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After months of interviewing disabled people and  travelling all over the North, SYMO is showing "Falling Through the Cracks". Commissioned by VONNE and the Lottery, the film focuses on disabled people's responses to the government's spending review, highlighting their hopes and fears, and joining them in Newcastle for the Hardest Hit campaign demonstration.

Showing at Kindling, Cromwell Street, Hartlepool, TS247LR April 4th at 1:30PM

Please come along, show your support and add your voice to the debate!

Also look out for the film on YouTube and in our projects section later.

A Participatory Research Project on the Effects of Recent Government Cuts in Services to Disabled People

If you are a disabled person and have been affected by the recent wave of cuts in services and benefits (or welfare reform) we would love to hear from you.

Shoot Your Mouth Off, the North-East’s leading disability film production company, has been given a grant from the Policy and Research Partnership to produce a documentary about how the reduction in Local Authority support, coupled with changes to benefits such as Disability Living Allowance, and the closing of the Independent Living Fund, may be affecting the lives of disabled people in the North East of England.

Back in March of this year, a report entitled ‘Social Care: the continuing crisis.’ was produced by the Learning Disability Coalition. This report painted a bleak picture.

‘Loss of local authority care is very worrying for people with learning disabilities,

their families and carers. Of the people we surveyed, 63% were reliant on their

Local authority for the funding of their care and support, and a further 21%

received a combination of welfare support, Disability Living Allowance and

money from the Independent Living Fund in order to pay for their care. Closure

of the Independent Living Fund, changes to the Disability Living Allowance and

overhauling of the benefits system, combined with reduced local authority

funding, has left many people very afraid for the future of their support.

‘Social Care: the continuing crisis’ Learning Disability Coalition

SYMO wants to find the people behind the statistics and create a documentary which will bring their stories to life with the aim of influencing policy-makers and those who make decisions which concern the health and well-being of disabled people. If you would like to be involved but are worried that participation may have a negative effect on your situation regarding support and benefits, we can make sure that your anonymity is protected. If you’re interested in taking part, please email Karen Sheader at karen.sheader@googlemail.com or call 07960 532554 for an informal chat.

We aim to recruit all participants to the documentary by 31^st August 2011.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Karen Sheader

The Hip Hoppers have just made a new video for a new tune! Check out the video in our Projects/Music Video section. The song entitled “Miranda (the Rights Rap)” is the latest release from their album “Rise2Fame”. This choice cut showcases the tuneful trio combining their skills with the rest of SYMO at large to name a list of rights they think are important to them and others as people with a learning difficulty. Inspired by Arcadea’s training day in collaboration with The British Institute Of Human Rights, the Hip Hoppers put together this new rap with their friends at a group session and opened the mic to everyone to “shoot their mouths off!”

Says Doctor Judge: “We want people to listen up and know all about their rights. We’re channelling our flow into our rap characters and putting our caps and hoodies on, yo yo yo.”

Dr Judge recently spent some time designing and making T-Shirts for the band, in a special limited edition of one. Each unique wearable artwork came from hours of sweating over logos and designs and drawings for the band as well as painstakingly hand painting each garment by hand using his own bare hands. The Rap Marster’s top features the new band mascot “Hip-Hop-otamus”. 

SYMO was also invited to show “The Sliminator” at a health awareness day for people with learning difficulties. The film went down a storm, as one health worker in attendance pointed out “The Sliminator is the perfect antidote for long stuffy sessions talking about calorie counting and healthy food groups. It educates people in an entertaining way, the message is just as strong, but we were all laughing, smiling and talking about it by the end.”

Shoot Your Mouth Off has been awarded funding from the Participation and Research Partnership to produce an important piece of work for people with learning disabilities. Falling Through the Cracks will look at how the recent cuts in services are affecting the lives of some disabled people. SYMO will begin research for the project next  week, so if you have a story to tell about how your life has changed due to services being changed or stopped, please get in touch - our details are on our Contacts page. We will produce a documentary which we will show to people who make decisions which affect the lives of people with a learning disability to try to make sure our voice is heard.

Hi everyone, thanks for all your support and the ever crucial views of our stuff here in the projects section and on our YouTube page. Since starting this website and the twitter feed, we've struck up lots of new friendships with people from near and far flung places and strengthened links with some old friends too!

We hope you all enjoyed the five films and will continue to support SYMO in its future endeavours.

Coming soon: "Miranda" the latest rap video from SYMO's one and only "Hip Hoppers"...it's a track that sees our troublesome trio reminding the whole disabled community of it's rights in their own funky style.

The "Hip Hoppers" album "Rise2Fame" is available from the address listed on our contact us page, a fiver a shot (add extra for carriage)

If your "Rappetite" (hur hur) can't wait for the next hip hop release "Miranda" then caterpillar on over to our projects section and dig out "Don't Cry Mammy (It's only a rap) from the music video tab. See you next time!

Welcome to the final week in our round up of all that’s new and unreleased in SYMO land! We’ve had slimming at gunpoint in “The Sliminator”, Bushido instruction gone awry in “Quarter Of The Lot”, “The Last Laff” was a comedic look at bullying, “Tallywacker” was its dramatic counterpoint and today we crown proceedings with the latest instalment of our amazing soap opera “Hope Springs”!

In “There’s Something About Billy”, a new arrival to the group causes friction between two of the regulars! Who will win the battle for her attentions and what dirty, underhand tricks will be pulled out of the bag to save the day?

Thanks for all your support during “Five Films Five Weeks”, check back soon for a HipHoppers video update and more wonderful SYMO treasures!

This week in “5 weeks 5 films”, we have “Tallywacker”, a dark and troubling film all about bullying. This film stars that rare thing - an ex SYMO member Liam, who puts in a sterling performance as Angus, and John from Sunderland as the drama worker. More notable trivia: this film also features Daniel aka “Docter Judge” from “The Hip Hoppers” in his first Monday group role…can you spot him? Answers on a postcard please!

Find “Tallywacker” in Projects/Drama.

Next week, 5 weeks 5 films ends with a bang and a brand new episode of “Hope Springs”!

It’s week 3 of “5 weeks 5 films”! We hope you all enjoyed “Quarter Of The Lot” and “The Sliminator” check out our latest offering : the hilarious “The Last Laff”. Wendy hates her boring job and her bullying colleagues. One day a freak accident puts and end to it all, but she returns to wreak her revenge over her abusers! Who will have “The Last Laff”?

Please watch, comment and share. You’ll find the film in our projects section under the comedy category.

If you haven’t checked them out already, take a look at the last two weeks films “The Sliminator” and “Quarter Of The Lot” (also under in Projects/Comedy).

Next week “Tallywacker”.

Move over "The Sliminator", we have just made public "Quarter Of The Lot"!

In this hilarious and touching film, Phil, a hapless Bushido instructor, locks horns with a group of would be martial arts experts with learning difficulties. Filmed in a "Mock-U-mentary" style, the film caused quite a stir at its original premiere, some saying that it was abusive and showed lack of regard for its participants. We at SYMO can assure you all that everyone involved had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed watching the end result, as we hope you do!

Next Thursday: look out for "The Last Laff"

To inaugurate this website, SYMO will be releasing five films over the next five weeks. Starting today with "The Sliminator" a healthy eating action film sci fi spectacular! 

Follow ups will be:

"Quarter of the Lot" - in which a hapless martial arts instructor tries to train a group of adults with learning difficulties filmed in a mock-u-mentary stlye.

"The Last Laff" - a hilarious and hitherto unseen SYMO groupwork classic!

"Tallywacker" - a dark film all about bullying.

"Hope Springs Episode 5: Love Triangle" - the latest installment of our award winning soap opera!

Check back each every Thursday to see each new release or subscribe to our YouTube channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/CarpetFilms

where you'll recieve updates and bulletins each time we put anything new up!

SYMO TRAILBLAZERS School’s out for summer...why not turn off the tv, log out of Facebook and come to SYMO to make a film with your mates? For the first time ever, we’re inviting young people with a learning disability to come to our studios in Hartlepool for one day a week throughout the summer holidays and get some experience in making a film. Get in touch if you’d like more details.