Abstract

The University of Sunderland has a sustained relationship with Northumbria Police’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC). The collaboration affords undergraduates from BA (Hons) Drama and Film Production programmes the opportunity to work on live client briefs and produce films about complex category serious crime.
Northumbria Police have commissioned twenty-three films, which have been produced by approximately 500 students who contribute as actor or filmmaker. All films address key issues of crime including: capacity to consent; sexual exploitation; domestic violence; cyber-safety; modern-day slavery and male rape. These films provide dynamic, reciprocal drivers of crime planning, education and training to the police and invested partners from counselling services, law, healthcare, secondary, tertiary and Higher Education.
Synergistically, the project affords students the opportunity to engage with employability-focussed assessments that have the opportunity to impact society. Students have gained specific awareness of the needs of the policing community, which has reciprocally provided an understanding of their signature pedagogies, showing how film can tackle important civic issues.