A Sequel film highlighting the consequences of fatal knife attacks is helping the Ben Kinsella Trust educate young people about knife crime.

Sequel’s video team made the film in partnership with the Trust and the Jodie Chesney Foundation. It will be shown to school children at the Trust’s new Barking, East London exhibition to discourage young people from carrying knives.

The film describes the dreadful consequences for 17-year-old Jodie Chesney’s family and friends after she was stabbed in a London park in 2019. She didn’t know her attackers who had mistaken her for someone else; two teenagers were jailed for her murder.

The film includes interviews with Jodie’s father, her uncle and best friend Clarice. Her dad Peter describes her as a ‘proud geek’ with a close group of like-minded friends. Her uncle Terry said she was ‘just wonderful’. Clarice talked about their ‘beautiful friendship’ and said: ‘Jodie’s death broke me in ways that I didn’t know a person could be broken’.

In a direct appeal to young people, Jodie’s dad asks anyone thinking of carrying a knife to consider the consequences. ‘Is it worth it? You have one life and it’s really, really precious,’ he says.

He praised Sequel for the creation and sensitive production of the film and said it is a ‘moving and beautiful tribute’ to Jodie.

Sequel is working with the Trust on two more films to share the stories of other young people killed by knife attacks in the Barking area. And we’re working on the Trust’s impact report, showing how visiting one of their interactive exhibitions changes young people’s minds about carrying knives.