Lottery fund helps artists to get their skates on

HUDDERSFIELD arts organisation Blink has been granted £4,000 in Lottery cash to make a documentary about skateboarding.

Blink, based at JL Brierly Mills in Quay Street, is one of 19 groups to be granted Lottery cash, which is being channelled through First Light - the UK Film Council's young person's film-making initiative.

First Light helps five to 18-year-olds across the UK to make short films under the guidance of professional filmmakers.

To date, over 8,500 young people have made films with First Light.

Blink has been co-ordinating projects with artists and organisations all over the UK since forming in 1995, and it will use the Lottery cash to make a film with a group of eight 12 to 16-year-old skaters in Fenland, Cambridgeshire.

The film, entitled Skating Where It's Flat, will be shot from the viewpoints of the skater and the skateboard.

Pip Eldridge, First Light chief executive, said: "This project is admirable in how Huddersfield arts professionals are prepared to bring film-making opportunity to rural Cambridgeshire. We have strong hopes for this nationwide collaboration."

John Woodward, chief executive of the UK Film Council, added: "First Light is testament to the British film industry's desire to involve young people in the excitement and creativity of film-making.

"The UK Film Council is proud to see so many fabulous ideas being turned into accomplished films across the UK, involving young people from many different backgrounds."