Creative Research Collective

Creative Research Collective (CRC) is Valerie Dunn, Tom Mellor,  Andy Dunn and Lizzy Hobbs.  We are artists, researchers, film-makers who work creatively with groups to explore and share difficult or sensitive topics and experiences.

SpeakOut (2018)

46 young people who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or trans took part in the SpeakOut research project about life in the care system.  The Creative Research Collective worked with Dr. Jeanette Cossar, University of East Anglia, in collaboration with 6 young people who worked as co-researchers on the project to create this film.  Funded by NIHR CLAHRC East of England.

Talking Mental Health (2017)

A Wellcome Trust funded collaboration with The Anna Freud Centre to create an animated film with young people aged 10-11 designed to help begin conversations about mental health in the classroom and beyond.

Facing Shadows (2015)

Seven young people who had been to a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) for help with their depression came together with the aim of making a short, animated film about what it is like to suffer from depression as a teenager

Our House (2014)

Ten young people, aged 12-23 with experience of living in residential care homes worked on this film.  The young people put forward the issue of residential care as an important area they wanted to address through film.

Finding My Way (2013)

Finding my Way is an animated documentary about the challenges and expectations of leaving care, created by young people in Cambridgeshire in August 2013.

The production was supported by live action filmmaker Ryd Cook, Trish Sheil (Cambridgeshire Film Consortium), Michelle Dean and Mary Ogden (CSC Participation Officers).  Funded by CLARHC-CP

My Name is Joe (2012)

Eleven young people in foster and residential care in Cambridgeshire gathered for an animation summer school to make a short film about what it's like and how it feels to enter the care system. The film is used in a new training course for foster carers. This film has been funded by NIHR CLAHRC