'Boogie 9000: Makaton Robot' wins film award

Boogie 8000 and Boogie 9000

Students of Beacon Hill Film Project in North Shields were celebrating on Friday night after one of their latest films "Boogie 9000: Makaton Robot", won a prestigious national award.

The film highlights the importance of Makaton. It is about a robot who is sent from his home planet of Beebop to find more Makaton words. After an eventful journey (including being attacked by a giant spaceworm!) he arrives on Earth to find that being understood is going to be more difficult than he thought.

(Click here to watch a clip from the film on YouTube.)

The short film was made earlier this year by the young filmmakers of Beacon Hill Film Project. The project supports young learning disabled artists create and exhibit their own work, engaging them in scripting, filming, editing, prop making, costume design and music composition for their own short films. The project is a long standing partnership between Arpeggio Films, filmmaker Andrew Coats and Beacon Hill School in North Tyneside.

Sean Boyle, Connor Rathbone and Susie McCullough

Connor Rathbone with Cinemagic's Sean Boyle and Susie McCullough from NITB

It won "Best Innovation" at the Cinemagic Film Festival 2011 in Northern Ireland and student Connor Rathbone, 19, flew to Belfast to collect the award, accompanied by his father, Len.

Connor said, "I am very excited and happy to win this award, thank you to Beacon Hill Film Project for helping me and well done to all the other filmmakers!"

Earlier this year, Beacon Hill Film Project's partners formed an exciting new social enterprise called Beacon Hill Arts (www.beaconhillarts.org.uk) to extend similar opportunities to other people with learning disabilities in North Tyneside and beyond by establishing a learning disabled-led media company."

Lysa Schwartz, Chief Executive Officer of The Makaton Charity said "We are delighted that the Beacon Hill students' innovative and creative work has been recognised with such an auspicious award. It is wonderful to see such an inventive and imaginative use of Makaton. This film showcases the terrific talent of the team and provides a very important message -- the value and benefit of communication and inclusion for everyone. We look forward to encouraging and supporting Beacon Hill Arts in their future ventures."

7th December 2011