Beyond Empathy Crowd Funding Campaign
Rites of Passage is a feature film of love and hope made by young people in the Illawarra whose lives are anything but ordinary. As they grow into adults, this extraordinary film made over three years is their Rites of Passage.
Beyond Empathy has worked for three years in collaboration with a group of young people, who have experienced various kinds of hardship and adversities in their lives, on the production of a film. Because the film has been shot over a three year period the cast of the film have been growing up with the stories they have been creating. The screening of the film they have been working on will be a public ritual that acknowledges how they have grown and what they can achieve. You are invited to be part of that moment.
The cast of Rites of Passage include young people who have been homeless, who have mental illnesses or who have a family member with a mental illness, who have been in trouble with the law, who have experienced or witnessed violence, who have known grief and loss, who have struggled at school, who have grown up in public housing estates, who have used drugs and alcohol to hide painful life histories or live with adults who do the same.
They have collaborated with Beyond Empathy to create fictional narratives that explore the kinds of adversities and dilemmas that young people can face. They have performed as actors in these fictional stories. They have helped as crew as the film has been made over the past three years.
The stories are about growing up and, because the cast have grown up over the time we have been filming, the way they have matured and changed is part of the tapestry of the film.
Rites of Passage is a feature-length drama film made up of many stories: a film anthology of stories about young people growing up. The crowd funding campaign has raised over $30,000 towards the film.