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A camera assistant checks a camera on a tripod on a street location.

Pillar 03 · Social impact filmmaking

Films that matter, in the British tradition.

Real places, local casts, small crews and, where we can, film.

Story to Screen Lab

Chapter 1

Two jobs in one film

Ask a filmmaker: Ken Loach | BFI 12:54BFI · original on YouTube

Independent British films about social issues, made with the communities they're about. The story gets told, and the people making it work on a real unit beside professionals.

We work in the tradition of British social realism, from Free Cinema to Ken Loach and Shane Meadows. Read the essay

The slate

An operator films from a stabilised rig beside a car on a residential street, lights set alongside.If It Was HereThe first of a short-form slate about war and its cost. In development. A panelled library hall set out with chairs and a flip chart for a development session.Story to Screen LabIn partnership with Screen Sisters CIC. Your idea stays yours. Crew prepare a camera rig and lights at the back of an open kit van on a residential street.Shot on FilmOur 35mm project, with Kodak, Panavision and Digital Orchard. A technician preps a camera package on a cart in an equipment store lined with cases.Social Impact Rental HouseCamera support for independent productions, with new entrants on set.

Films made so far

Liverpool · 2025
A drama in a working mosque
Manchester · 2024
After Hardship Comes Ease
London · 2025
Read All About It
Short
Dance of the Macaroni Flowers

Uniting Communities

Community and faith representatives on a terrace.

Live An interfaith film programme across the North West, now in its third phase. Mixed-faith crews make one film together, then screen it in each other's buildings. Free, 18 and over.

Register interest

On location

  • A crew sets up camera, light and sound at a market under bunting on a location day.

    A crew sets up at a market under bunting

  • An operator lifts a camera rig while a crew member steadies it on a high street.

    Lifting a camera rig on a high street

  • A crew films on a pavement outside a coffee shop.

    Filming on a pavement outside a coffee shop

  • A cinema camera on a tripod on a high street.

    A cinema camera on a high street

  • A cinema camera on a tall tripod in a paved square at dusk.

    A camera on a tall tripod in a square at dusk

  • Two women rig a cinema camera on a mount beside a car on a studio stage.

    Rigging a camera on a car mount

In the tradition

Make a film with us

Productions can also hire camera support from the Social Impact Rental House.

Bring a storyCommission a film

The other pillars