River Sweeney graduated from Goldsmiths College where she studied Drama and Theatre Arts and majored in Live Art. For the past 15 years she has used her creativity as a tool to rehabilitate and empower.

In October 2001 she was awarded a Millennium Award by CEMVO and funding from The Single Regeneration Budget to design and deliver a Video Production-training programme for 15 African/Caribbean young people between the ages of 16-24. The programme, which was centred on a documentary she herself is producing and co-directing, the documentary sets out to explore if the representation, or misrepresentation of African /Caribbeans in the media affect the aspirations of young people and the way in which they perceive themselves.

The documentary is a 90-minute piece, which will be divided into three 30- minute films that will be complete if shown individually.

The intention behind the project is to address the imbalance in positive portrayals of African/Caribbean people within the media. The objective is to use the visual mediums available to portray realistic progressive images of black people in Britain and Africa. She believes that the starting point must be an exploration of the positive aspects of pre-slavery, pre-colonial African culture.

It has been too long that the oppression of black people has continued via the negative images of our culture that we are constantly fed however insidious these may be. Although we cannot deny the suffering and calamities, which befall, black people in Africa and the Diaspora (as with other peoples). However these are experiences and not who we are.

The media continually fails to reflect this cultures resilience and power of spirit, faith and the ability to keep looking up and moving forward.

We are living in a visual age where TV, film and computers hold such power. The language of these mediums is the one that the youth understands in the 21st century in the West and increasingly around the world. Images possess much command, as they have no language barrier hence become transferable. It is difficult to believe that at this time our history, or what will become our history, is still being written and produced from a euro centric perspective we need to encourage our youth to take up residence in the media to balance the scales. And inform of the importance of heritage.

"Heritage, in essence, is how people have used their talent to create a history that gives them memories that hey can respect, and use to command the respect of other people. The ultimate purpose of heritage, and heritage teaching, is to use a people's talent to develop awareness and pride in themselves so that they can become a better instrument for living together with other people. This sense of identity is the stimulation for all of a people's honest and creative efforts. A people's relationship to its heritage is the same as the relationship of a child to its mother".
John Henrik Clark-
Professor Emeritus, Hunter College, New York
(1973)

The pre-production training programme ran for 4 weeks comprising of sessions on, Team Building, Confidence/Motivation Skills, Identity/History, Understanding the Media and Communication/Presentation skills. The training also included a session on fund raising and turning creative ideas into business.

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