Director's statement
"The starting point was when I began clipping photographs from newspaper stories about missing or murdered children. I was intrigued by the use of those smiling school portraits or family holiday snaps – photographs that had been taken within the ‘safe’ confines of the institution or the family to document happy times.
When taken out of context and used to illustrate an article about the death of a child they have an almost unbearable poignancy…a picture editor’s dream. When a child goes missing or dies it’s amazing how many more copy inches are given if she is pretty and white rather than male or non-white. Good looking girls and the promise of an uncomfortable and scandalous drama we can participate in is clearly what sells papers. The language used in the headlines is so emotive too, and serves to reinforce all sorts of attitudes we have in the UK about childhood and the dangers therein. The hysterical demonising of paedophiles eclipses other, more pervasive threats to the safety of our children, that of their selves and their own parents. The more I looked into it, the more bothersome it became…"

Screenings
Channel 4 Television. Wednesday 22nd October 2003, 24.35
Chicago International Documentary Festival, USA. April 2004
European Media Art Festival, Osnabruck, Germany. April 2004
Seattle International Documetary Festival, Seattle Art Museum, USA
COURTisane festival of film, video & new media, Ghent, Belgium
Hamburg Short Film Festival, Germany. June 2004
Split Film Festival, Croatia, June 2004
Odense Film Festival, Denmark. August 2004
VIPER festival of film, video & new media, Basel, Switzerland.2004
Brief Encounters Short Film Festival, Bristol, UK. 2004
Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, Germany, Nov 2004
Goethe Institute, Kyoto, Japan, Oct 2004
Goethe Institute, Bogota, Colombia, Oct 2004
Medienhaus, Hannover, Germany, October 2004
Cultural Center, Chicago, USA, October 2004
Institute of Art & Design, Milwaukee, USA, October 2004
Profile Intermedia 7, Bremen, Germany, December 2004
Dom Kulture, Beograd, Serbia, December 1004
Filmtheater 't Hoogt, Utrecht, Netherlands. January 2005
Festival International du Court Metrage, Lille, France. March 2005
Center for Contemporary Culture, Barcelona, March 2005
Contemporary Artc Centre, Warsaw, Poland, April 2005
Annexia Festival, Goethe Institute, Toulouse, France. May 2005
NOASS Video, "World Video Art" programme, Riga, Latvia. May 2005
Muu, Mostra de Curtas Metragens, Portugal. June 2005
Shadow Festival, Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 2005
VPRO, Netherlands national television, Nachtpodium, Nov 25th 2005
Filmbar, Hildesheim, Germany, November 2005
Galerie Adler, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1/9/07 to 13/10/07 www.galerieadler.com
Suffragette City, The Spare Room Gallery, London. 07/08

Credits
Stills Photography: Peter Williams
Steadicam: Fred Fabre
Graphic Design: Jeremy Williams
Animation: Asher Edwards, Robert Arnold, Joe King
Rostrum: Ken Morse
Scanning: Justin Bailey, Scanplus
Prosthetics: Madeleine van Groeningen

Featuring: Sophie Knight, Natasha Laing, Jamie Levy, George Hayter, Jack Hayter, Nikki Malone, Luke Malone, Hylton Stockwell

Narration: Hugh Fraser
Poems: The Fusco Brothers
Sound Design: Charlotte Tedbury

Produced and Directed by Roz Mortimer

An animate! film funded by Channel 4 and Arts Council England