Families bereaved by violence back film to stop the killings

Families bereaved by knife and gun crime united in Leicester Square at the premiere of a film designed to highlight the issue of violence.

Nearly 100 relatives of people shot or stabbed to death have backed Hip Hop Opera. The shoestring production was made in Brixton after a string of murders of young people.

The film follows a fictional shooting and the fall-out from the death, interspersing it with the testimony of mothers who have lost children.

Producer Raymond Stevenson said: "One day last year, we decided we wanted to do a campaign and we went and met some mothersand they told us their stories. By the time they'd finished, everyone in the room was crying, including myself.

"The sad thing is there are many young people out there who can get quickly seduced in 'the game'. You have to realise that these people are disillusioned anyway and then one situation, one piece of disrespect, one 'dissing' of that person can escalate, and before you know it, guns are involved."

One of the mothers at the premiere, Wilma Francis, lost her son Arian Julius when he was shot dead aged 22 in an East End nightclub last year.

"Every week, another mother has lost her son," she said."So I'm just hoping that when the film comes out, out of 10 people who carry a gun, even if just one of them sees the film and puts the gun away it will be worth it."

Also present were Mark Prince and Tracie Cumberbatch, the parents of Queen's Park Rangers youth footballer Kiyan Prince. The 15-year-old was knifed outside the gates of his school in Edgware last May.