Collaborative Filmmaking: Glitches in the Stream by Cuckoo Young Writers
Filmmaking can often feel like a solitary act—behind the camera, alone in the edit suite, shaping footage into meaning. But every so often, a project comes along that reminds you just how powerful collaborative filmmaking can be. Glitches in the Stream was exactly that.
This short film-poem was created through collaborative filmmaking with Cuckoo Young Writers, a dynamic programme run by New Writing North that supports and nurtures the next generation of writers in the North of England. The group is made up of talented young poets, novelists, and spoken word artists, each bringing their own voice, experience, and imagination to the table. The poet and writer John Challis played a crucial role in helping shape the work, guiding the young writers as they developed and refined the poem that became the film’s narrative thread.
Our project began with walks along the River Ouseburn, a post-industrial valley in Newcastle that snakes through parks, culverts, and culture spaces before spilling into the Tyne. Together, we explored the river and its surroundings, discussing how place, memory, and digital life flow and fracture in similar ways.
The title—Glitches in the Stream—emerged from these conversations: a nod to both the broken, beautiful nature of the Ouseburn and the ways we navigate life online and offline. The young writers each created poetic responses to the river—sometimes lyrical, sometimes fractured, sometimes deeply personal.
What made this project distinct was its commitment to collaborative filmmaking. Rather than simply filming their performances, I invited the young writers to take part in the filmmaking process itself. I showed them how to use the cameras, how to frame a shot, how to think in moving images. They weren’t just subjects—they were co-creators. The result is a patchwork of perspectives: hands holding cameras under bridges, reflections caught on water, words layered over shadows and stone.
My role was more like a guide than a director—helping them find ways to translate their writing into visual language. This is the essence of collaborative filmmaking: creating space for shared authorship and allowing a film to grow from many voices, not just one. The film is theirs as much as mine, shaped by their instincts, their rhythms, and their eye for detail.
Working with New Writing North, John Challis, and the Cuckoo programme was a reminder that creativity thrives in unexpected spaces. The young writers didn’t need a big crew or expensive kit—they needed space, trust, and encouragement to experiment. And in return, they brought energy, originality, and insight that pushed the film into new, surprising territory. Their openness to trying things—filming through cracked glass, whispering lines into culverts, playing with shadow and focus—created a visual language that felt instinctive and personal.
These moments weren’t about technical perfection but emotional truth. In many ways, the film reflects the same ‘glitchy’ quality as the river itself: shifting, elusive, layered with history and interference. It also shows what happens when young people are offered genuine authorship over a creative process. This wasn’t just about giving them a voice—it was about letting them shape the entire conversation through the principles of collaborative filmmaking.
The finished film is a hybrid—part poetry, part documentary, part digital artefact. It captures not just a place, but a moment in time: a group of young creatives mapping meaning onto a river and reclaiming it through art. It stands as a record of collaborative filmmaking at its most open and exploratory—embracing uncertainty, inviting experimentation, and foregrounding process over polish.
There’s a quiet energy running through the film, like the Ouseburn itself—sometimes still, sometimes turbulent, always moving forward. You see it in the edits, feel it in the words, and sense it in the way the camera lingers just a second longer than expected. Glitches in the Stream isn’t just about landscape or language—it’s about ownership, connection, and how collaborative filmmaking can shape the way we understand the world around us. Watching it back, I’m reminded that these small, collective projects often leave the deepest impression. They make space—for voices, for play, for new ways of seeing.
📽️ Watch more of my film projects with young people here:
https://alanfentiman.co.uk/vimeo-videos/young-people/
🌊 Title: Glitches in the Stream
✍️ Writers: Cuckoo Young Writers
📚 Programme: New Writing North
📍 Location: River Ouseburn, Newcastle
🎬 Filmmaking by Alan Fentiman in collaboration with the young writers