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We screened the finished film from the work we’d done with Vyne and Costello schools on Thursday 23rd June 2016. It was an eclectic mix of vines, short films, artwork, scripted dramas and original writing of both prose and poetry.

Mary Swan of Proteus Theatre Group introduced the film to the girls who had come along, together with a few parents and teachers eager to see what they had produced.

The screening was punctuated by screeches of recognition by the girls when their work was on, along with laughter – for a lot of them, this was the first time they had seen the finished product after handing it over to Ben Mills, the independent film maker working on this project. He was the main technical wizard who edited the many different pieces of disparate work he had been given, and skilfully drew them together into a coherent whole.

We ended up with a piece that was by turns profound and funny, angry and contemplative. It explores what it means to be a teenage girl in Basingstoke, and illustrated that Jane Austen would have been preoccupied with much the same issues as our modern teens deal with every day.

You wouldn’t guess that Ben had been up until 4.30am the night before finishing the edit on this piece.

The timetable was tight, but the end result was superb. It showcased the girls’ intelligent and individual outlooks on their lives; how they wanted to be viewed by others and, crucially, the criticisms and assumptions they do not welcome. Lizzie Bennet could not have bettered them in wishing prejudice would not play such a large part in all our lives.

The ten-minute film can be viewed online on Proteus’ site now, and will be uploaded more generally soon.

Isabel Rogers, 23 June 2016

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