migration from Afghanistan, and to be allowed access to Duncan’s world, who opened up about the struggles and difficulties he’s faced with Chemsex. It’s essential to show the human side of these stories, to help people engage with the research questions that go alongside them.
I want to make more of these short portraits, so get in touch if you have a story you want to tell. But more than three days is preferable THANKS!