Look@Me
Look@Me is a film and education outreach project pioneered by the Cork International Film Festival in 2022. The project aims to empower young people to tell their own stories through film by offering practical workshops in filmmaking.
The most recent iteration of Look@Me was made possible thanks to Rethink Ireland’s Impact Fund for Munster and was a collaboration with Cork Migrant Centre. Over six weeks, young people from migrant centres across Cork came together under the tutelage of filmmakers Maximilian Le Cain and Chris Hurley of the Cork Film Centre. Their completed films will premiere at the 70th Cork International Film Festival on Saturday 15th of November.
Previous iterations of Look@Me were held in collaboration with Strawberry Hill National School with the support of Bank of Ireland’s Begin Together Arts Fund in association with Business to Arts. Working with 5th Class pupils and UCC Film Students, they created The Magical Tortilla Chip, in 2022 and Make Sense in 2023.
The films made for Look@Me 2025, in collaboration with Cork Migrant Centre, will premiere at 11 AM on Saturday, 15th of November at the Arc Cinema.
This project was supported through funding from Rethink Ireland’s Impact Fund for Munster. To learn more about Rethink Ireland, click here.
About
Look@Me empowers primary school pupils and young people to share their stories, providing a platform for their voices. The project also enables professional filmmakers like Max to deepen their practice in the role of film as a communication tool for marginalised groups, whilst youth leader mentors and UCC students get to gain practical experience and develop community filmmaking skills.
The programme engages young people by demystifying the filmmaking process and furthering engagement in the arts, encouraging greater awareness of creative career paths and the power of this popular medium to explore sometimes difficult topics such as health and wellbeing.
School teachers and youth workers are also engaged to view the film and learn about the programme, and the finished film will reach a wide audience, including the school population, students’ families, film/arts community groups, and Festival audiences.
In addition to this, Look@Me supports the development of new artistic work, created together by all involved, shared widely with peers.
The pilot of Look@Me was supported by the Bank of Ireland Begin Together Arts Fund in partnership with Business to Arts, and delivered with support from the Department of Film and Screen Media in University College Cork.
The 2024 iteration of the Look@Me film and education project is supported through Cork City Council by the Creative Ireland Programme, an all-of-government five-year initiative, from 2023 to 2027, which places creativity at the centre of public policy. Further information from creativeireland.gov.ie.
The 2025 iteration of the Look@Me film and education project is supported through Rethink Ireland’s Impact Fund for Munster 2024, a fund that aims to foster a sustainable and inclusive future for the Munster region by investing in innovative projects that address interconnected social and environmental challenges.
For enquiries, please contact schools@corkfilmfest.org
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