BBC Fresh Profile: Ruby Thompson

Filmmaker Ruby Thompson describes her filmmaking motivations.

Ruby is co-director of the film Hide and Tweet with Bragi Arnason, Amber Poppelaars and Royston Heath. She says: "Our topic was mainly inspired by a growing awareness of the unjust conclusions that people make about Islam."

Why did you pick this subject for Fresh?

Prejudice towards Islam and hatred on social media are two very current topics that we think a lot of young people have to deal with. We think it's important for young people to discuss these issues and hopefully think of some ways to counter the negativity that is often so prevalent social media, especially while the internet continues to expand and influence current affairs.

What motivated you to make this film?

We wanted to take a look at how prejudice towards Islam affects young Muslims. By talking a young person affected by online abuse, and experts on sociology and social media, we aimed to learn more about the rise of prejudice online, have a discussion about how hurt young people can be by this, and open up a discussion about how to counter some of it.

What camera did you use to shoot your film?

We shot the film on a number of different cameras, though during the editing we sometimes wish we hadn’t. These were a Canon 650D, Canon 5D and Sony NEX-VG20.

Who/what inspires you?

Louis Theroux and Ken Burns are inspirational in terms of documentary filmmaking. Our topic was mainly inspired by a growing awareness of the unjust conclusions that people make about Islam. We felt inspired to create a film that showed two sides.

What are your plans for the future?

We are currently making another short documentary with the same team. We just want to keep on finding stories that we feel need to be heard, and expand our expertise in documentary filmmaking.

What is the most important thing you have learned so far?

That it’s really good to be persistent, especially when finding contributors.