Sunderland AFC Keroche: The Film

Hi, my name is David Kenny I am a final year digital film production student who alongside two others Kevin Clift and Matt Ward are going to Kenya in February to tell a rather special story. Prior to this we all used to run a media production company filming weddings, night clubs you name it; But in May of this year we were contacted by Gary Lamb who in a brief summary contacted us just to tell us about Sunderland AFC Keroche. Kevin spoke to Gary for a good hour, we then met in an old social club in Seaburn and in that meeting we fell in love with this story. Regardless of how expensive it was going to cost we were going to tell this story.

Your probably wondering what this story is well as our kickstarter states it ‘is a story about two different communities and how the love of one game has changed the lives of those living in a small town.' back in 2008 Gary Lamb came across the team on facebook back in 2008 he started to inquire more about the team and why they were called Sunderland AFC Keroche. He soon grew to know more about the team and wanted to give them a helping hand. Gary asked the community of Sunderland to donate Sunderland football shirts. The response was over whelming with donations of: full kits, brand new football boots, first aid kits and even goal nets. Tombola, a local Sunderland company helped with shipping seven large crates to Keroche. Following the over whelming response for kit Gary could not stop and went about raising money to cover costs of running the football team. Once again the community of Sunderland put their hands in their pockets and raised £2,500 meaning the team no longer had to pay for subs and were now able to pay for travel to away games. With the over whelming successes the team were also able to make a football pitch at the local school; this has not only benefited the team, but also the young people at the school.

The team have also recently been able to set up a children's football academy allowing the young people to not only play football, but most importantly it has given the children something to aspire to. With this now in place the village has seen a reduction in the children committing crime or becoming involved in drugs.

Skip to 6 months later after Gary told us this amazing story it is surreal to think how far along we have come and how close we are to February when we will be jumping on the plane to Amsterdam and then to Nairobi! On Tuesday of last week we launched our kickstarter campaign which is a crowd sourcing website which means if you like our idea and pledge as little as £10 you will get a gift in return, however for this to happen or for us to receive the money we need to make the best film possible we need to reach our goal of £2,625 by January 4th. We understand completely that money is tight but we feel this story is something which just needs to be shared! It is a unique story and one which I am sure has never been told and for us to have the chance to tell this story!

When we are out in Keroche we aim to tell the story of how the small donation of shirts has dramatically changed the face of this small town. When we are out there we will be having interviews with Keroche Breweries, as they are one of the many sponsors of the club who have recently paid for a new pitch to be laid. We will also be talking to local radio stations of course the team, talking to the children of the academy and also the families of the team. With such a short space of time of only a week to get this film shot we are currently in the process of talking to players via mobile phone conversations and getting as much as possible done at home in England to when we are out there in February.

I thank you for reading this and if you want to read more just head over to our kickstarter @ http://bit.ly/keroche

David Kenny

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