The Samosa delivers creative film and media workshops to schools, colleges, universities and community groups across London and the UK. Facilitated by a professional arts practitioner, we use the medium of film to explore social, cultural and political issues that are relevant to young people today, including racism, religious tensions, immigration and women’s rights.
Working closely with the groups, we identify the topics they would like to explore, challenge existing stereotypes and encourage critical thinking.
Using resources developed from the RSA Pakistan Calling films, our online journalism archives, and our work on Dara and with Laal and the Asian Dub Foundation, we look at:
CAREERS IN MEDIA AND THE ARTS – Participants will be given the opportunity to meet with media professionals during the workshop programme and consider different vocations within the arts
DIVERSITY IN MEDIA – We will consider how diverse the media and arts sectors are and how this impacts minority communities
POWER OF MEDIA – We will explore how media portrayals of a community, group or situation can shape society’s perceptions
POTENTIAL THEMES: Islamophobia, racism, community tensions, history of migration, prejudice, identity, perception
PRACTICAL FILM-MAKING – We can work with participants to create their own short films on the topics explored
Some examples of films produced through our education workshops and curriculum partnerships are below:
Samosa Media provide a series of arts and media workshops for Sixth Form students at Stepney All Saints School in 2022 and 23
Samosa Media’s Education Officer Natalie Marshall and Director Anwar Akhtar, delivered a series of seven workshops for a group of twelve sixth formers, studying for their BTEC at Stepney All Saints school. The workshops provided a platform for students to explore and develop their understanding of topics including identity, faith, politics, business, arts and culture. They also did exercises on public speaking and leadership challenges. The students also explored leadership in business, culture and politics, and how skills such as patience, and the ability to listen, observe, study and work hard help people succeed in business as well as other sectors. Read more here
Loughborough University London and Samosa Media collaborative project supports bilingual learning in curriculum
Samosa Media challenged a group of 20 students enrolled in Masters’ programmes at the Institute of Media and Creative Industries, Loughborough University London, to create a set of materials and research which will potentially help support teaching professionals with bilingual learning in the curriculum for 11-18-year-olds. The students were a diverse group from various countries in the world. Read more here
The Samosa Curriculum Support Workshop KS4 Stepney All Saints School 2022
In April 2022, Samosa Media’s Education Programme Officer, Natalie Marshall, facilitated a series of four workshops, with a group of nine students, designed to support students through building confidence in language, public speaking, and self-expression. The process involved exploring their identity and creating a recorded monologue. This allowed students to discuss issues, that they were passionate about and provided a creative safe space to do so. The issues which students identified and passionately discussed in their monologues were the following: Mental health, gender, social media, cultural pressures, bullying and LGBT. Read and listen to the monologues here
Samosa Media Arts and Literacy workshops at St Gabriel’s College
Samosa Media provide a series of 18 creative film workshops for a group of students aged 15-17 at St Gabriel’s College. In May 2021, June and November 2022, Samosa Media delivered a series of 18 separate, two-hour creative film workshops for students aged 15 and 16 years old at St Gabriel’s College. The series of workshops were planned and run by the Samosa Media’s creative film educator Victor Rios and education programme officer Natalie Marshall. The workshops were very productive for the participants, enhancing their confidence and improving their vocabulary, as most of the young people who participated have South American heritage and speak English as their second language. Read more here
Sixth Form Question Time – Stepney All Saints School Dec 2021
Organised, produced and recorded by students following a series of extra-curricular study workshops with Samosa Media, held over a period of eight weeks to prepare them for the film, supporting the students, encouraging debate and academic development, and providing a platform where students can express themselves. This led to the students feeling confident, to debate in front of a live audience the following topics:
Do rules & authority restrict freedom?
For more details re this process, commentary and feedback, from the participants see stepneyallsaints.school/the-samosa-project-sixth-form-question-time/
You can view the full film here
UEL 2020: Identity and race project
At the start of February 2020, the Level 5 journalism students from the University collaborated with The Samosa to study, investigate, research what identity means to them, also wider identity politics and debates. The students developed their ideas and made a series of short films, informed by their research and discussions and a website.
Sir John Cass Sixth Form Question Time : 2019
This Question Time was developed through workshops run by Samosa Media with students, then produced and filmed by the students themselves.
Topics – Brexit, Junk food, Sexism and Climate Crisis. Organised, produced and recorded by students following a series of study workshops with Samosa Media.
UEL students debate media and sexualisation with The Samosa Media
Over two terms in 2018/2019, the Level 5 journalism students from the University collaborated with arts and media charity Samosa Media to investigate the effects of sexualisation within the media on young women, in particular.
Sir John Cass Sixth Form Question Time : Winter 2018
This Question Time was developed through workshops run by Samosa Media with students, then produced and filmed by the students themselves. The event followed the format of the popular BBC show Question. Topics discussed were knife crime, Brexit, racism and tuition fees.
The importance of education and the arts to working class young people
Anwar Akhtar’s talk to Sir John Cass sixth form on 25th October 2018 about the importance of arts and introduces students to Samosa Media’s extra curriculum workshops.
The Prevent Programme : A Conversation – In collaboration with the Samosa Media and UEL
In early January 2018, UEL collaborated with the Samosa Media to produce a film about the Prevent Programme. The film highlights a range of views on the ‘Prevent’ anti-terrorism strategy, touching on issues such as extremism, gender equality, terrorism, Islamophobia, UK foreign policy, Palestine and freedom of speech.
Sir John Cass Sixth Form Question Time : Summer 2018
The students of Sir John Cass Sixth Form and The Samosa Media produced a Question Time Project.
Topics of discussion include Brexit, British Foreign Policy, Grenfell and Islamaphobia – This debate fuses History, Politics and Media in an attempt to understand the major issues that are affecting young people in East London, as well as the wider world.
Anwar’s Manchester 4/4 Talk, Cities, Tolerance, Multi culturalism May 2017
Anwar Akhtar, founder and director of The Samosa, debates why the Prevent anti-extremism programme is failing students and discusses Manchester’s links with South Asia in a talk at the 4 x 4 Manchester conference in May 2017.
Partition Stories film in collaboration with the Samosa Media and UEL
In 2018 The Samosa and UEL created Partition Stories. Partition Stories is a film of interviews and reflections on 1947 and its legacy today for India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Britain. This film is a joint venture between film-maker and University of East London MA student Rishabh Shrivastav, journalism students from the University of East London, and The Samosa media project.
Brexit: A Country Divided? : A conversation in collaboration with the Samosa Media and UEL
This film is a joint venture between journalism students at the University of East London and The Samosa. Sponsored by UEL’s Civic Engagement fund.
If you are a school, college, sixth form or university tutor who is interested in having their students work with us then please get in touch with us at info@thesamosa.org.uk
