3 August, 2009 12:14PM AEDT



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Kaleidescope: reflections of young people in Greater Shepparton is a documentary that looks at the interaction of different cultures in our local community.

The film is part of a larger project funded by the Australian Government under their National Action Plan.

Director and producer Kate Emerson from Word and Mouth says the purpose of this funding is to build on social cohesion, harmony and security in the community.

Word and Mouth is the youth branch of Shepparton Council that encourages young people to interact with their community.

"I guess that's an interesting point building on security, because it's designed to have Muslim young people work on community projects with non-Muslim young people.

"It is about making sure that they are interacting, that they have positive role models in their lives and that they feel connected to this community."

Emerson says behind the scenes making this documentray, young people from various cultures who hadn't mixed, did.

The Goulburn Valley has a strong, long history of migration with people travelling nationally and internationally for work.

"Our population in Greater Shepparton is very youthful and the cultural diversity is at its peak in the youth population so that's where things get ironed out and issues get sorted out.

"I think more recent arrivals, they've come from very different places and different experiences and also significantly different religions so the culture has been quite different.

"We don't often look at how do international pressures, how does terrorism, how do wars in Afghanistan impact on the youth population here?

"There are significant impacts in our part of the world, in Greater Shepparton, that we may not think of when we are watching the news or seeing asylum seekers in the water."

Getting people to engage in the project didn't prove too difficult.

"This short film involved a mini bus, and that meant that we didn't ask people to come to us we would go to them and we were lucky to have assistance to get onto a mosque and to go onto rural properties and farms, we were welcomed into people's homes.

"Engaging young people meant that we were literally sitting on the grass down at the skate park, we were walking through the mall in Maude Street, Shepparton and we set up the camera and microphone there and once a couple of young people caught onto the fact that they were going to be on the film they were lined up to do it.

"As soon as they saw one young person having a serious interview and they seemed comfortable to answer all the questions, then they couldn't wait for their turn."

Emerson says local Mayor Geoff Dobson described the documentary as "thought provoking".

"[He said] that it was very important that we take on board the honest account of young people, so it is a bit of 'warts and all' of Shepparton.

"We're not saying it's perfect, it does talk about confrontations when young people might use cultural difference as an excuse for violence."

Emerson hopes the documentary will be screened nationally, "That would be a terrific outcome."