Film from Power The Fight Highlights Mental Health Impact of Violence Affecting Young People

To mark Mental Health Awareness Week, youth charity Power The Fight is launching a film in collaboration with London agency tms and production company My Accomplice. 

Filmed by award-winning writer and director, Akwasi Poku, the 60-second film highlights the anxiety faced by children and young people affected by violence. It begins with an audio montage of news coverage about violent crimes, played over scenes of teenagers unable to sleep, haunted by the spectre of violence in their imaginations and on their social media feeds. The film demonstrates that the mental health implications of violence have become a part of life for so many. The piece highlights worrying statistics – “39% of children have been a victim or witness of violence, while 65% change their behaviour, how they look and where they do due to fear.”

The film is part of a wider fundraising drive for Power The Fight’s key mental health initiative, TIP (Therapeutic Intervention for Peace). The funds raised will help them deliver adaptable, culturally sensitive workshops and toolkits to young people, families, and practitioners in local communities.

tms was briefed to overcome some of the barriers to fundraising around violence affecting young people and worked in collaboration with My Accomplice and Akwasi to develop the script, narrative and creative direction.

Ben Lindsay said, “Violence affecting young people is not the cute sell of charities that work with children and animals; it’s a tough issue and we wanted a campaign that would put our marker in the sand. tms has achieved this powerfully and elegantly, communicating our message in an intentional way, without using bloodshed or knives to get the message across.” 

Hannah Patridge, SVP, client engagement, said: “Everyone at tms has been greatly moved by the determination, energy and important work being done by Ben and the whole team at Power The Fight. Getting to work with them to raise awareness and vital funds for the charity has been a real privilege. We hope this film has the impact intended and people feel compelled to act.” 

Speaking about the production, director Akwasi Poku said: "We (My Accomplice) were approached by youth intervention charity Power The Fight to create a film to be showcased at the House of Lords. This was a great opportunity to show how youth violence affects people all over the UK regardless of race or gender and that’s something I really wanted to bring to life emotionally within this film. Power The Fight has been working with thousands of people across the UK to intervene and show people how to put an end to youth violence. The charity that Ben Lindsay has created is amazing and I really respect the work that Ben and his team have been putting in over the years."

She continues: "From start to finish we had about 10 days to pull this together which was probably the most intense way to shoot my first ever commercial. We had our challenges like being in a grade, edit and client review on three different laptops at the same time to hit the tight delivery deadlines. The team pulled through though and brought their A game and I gained a ton of learnings that were amazing to experience. Also a big shout out to our young actors Ellis, Isha, Sam & Minee who starred in this, they smashed it with their ultra believable performances."

Power The Fight provided some funding for the project, but much of it was achieved on a pro bono basis.

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