BBC Documentary on Young people and Self Harm - interested in being involved?
 

Hi Everyone,

I have been speaking to Emma Parsons, a director in News and Current Affairs at the BBC, and have been asked to pass this on to you guys, in the hope that some of you might be interested in helping out, either by giving input into what you feel the documentary should contain / what direction it should take - or (most importantly) finding those who might want to get involved on a deeper level.

She is lovely, and has convinced me that this is something very worthwhile (I very rarely pass these requests on).

So I will leave you with a peice she wrote for us, and her contact details are at the bottom. She is more than happy to answer any questions you might have - so if you want your voice heard, and are under 25, get in touch with her!


Here it is :)



Dear RYL member,

My name is Emma Parsons and I am a director in News and Current Affairs at the BBC. I am working on a project about young people who self injure. The programme is a one hour observational documentary which will be shown as part of a season on BBC 3 in December.

My aim is to explore this sensitive subject from the prospective of the young people themselves. For example, there will be no ‘experts’ talking about self harm. I also hope that this documentary will help to dispel myths surrounding this subject and help bring a greater understanding to why people self harm.

I am writing in this letter as I would like to speak to young people who have first hand experience of self harm as I am keen to find out as much as I can about this issue. Ultimately I’m trying to find people who would be happy and comfortable to appear in the documentary. However, Anyone who chooses to contact me will be under no obligation to take part.

Being in the documentary would involve having me follow you around with a camera (I film the documentary myself on a small digital camera) for a few weeks to find out about your life. What is filmed is a negation between myself and the person in the film. Also, I would like to offer who ever I film with a small camera to film their lives themselves.

I would like to make it clear that I am not interested in seeing any self injury on film. This programme is about why someone self harms, not the self harm its self.

I am happy to meet in person to discuss the project and show you similar recent documentaries made by the Current Affairs for BBC 3.

I do hope that you can help me with this project. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

With best wishes,

Emma Parsons

Producer/ Director
News and Current Affairs
T: 0208 752 5672
E: emma.parsons2@bbc.co.uk




I will be around throughout the project to come to for advice and support, and Emma is very sensitive to the subject and to you guys - so you won't have to go through anything alone :)

So feel free to contact me any time too.



Thanks for reading!



Harley

I think this is going to be SO good ^_^

I've asked her numerous questions,
The idea is very.. Interesting.
&& I'm quite interested. =]

I sent her an email too =P

I get the impression she's interested in following people who currently self-harm, as opposed to those who are (supposedly) recovered?

I didn't think about that? *shocked face*

Damn I don't have BBC3

I don't have it my room, but I think they repeat the programs on bbc1/bbc2 sometimes? But I'm hoping to wath it on teleport reply mwahaha, I don't fancy watching it with my parents =|

I'm planning to email her later, I think it sounds like a good idea =]

I've just emailed her saying I'm interested if she wants a recovered self-harmer :)

I emailed her saying nothing about my self harm.
HAHAHAHA

LOL

eee
im emailing her, i'd love to be in it :D

same here helen i decided to go for it cos well i am always big on raising awareness about things like this

Shes has already been in touch with me via the Young Persons Advisory Centre in Liverpool.
I have an appointment to meet with her on Wednesday. Shall be fun.

I've emailed her asking about it. I'd love to be in it but my parents would probably freak out, so I'm going to talk to my psych about it (my parents listen to my psych).

Laura, you'll have to let is know what she's like =]

My parents have forbid me from going on television to talk about it. But i can still help out (what they dont know wont hurt them). :P
I'll let you guys know what shes like :)

I emailed her but I'm not too sure about being in the documentary myself. I think it's a graet idea though. I asked a couple of questions and told her a bit of my backstory. I think it was rather long :/ Will be interesting if she replies, if not, meh, I'll watch the documentary when it is on. To those of you brave enough to be involved, good luck! I'm sure it will be a great experience for you and hopefully the show will be as good as we all seem to think it will be.

i have emailed her sayign i want to help too, i think ti would be great, i was part of a group of people who helped with an american (even though i live in britain) documentary called 'cut: teens and self injury' or soemthign like that (was a while ago) which has already raised awareness there.

I was wondering if she'd feature people in the film who are recovering from self harm.

I'm in two minds about emailing her. When I read she'd follow us around for two weeks, where exactly does she mean? At our homes? At college, at school etc where?