Put your eyes back in

Adventures with auntie

2011-01-12T07:38:00.000-08:00

Filming for The One Show in Margate 2010

Flying in the 'Tellycopter' with Christine Bleakley 2010

Dressed as the easter bunny with Sir Ben Kingsley 2009 (surreal!)

Matt lands job on The ONE Show!

2009-02-24T06:20:00.000-08:00

On 2nd March 2009 Matt Wenham will begin a three-month contract working on the topical magazine show ‘The ONE Show’. He is very excited at the prospect of working on what has now become BBC 1’s flagship show and is in fact the biggest single commission outside returning drama that the BBC has ever handed out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/theoneshow/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/theoneshow/backstage/tour.shtml

The Secret Life of the Airport

2009-02-24T06:06:00.000-08:00

During January 2009 Matt Wenham worked on a three part series for BBC4 called ‘The Secret Life of the Airport’. The films follow on from the critically acclaimed series ‘The Secret Life of the Motorway’ which explored the history and cultural impact of Motorways in Britain. The ‘The Secret Life of the Airport’ will be similarly following the development of airports from sites of unalloyed glamour and delight, to spaces with more complex associations. A social history of how airports came into being, the series is also an affectionate and entertaining look at how we got used to living with them and the ways in which they changed us. It will be broadcast later this year.

Matt Wenham has worked alongside top documentary camera operator Richard Adam, to shoot interviews with key figures in the aviation and airport world, including the designer of Stansted airport Sir Norman Foster. He has shot actuality at Manchester airport and researched editorial content from the BBC offices at White City.

New DVD Project!

2008-12-09T09:30:00.000-08:00

In December 2008 Matt Wenham will be working on a DVD project for the Farm Crisis Network (FCN); an organisation that provide pastoral and practical support to farming people during periods of anxiety, stress and problems relating to both the farm household and the farm business.

The DVD is expected to be completed in early 2009. For more information about FCN please visit:

http://www.farmcrisisnetwork.org.uk/

For more information about Matt Wenham Media please visit:

http://www.mattwenhammedia.co.uk/

House Guest

2008-12-05T07:24:00.000-08:00

In October 2008 Matt Wenham worked on five episodes of the ITV1 series House Guest in Cambridge. These episodes were aired the week of 1st December 2008 and are available to watch now at the ITV website.

http://www.itv.com/Lifestyle/Food/HouseGuest/default.html

New DVD and book available!

2008-09-22T03:04:00.000-07:00

DVD: The Kingdom in their Eyes - From St Albans to South America

Includes footage shot by Matt Wenham Media on location in Bolivia and Peru and footage from Toybox's 15 year birthday celebrations in St Albans.

When Adrian and Bridget Plass travelled to Bolivia and Peru it wasn't simply for a holiday or to visit the typical tourist hotspots. They went to catch a glimpse of the real South America. From the presidential palace in Lima to some of the poorest communities in the mountains of Bolivia, this was an incredible journey. A journey full of challenges and surprises. A journey they'll never forget.
Through this DVD, Adrian and Bridget invite you to join them on this journey. With footage not only from their travels but also from an event in St Albans which took place shortly afterwards, this is classic Plass with a Latin American flavour! Combining humour, poetry and story telling, Adrian and Bridget entertain, challenge and encourage as they introduce us to children who really do have The Kingdom in their Eyes.

DVD AVAILABLE NOW!

https://www.toybox.org.uk/gifts/toybox/resources

Book: Fountains in the Dust - Snapshots from South America

Features photography by Matt Wenham Media taken on location in Bolivia and Peru.

Up on a hill amidst the dust of Lima, as evening begins to draw in, a weary group of travellers want nothing more than to return to their hotel for some much needed food and sleep. Moments later, as they walk through the large gates in front of them, they step into a fountain.

Fountains in the Dust is a Latin American adventure in a book! Combining photos, stories and poems, this book will take you right to the heart of some of the places where Toybox currently works. Laugh at the travelling tales, cry at the injustice and smile at the children who really are fountains in the dust.

Publish date November 2008. AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER!

https://www.toybox.org.uk/gifts/toybox/resources

DVD 'A World with no Street Children' AVAILABLE NOW!

2008-07-23T04:54:00.000-07:00

A new DVD produced by Matt Wenham Media is now available from: http://www.toyboxcharity.org.uk/dvd_order.html

Join Adrian and Bridget as they meet street children for the first time and be inspired by the extraordinary work of local Toybox partners in Latin America.

Includes: 12 minute feature 2 minute Toybox taster, ideal as a ‘thank you’ or brief introduction PowerPoint notes and background information.

For more information about Matt Wenham Media visit: http://www.mattwenhammedia.co.uk/ or email matt@mattwenhammedia.co.uk.

Thank you!

2008-07-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

Matt Wenham would like to thank everyone who sponsored him and showed support for the London 10K run. He has raised approximately £300 for the Toybox charity and completed the run in 51 minutes. Matt now looks forward to his next challenge!

You can still make a donation by clicking on the link below:

London 10K

2008-06-23T13:18:00.000-07:00

Matt Wenham will be taking part in the London 10K to raise money for The Toybox Charity. Sponsorship money will go towards helping some of the world’s poorest and most deprived children in Latin America.

The eighth annual ASICS British 10K London Run will take place through the heart of historic central London. The race starts at 9.35am on 6th July outside the Hard Rock Cafe on Piccadilly. The route will take runners past central London's world famous historic and iconic landmarks.

Taking part will be Olympic athletes and celebrities from stage and screen, as well as tens of thousands of fun and recreational runners who will raise over a million pounds for the hundreds of participating charities and other causes.

You can support both Matt and The Toybox Charity by clicking on the link below:

On the Frontline

2008-05-30T07:03:00.000-07:00

Imagine a world where children live in gangs, without families, without food and without shelter; where adults turn their back on children, ignoring them as they lie on the pavement or under an overpass, surrounded by dust, rubbish and flies. Imagine a world where an eight year old boy’s only means of escape from his urban prison is to sniff glue from a plastic bag and drift into a deluded sleep. Sadly this is not the back cover of a forgotten George Orwell novel. This is the world we live in; this is central Lima.

It’s a hot January morning; the sun burns through grey sky as the traffic clatters along a busy highway. Today will open my eyes and street children will become a reality. I accompany Martine who is a key member of Toybox’s Red Alert scheme. Martine works on the streets where he makes first contact with children (mostly boys) who have been forced into this horrific lifestyle. He encourages them to visit, or possibly stay at, one of the local shelters or rehabilitation centres.

Naively I assume that this will not be too difficult. After all, surely no child would live on the street given a choice in the matter. But what I forget is that most of these children have only ever been failed by the adults in their lives. They have been raised on a diet of rejection, poverty and abuse. Building their trust is a painstaking process. These are hardened individuals who have learned many of life’s cruellest lessons at a time when they should have been nurtured in a loving family.

Along the side of the road walks a wiry young boy. He wears a grubby red t-shirt and runs a stick along a metal railing before hopping over it and edging his way down a grassy embankment towards a group of figures huddled in the distance. He glances at me as he passes but maintains a look of apathy. I notice that he has no shoes and consider what unsavoury items he might risk treading on. “This is a good place to find street boys” says Martine, “wait here.” I feel a little nervous as he descends the embankment towards the gang in the distance but moments later he beckons for me to join him.

There are about 12 boys altogether: the youngest looks around eight years old; the oldest could be 17 or 18. There is an intoxicating stench of glue and evidence of solvent abuse littered across the floor. The older boys are asleep under cardboard boxes but several of the younger ones seem excited by Martine’s arrival. It is clear that they know him and his presence is welcome. I sit quietly and watch as he opens his backpack and begins to weave a friendship bracelet out of coloured string. Three or four of the boys join him and begin to weave their own with great care and concentration.

Martine explains the dynamics of the group: “The older boys are still asleep. They look after the younger ones but in return they might get them to steal for them. If they wake up we might have to go.” It is clear that without him I would not be so welcome - or so safe. This meeting is very much on their terms and I feel strangely honoured to have been accepted.

It is a joy to watch Martine at work. He is very calm and self-effacing but somehow has a number of the boys hanging on his every word. He shows them affection with the lightest touch to the shoulder or head and speaks to them with the utmost respect; a value that is evidently reciprocated. None of this will ensure that any of these boys will leave life on the streets and accept the help of the local project workers, but seeing them interact with Martine and participate in normal childhood activities, like making the bracelets, exposes the dying embers of childhood innocence.

Martine strikes up conversation with the boy in the red t-shirt. His name is Michael. He tells us that he left home because his father used to beat him. He explains that life on the streets gives him the freedom to live as he pleases, all be it with nothing but the clothes on his back and the company of the other children. When Martine suggests he go to a project, Michael looks thoughtful for a moment but then rejects the idea. “It is impossible to make a child leave the streets; the desire has to come from within them” Martine explains. It occurs to me that the streets are all these children know, other than the previous life which drove them here in the first place. Michael takes Martine’s phone number in case he changes his mind and scampers across the underpass to another set of friends.

We sit with the boys for two and a half hours in total. Martine tactfully makes conversation with the more receptive members of the group; he never intrudes on those who show no interest. Eventually two older boys wake up and seem un-nerved by our presence. As we leave Michael runs back over to Martine to tell him that he’s lost the piece of paper with the number on it, Martine replaces it and we walk away.

For tonight, and possibly many more after it, these boys will stay on the streets. But I just saw a little glimpse of light. In a world that commonly views street children as unwanted pests, Martine offers a glimmer of hope. He is the first step on a long and difficult road. People like him crave no recognition or instant gratification and when asked what motivates him he says only that the children make his life make sense.

As for me, I leave in awe of Martine’s patience and dedication but emotionally drained by what I have seen. He and other volunteers like him are re-building lives on a day to day basis, an act that few of us will perform even once in our life time. I can only hope that the support of Toybox will continue to grow, in order to make this possible.

http://www.mattwenhammedia.co.uk/
http://www.toyboxcharity.org/

Corruption is Cambodia’s real Heart of Darkness

2008-05-30T06:31:00.000-07:00

Crossing the border from Thailand into Cambodia is reminiscent of landing on a strange new planet. My crew however, is a Bohemian rabble of backpackers, and there to welcome us on landing are an intimidating bunch of government officials wielding AK47s and a bureau de change charging 25% commission. Despite reservations, I am here primarily to visit and interview people from non government organizations (NGOs) across the country and explore issues affecting people in one of the worlds poorest countries.

Unlike Thailand which for good or bad has successfully embraced globalisation and the tourist industry, Cambodia has only recently emerged from a dark and tragic history. On the face of things, war, genocide and political instability are in the past, but a few observations five minutes across the boarder suggest that things here are still far from well.

I anticipate that travelling 200km to Siem Reap will take around two and a half hours. As the bus pulls away, we pass a number of makeshift stalls selling just about anything the vendor can get his or her hands on, nuts and bolts, wicker baskets, Beta Max video recorders, deep fried spiders, I do mean anything. Next we pass a huge casino strategically placed for Thailand’s Mavericks who cross the border to escape their own country’s anti-gambling laws. Next to me is Karl, a weather beaten Swede who wears a sweat stained bandana and smells of stale tobacco. I explain to him that I plan to fit in a few hours sight seeing that afternoon. He just laughs and with that we hit the first of many crater sized pot- holes.

It takes ten tedious hours to reach Siem Reap, over some of which Karl explains why this road remains covered in pot- holes and bombed out bridges despite being one of the main tourist routes. Apparently certain people are profiting rather well by not having it renovated and with hindsight a two-hour flight at around $100 does become appealing. And so I am introduced to the type of corruption that makes a Mafia convention look like a few Italian granddads meeting for a pizza and a chat about old times.

One week on, I find myself strangely at home on my new planet. I’m speeding around the capital Phnom Penh on the back of a moped. My driver speaks little English beyond “You want to shoot big guns?” and a number of catch-phrases from Only Fools and Horses. In a style reminiscent of charades I manage to explain that I’m not too bothered about blowing up a cow and that I would like to go to the Khmer newspaper offices. I have arranged an interview with Sophal Leng Stagg, a survivor from the Khmer Rouge era who now runs an NGO called the South East Asian Children’s Mercy Fund (SACMF).

Sophal fled Cambodia in 1979 and now lives in Florida. SACMF work to improve educational opportunities for underprivileged children in Cambodia. This week she is running a training programme in five of Phnom Penh’s poorest schools to educate teachers on more westernised methods of teaching.

A chaotic journey through dusty streets and unruly traffic finds me at the gates of the newspaper’s head office. Just leaving is a black, Toyota Land Cruiser with tinted windows, accompanied by four motorcycle escorts. My driver seems a little uneasy and pulls up a few metres from the main entrance. “I wait here,” he says, “you go inside now”.

Once inside the office grounds a young Khmer man skips away to find Sophal. He is gone some ten minutes before she finally emerges. I know that she has spent most of her life in America but never the less it surprises me when such a Cambodian looking woman speaks in a thick American accent. “I’m so sorry to keep you; we had an unexpected visitor. Let’s go inside out of the sun”.

Apparently Sophal’s agenda has aroused suspicion among the Cambodian authorities. It transpires that the Land Cruiser I saw contained the education minister and that his escorts were armed guards. “Such a waste of my time” she sighs, “they want to know exactly what it is that we’re teaching over here, checking that nothing can incite opposition. I just want these kids to learn how to read and write! If the government can’t look after the poor people then somebody else has to”.

By now we are sat alone on a small conference room. I am confused, surely The Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) and prime minister Hun Sen, rule through democracy? Surely Sophal’s intention to train teachers and improve education for poor children can be of no threat? I came here to find out more about SACMF and the problems facing children in Cambodia but the interview has turned in the direction of something more sinister. Sophal’s tone when discussing politics conveys a sense of danger. She lowers her voice to a whisper, like ‘they’ could be listening and ready to drag her away if she says too much. Finding out more may not be as straightforward as I would like. I divert the conversation in an attempt to make her feel more at ease.

I ask what Sophal believes is Cambodia’s biggest problem. “It boils down to the poverty” she says. “How can a parent afford to send their kid to school it they don’t have the money to feed them first? And how can this country fully recover without educated people? First you’ve got to feed them, then educate them, without those two things you can’t change anything.”

Sophal is right, 40% of Cambodia’s population live below the poverty line and as such looking for rubbish to recycle on the local dump site, usually takes priority over going to school. In an environment where survival cannot be taken for granted, education becomes an expensive luxury. I learn about a lady who SACMF have recently been giving support to. She looks after her five young grandchildren, alone in a village on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. The children’s parents were both victims of AIDS. “I asked the woman, ‘what one thing do you really need?’” says Sophal. “She told me, a fence around her hut and the few vegetables that she was trying to grow outside it. This way she would feel more secure and animals would stop trampling her crops.” To be self sufficient in feeding her family meant more to the woman than anything else, and to some extent this could be provided by something as simple as a fence. The story demonstrates the priorities of a vast majority of Cambodians.

So I wondered, where is the international aid going? Why are there so many beautiful villas and hotels scattered around this otherwise poverty stricken city? And why, in a county where you are considered lucky to own a moped, do you come across the odd four wheel drive vehicle worth over $50,000? Having talked for half an hour about Sophal’s organisation, the tension left behind by the minister of education’s visit seems to have subsided. Never the less, I approached these questions with caution.

“It all boils down to greed” she says with conviction. “By the time the money gets to the poor people, it’s almost gone”. Cambodia has had its share of international aid but Sophal goes as far as to suggest that up to 70% of this money goes no further than the pockets of corrupt government officials. As a small NGO and a non-profit organisation, SACMF are in a strong position to give directly to the Cambodian people, but even Sophal is obliged to keep certain officials on-side.

“Anything we ship into the country from America, for example medicines or school equipment, is subject to a lot of taxation” she says. “However, I have an agreement with certain people, and if I let them take the credit and get positive publicity, that tax might just be lightened or perhaps overlooked altogether.” I can’t believe what I am hearing. It seems that either way the CPP come out on top, whether they line their own pockets with aid money or take credit other peoples work to make it look as if they are committed to Cambodia’s development.

At present the CPP control two thirds of the seats in the National Assembly needed to form a government. Sophals tells me how she fears that the lack of a strong opposition is gradually turning Cambodia back into a totalitarian society.

Her fears carry added weight in light of the fact that as recently as December 2005, opposition leader Sam Rainsy was sentenced to 18 months in jail and fined $14,000 for alleging that Prime Minister Hun Sen was behind a grenade attack on opposition protesters in 1997. Rainsy fled to Paris from where he told the Phnom Penh post “the verdict came from politicians in the ruling party who want to get rid of the opposition”.

I leave the newspaper with a strong sense of admiration for Sophal’s dedication to helping Cambodia’s poor, even if it means playing somewhat into the hands of such a corrupt system. I realise the value of organisations like SACMF who show unprecedented commitment towards dragging Cambodia out of poverty and educating its people so that they may one day stand on their own two feet. Unfortunately another part of me fears that it is this type of political bullying which continues to hinder the country’s development and make Hun Sen’s leadership increasingly authoritarian. If this is a strange planet, then surely its prime minister would take on the role of Star Wars character Jabba the Hut, wallowing in greed while his citizens are enslaved in a vicious cycle of poverty and no education.

www.mattwenhammedia.co.uk
www.cambodiamercyfund.org