A Roma observational documentary receives a grant from the Culture Recovery Fund
The production company Spring Pictures is one of 445 organisations across the country set to receive a financial grant from the government thanks to the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund. Spring Pictures will use the grant of up to £18,000 towards the production of the observational documentary ONE MORE QUESTION (dir. Mira Erdevicki), featuring three extraordinary young people of Eastern-European Roma origin who have made Britain their home. The film will look at what roles inclusive education, law, and society play in the process of integration of Roma.
The film’s protagonists are Petr Torak, the first British Roma policeman; Denisa Gannon, the first Roma lawyer in the UK; and Ondrej Olah, a student of psychology at the Leicester University who as a child was consigned to a school for special-needs children in his native Slovakia just because he was Roma.
Lucie Wenigerova, the producer of ONE MORE QUESTION said that “this grant from the Culture Recovery Fund is an important boost to our production. It will enable us to keep filming over a period of one year, at the time when the UK plans to depart the EU and also - currently - during the Covid 19 crisis. For that, we have asked our protagonists to start filming their own video diaries on iPhones, so that we capture how the lockdown affects their community.”
ONE MORE QUESTION is a UK-Slovak-Czech coproduction set to be released in early 2021.
433 organisations will receive a share of £67 million from the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage to help with costs for operating, reopening and recovery. This includes famous heritage sites across the country, from Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire to Blackpool’s Winter Gardens, Blyth Tall Ship to the Severn Valley Railway, the International Bomber Command Centre in Lincolnshire to the Piecehall in Halifax. The funds will save sites that are a source of pride for communities across the country.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “As a nation it is essential that we preserve our heritage and celebrate and learn from our past. This massive support package will protect our shared heritage for future generations, save jobs and help us prepare for a cultural bounceback post covid.”
Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of the National Lottery Heritage Fund said: “It is absolutely right that investing in heritage should be a priority during this crisis and this support by Government is crucial. Heritage creates jobs and economic prosperity, is a major driver for tourism, and makes our towns, cities, and rural areas better places to live. All of this is so important for our wellbeing and will be particularly vital when we start to emerge from this incredibly difficult time. Our heritage is still facing a perilous future – we are not out of the woods yet. But this hugely welcome funding from Government, and the money we continue to invest from the National Lottery, has undoubtedly stopped heritage and the organisations that care for it being permanently lost.”