This is Morag, affectionally called  the "Boss" with His Excellency, the President of Tanzania. But really, Morag is Executive Editor, Founder, Author and a "great cuppa tea" maker.  

 

Morag Livingstone is an experienced film maker, writer, documentary photographer and founder of Livingstone Media, a multimedia agency telling the real stories of real people in order to bring about real change. She is the co-author of best selling book ‘Hackney Child’ (The Sun newspaper’s memoir of the year in 2012) and published in January 2014 by Simon & Schuster, and a second book “Tainted Love” will be in the shops in July 2014.

Morag has an Honours Degree in Business Studies and a Masters in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from the London University of the Arts, where she is now a guest lecturer. When not writing, she makes films across continents that bring stories of poverty, low income and young peoples' mental health to life for the development sector.


 

Alison Scammell is a marketing, campaigns and communications professional with more than 20 years’ experience working in sectors as diverse as information technology, financial services, healthcare, government, housing, arts and culture. She likes working with forward thinking people and enthusiastically embraces communications that help bring about positive change - which is why she jumped at the chance of working with Morag on this project.

 

Steve Duttine is a London-based photographer and videographer. Originally from Yorkshire, he made his way into photojournalism via a stop-off in the bloodstained world of medical photography. His experience ranges from nationally published news and PR photographs, to video commissions, healthcare stock footage, and time-lapse shooting. A graduate of the LCC Masters in Photojournalism Steve has recently built substantially on his social video commentary whilst shooting a documentary project on the economic status of Detroit.

 

Eileen Hunter is not only a superbly talented musician, singer and mum, but on the side she has been the main transcriber for all our (Livingstone Media's) films and audio interviews over the last seven years. Every transcription she has done for us comes back perfect with a comment along the lines of  "What an inspirational person!"  So we are delighted that she believes "this film needs to be made" and has agreed to support Belonging by taking the lead on transcribing the real stories of real people - which helps the editing process. If you want to find out more about Eileen and her music, there is a little clip on the left, courtesy of the Guardian newspaper, (a song by Jesse Harris - who also wrote for Nora Jones). Eileen's website is www.eileenhunter.co.uk

 

Core Team 

The above is our core team, and for the basic budget of £40K we shall make a feature documentary - in less than a year. At this level of funding it shall be a linear film with a few families representing the whole - and a small  team who will need to work hard to get this done - and we shall.  But, we want to do more than just the basics of telling the real stories of real people - so we'll have two more phases of funding as we, and we hope you, want to make this film as in-depth as possible. We want to really turn up the volume and hear the voices of more people and show what people who are trade union members are experiencing across Britain. We want to understand what they face, dream and wish for - and explore how trade unions are inspiring people to make their own changes in the community. We want to be able to spend time locally, to really understand, as well as 'tell', the real stories of real people and of course we want to effect real change.  

Core Team, Extended Team.

To do this properly isn't cheap, and takes a lot of work, so rather than just the core team, we'd prefer to extend the team and also 'employ local' where we can - multitalented people coming together to make this a film rich in depth, multilayered, and well promoted - in cinemas and at film festivals.  

We have, on standby a great bunch of people, all ready to work hard - filmmakers, musicians, transcribers, editors, sound engineers, graphic designers, fixers and colourists.  They too want to be involved, and turn up the volume and make a film with punch factor to be launched well before the May 2015 general election - about the real lives of people who are trade union members in Britain today.  To get them involved, we need more than the initial fundraising target - and are thus fundraising in three phases. Our ideal total budget is £220K - so anything above 40K means the film will be made, every penny between £40K and 220K will go into hiring people at decent rates and on union contracts, and also into the distribution and promotion of the film - what goes into this full budget can be found here, but in brief:  the more people that 'Belong' then the more we can get to know people, understand better what they face in daily life as well as with filming, editing, graphics, colour grading, audio, the promotion and the music - all under BECTU contracts.  

Core Team, Extended Team and our very own tune.

Our preferred (or rather dream) budget will allow us to do everything that we want with this film, partner with local film makers across the UK, including BAFTA award winning videographers and editors as well as hiring local "fixers". We will be able to work with, up-skill people and pay interns - as with the dream budget we will be blessed with being able to add to the talents of the core team and partner with a range of multitalented people throughout Britain.  A full budget will also enable us to have the film's theme tune written and performed by an artist that has had a number 1 single, a number 1 album and his amazingly talented production team who have produced multiple hits - wouldn't it be great if by belonging, you can help produce both a film and give a voice to a specially commissioned song that represents what we are told during filming?

The base budget of 40K will mean the film is made by a talented team. The dream budget enables us to add talent, work with local people and give training and work experience (paid) for interns and thus being able to ensure that every person working on the film is able to focus on their particular specialism and talent -rather than the just the core team having to be "Jack of all trades".  Imagine, a film for cinemas, about real people funded for and made by community, by belonging.  In every way, every penny that connects you, or your friends and family, to Belonging will help make a great film about real people, with real stories and real change - providing experience, training and local opportunities for all and when the film is made, to inspire others at every level.  

Thanks for your interest in reading this, and however you have helped, through pledges or spreading the word, thanks for Belonging.  We really believe this film needs to be made, and with your help, it can be.

Do you belong?  Please support us by: pledging on Kickstarter in return for some great rewards.  Or spread the word, like us on facebook and follow on twitter @belonging4us  or make a Vine.