Run Free, the new documentary charting the experience of the participants in our JUMP Jamaica project, is set to receive its European premiere at the 2019 Glasgow Film Festival.

Directed by Simon Sharkey and Benjamin Zecher, the film charts the journey of the thirteen young men from downtown Kingston who took part, following as they create a piece of theatre that impacts both them and their community through their struggles over three years of engagement and development. The resulting performance piece, Run Free, saw the group travel across the world, many for the first time, to perform as part of the 2016 Home/Away festival of participatory arts in Glasgow.

The premiere will be attended by Lesley-Ann Welsh of Manifesto Jamaica, who led the Run Free project, as well as Giovanne Hinds, one of the young participants. Both will also take part in a post-screening Q+A alongside the film’s co-director Simon Sharkey.

JUMP Jamaica was an expansion of the National Theatre of Scotland’s pioneering original Jump programme, which delivered a series of workshops in secondary schools in areas of multiple deprivation in Fife and the East End of Glasgow. Over the course of six months, over 1000 young participants took part in regular parkour and theatre-making classes, exploring their own challenges and experiences of young manhood to create two new pieces of physical theatre. These were performed to public audiences and to critical acclaim in Glenrothes and Easterhouse in 2012.

Run Free screens at the CCA 3.45pm on Sunday 24 February 2019.Tickets available through the Glasgow Film Festival.