The BFI Award-winning series, which gives cameras and training to people to record their own lives.
The Reluctant Mamoushka
Last year Edel O'Brien went to Russia as unpaid chaperone to nine Irish teenage girls beginning their first term at the Perm Ballet School. With no school lessons or activities set up for the girls, and virtually no contact with the Irish organisers, Edel's job soon becomes a nightmare of chaos and frustration. Struggling to look after the group, whose major preoccupations are
Russian boys and chocolate, she tries to combat their boredom and homesickness. Meanwhile, the ballet school seems totally unprepared for its western pupils and more interested in the money they are paying than their dancing abilities.
Edel's diary is a beautiful tribute to ballet, set against the struggle of the Russian people of Perm as communism comes to an end. As the first term draws to a close, she wonders if she can cope with the job. Series producer Bob Long
9 SUGGESTIONS: if you would like to make a video diary, write to Video Diaries, Community Programme Unit, BBCtv. Television Centre, London W 12 7RJ.