Funding campaign for a story of our times

BMV Studios has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise enough money to produce a pilot episode of a five-part television drama series about the negative impact of absent fathers.

The aim is to raise £6,500 to produce the first episode of the drama called Saving Malik, which tells the story of one man who sets about ending the ongoing cycle of young men growing up without the mentorship of a father.

Series creator Serge Mirindi, a filmmaker from South London, hopes to have the fundraising finished by the end of May, with the aim of having the pilot shot, edited and ready for screening within five weeks. He then hopes to use the pilot to secure further investment for the remaining episodes.

Saving Malik focuses on Dean, a youth support worker who grew up without his father. Now a reformed character, his early life was blighted by crime that culminated in him murdering the father of two-year-old Malik.

Seventeen years later and the fatherless, troubled Malik is on the same downward spiral. Dean makes it his objective to become the teenager’s mentor – the role model he took from the child.

Serge says he was inspired to write the drama after his brother became a victim of knife crime in 2016.

He says: “This project is dear to my heart as I was also raised without a father. With a great deal of empathy for fatherless young men, I intend to share this story of redemption, forgiveness and hope to encourage and remind them to always see the value in themselves no matter the circumstances.

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. Every boy is going to emulate a man somewhere; whether he is good or bad.”