Filmmaker completes project to make a film every week for a year

Filmmaker Azeem Mustafa

A year ago filmmaker Azeem Mustafa, 26, was frustrated with his lack of creative output and resolved to make 52 films in as many weeks. Last month he achieved his goal, buoyed on by Hackney-based social enterprise Mediorite and a film club he set up during the project.

Despite late nights, a hectic schedule and the occasional Sunday-night-deadline panic, Mustafa remained committed to the 52-52 Project, and spent the entire year writing scripts, casting, securing locations, shooting, directing and editing.

With new ideas needed weekly, his films sparked a great variety of themes, including: martial-arts action, comedic film-noir, time-travel sci-fi, zombie comedy, psychological thriller and a stop-motion stapler-romance.

“One week I was shooting for a charity for vulnerably-housed adults, the next I was interviewing the cast of a feature film about rock bands and vampires,” says Mustafa.

Six months into the project, Mustafa set up a film club in Hackney to collaborate with others interested in filmmaking. The club breathed new life into the project, giving him more options and opportunities, with members taking on roles behind and in-front-of the camera.

“Sometimes we’ll just show up to a place with a single idea and around that idea improvise everything else. We rarely take shot lists with us. It’s very guerrilla,” he explains.

Mustafa says the best part of the project was gaining 52 films-worth of hands-on experience in filmmaking, as well as seeing his own progress, meeting lots of different people and getting great feedback on his films.

Now it is complete though, Mustafa has turned his focus to longer film projects, including his film Beauty, which will be featured in an exhibition later this year.

See the films at youtube.com/OfficeMustafa
Join Film Club or find out more by emailing officemustafa@gmail.com