Pupils from Merchants’ Academy Primary had an exciting opportunity to attend a red-carpet premiere for a short film they made with Bristol-based social enterprise Unique Voice. In the film, the children share powerful messages about celebrating diversity and making their community a better place for everyone through change. They give tips on how to be a good neighbour, explore why it’s important to stand up to racism and discrimination, and explain how to report a crime.

In May, the pupils and their families visited Cineworld in Hengrove for the premiere of Let’s Stop Discrimination Together. Made as part of a Safer Streets initiative in the What Would You Do? project for Crimestoppers in the West Country and supported by Bristol City Council, several schools in South Bristol worked with Unique Voice to raise awareness of important issues.

Over the course of several months, all pupils in Year 5 at Merchants’ Academy Primary had an opportunity to work on the community film, with eight pupils taking a role in front of the camera: Rupert, Lennie, Japheth, Bella, Isaac, Sophie, Jinxie and Layla.

Rupert said: “We learnt about how to make our community a safer place and we had fun making a film about it.”

Lennie said: “The film we made has a really important message about standing up to discrimination and treating everyone equally, so I hope a lot of people watch it.”

Sophie said: “It was really interesting to work on this project and learn all about how films are made.”

Japheth said: “If we were all the same, life would be boring. Our film sends everyone a message about celebrating diversity.”

Geeta Verrell, Head of Merchants’ Academy Primary, said: “It was exciting for our pupils to work with Unique Voice in making a film that we’re all incredibly proud of. The children were full of energy and ideas, their positive attitude is wonderful and really comes across in this film.”

You can watch the brilliant short film here