Doc makers in UK’s West Midlands get boost from Together TV film fund

UK social purpose broadcaster Together TV is launching a £100,000 (US$133,222) film fund for working-class documentary makers in the West Midlands region.

Janet Olaofe

Together TV will invest £20,000 each in five original 20-minute documentaries from aspiring filmmakers that celebrate the people, places and untold stories of the West Midlands.

The funding comes via the fourth edition of Together TV’s Diverse Film Fund and is supported by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), Create Central, Creative UK, RTS Midlands and Rural Media, which leads the BFI Film Academy Hub West Midlands.

Each filmmaker will receive professional mentoring, training and editorial support as well as the cash, with their film premiering at a cinema next summer before broadcasting nationally on Together TV.

Together TV noted that just 8% of the TV workforce comes from working-class backgrounds, despite 52% of the UK identifying as working class. The fund aims to challenge that imbalance, giving first-time directors the funding, connections and platform to launch their filmmaking careers.

Applications are welcomed from aspiring filmmakers aged 18 and over who live in the West Midlands, identify as working class and have no previous broadcast credit as a director or producer.

Janet Olaofe, head of content at Together TV, said: “Great stories are everywhere, but opportunities to tell them aren’t. Through Together TV’s Diverse Film Fund, we want to change that. We’re giving talented new filmmakers the funding, support and national platform they deserve, while bringing fresh, authentic stories to audiences across the UK.

“The fund is seeking celebratory, inspirational and forward-looking films rooted in community – the lives, passions and hopes of the 10 million people who make the West Midlands what it is. They can be standalone films or have the potential to be a longer series or expanded into a feature-length documentary.”