A film led by actors with learning disabilities
Donation protected
SYNOPSIS
LAST DAY is a short film following seven students with learning disabilities on their final day in education. Confronted with the pressing reality that their lives are going to change indefinitely, they reflect on their education and friendship.
BACKGROUND
The main characters in LAST DAY are all played by actors who have learning disabilities. Director Henry Leroy-Salta met the majority of the cast whilst working as a teaching assistant at a college for students with learning disabilities; he was struck by the passion and aptitude that many of the students showed for drama and was keen to encourage them to develop this.
Following from two successful performances at the Southwark Playhouse, Henry along with filmmaker, Alexander Tol realised the wonderful potential of drama for young people with learning disabilities and inspired by their enthusiasm and imaginative work, decided that it would be a wonderful opportunity for them to collaborate and make a short film.
Through a fundraising campaign and the incredible support of Orchard Hill College, parents and support workers; they were then able to raise almost £3,000 to film a workshop bringing together all of the actors for a weekend of paid work.
During the workshop the actors devised their own dialogue, and as you can see in the video above; the spontaneity of the actors provided a far more illuminating and insightful script than the original Henry and Alex had drafted. The final script that will be used for shooting consists entirely of dialogue that the actors improvised themselves.
GOALS
Having already raised almost £3,000 for the workshop, the goal is now to raise a further £5,470 in order to produce a high quality short film with all of the actors being paid as professionals. We have found a great crew who are as passionate about this project as the actors and ourselves.
For a full breakdown of the budget please visit our website https://www.lastdayshort.com. Everyone working on the set will be paid the same wage with full and complete transparency.
Any excess or unspent funds will be donated to charities working with young people with learning disabilities.
We aim to achieve this target by the end of 2021, to commence filming in January 2022.
We want to give the actors an opportunity to work on a real-life production as well as draw attention to the benefit of creative expression in the lives of young people with learning disabilities, a demographic underrepresented in the arts.
There are more than 1.5 million people in the UK with a learning disability, 350,000 of whom have what is regarded as a severe learning disability. The majority of adults with learning disabilities live in the family home and the hope is that this film will draw wider attention to a section of society who are often overlooked.
THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Our goal was to raise the funds to shoot our short film over 2020 last year, however due to the pandemic, we were forced to postpone our plans to shoot this film until January 2022.
Despite the delay we ran weekly zoom rehearsals with the cast throughout 2020 and 2021. We plan to expand the weekly drama workshops to a larger pool of students with learning disabilities with our charity theatre company 'Kurly Kale Theatre Group'. Though Last Day is a stand alone film, we hope it will inspire young adults with learning disabilities to engage with artistic outlets such as 'Kurly Kale Theatre Group'.
LAST DAY is a short film following seven students with learning disabilities on their final day in education. Confronted with the pressing reality that their lives are going to change indefinitely, they reflect on their education and friendship.
BACKGROUND
The main characters in LAST DAY are all played by actors who have learning disabilities. Director Henry Leroy-Salta met the majority of the cast whilst working as a teaching assistant at a college for students with learning disabilities; he was struck by the passion and aptitude that many of the students showed for drama and was keen to encourage them to develop this.
Following from two successful performances at the Southwark Playhouse, Henry along with filmmaker, Alexander Tol realised the wonderful potential of drama for young people with learning disabilities and inspired by their enthusiasm and imaginative work, decided that it would be a wonderful opportunity for them to collaborate and make a short film.
Through a fundraising campaign and the incredible support of Orchard Hill College, parents and support workers; they were then able to raise almost £3,000 to film a workshop bringing together all of the actors for a weekend of paid work.
During the workshop the actors devised their own dialogue, and as you can see in the video above; the spontaneity of the actors provided a far more illuminating and insightful script than the original Henry and Alex had drafted. The final script that will be used for shooting consists entirely of dialogue that the actors improvised themselves.
GOALS
Having already raised almost £3,000 for the workshop, the goal is now to raise a further £5,470 in order to produce a high quality short film with all of the actors being paid as professionals. We have found a great crew who are as passionate about this project as the actors and ourselves.
For a full breakdown of the budget please visit our website https://www.lastdayshort.com. Everyone working on the set will be paid the same wage with full and complete transparency.
Any excess or unspent funds will be donated to charities working with young people with learning disabilities.
We aim to achieve this target by the end of 2021, to commence filming in January 2022.
We want to give the actors an opportunity to work on a real-life production as well as draw attention to the benefit of creative expression in the lives of young people with learning disabilities, a demographic underrepresented in the arts.
There are more than 1.5 million people in the UK with a learning disability, 350,000 of whom have what is regarded as a severe learning disability. The majority of adults with learning disabilities live in the family home and the hope is that this film will draw wider attention to a section of society who are often overlooked.
THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Our goal was to raise the funds to shoot our short film over 2020 last year, however due to the pandemic, we were forced to postpone our plans to shoot this film until January 2022.
Despite the delay we ran weekly zoom rehearsals with the cast throughout 2020 and 2021. We plan to expand the weekly drama workshops to a larger pool of students with learning disabilities with our charity theatre company 'Kurly Kale Theatre Group'. Though Last Day is a stand alone film, we hope it will inspire young adults with learning disabilities to engage with artistic outlets such as 'Kurly Kale Theatre Group'.
Fundraising team: Last Day short film (3)
Henry Leroy-Salta
Organizer
England
Alexander Tol
Team member
Claire Thompson
Team member