United and Unique: Separated by geography, united by community

‘United & Unique – Separated by Geography, United by Community’ is a short film made by a community of care-experienced young people from South Africa and Northern Ireland who came together to share their leaving care journeys and to advocate for change. Despite living more than 10,000km apart, they have been building friendships, sharing their stories of living in care, and leaving care, in Northern Ireland and in South Africa. Alongside researchers and filmmakers they visited each other’s countries to learn about the similarities and differences in care leaving policy, practice and culture. This short film tells their stories, documents their journey, shares their learning and spotlights their hopes for change.

The film will be screened in Queen's Film Theatre, Screen 2. It is 33minutes in length. The Queen’s researchers who led the project and some of the people who took part will introduce the screening briefly. There will be a short facilitated question and answer session where the audience can ask questions about the messages in the film, or about the international exchange and filmmaking project. On leaving, the audience can take a copy of a booklet written by the South African and Northern Irish young people.

This project was a partnership between Queen's University Belfast, Voice of Young People in Care (VOYPIC, NI), Mamelani Projects, Cape Town and the Children's Institute at the University of Cape Town.