Charity Steel Warriors Turns Confiscated Knives into Outdoor Community Gyms

Anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 knife offences were committed in the UK each year over the last five years. In response to that, Steel Warriors was born. A charity that was created by Ben Wintour and his partner Pia Fontesto, the concept for Steel Warriors is to melt down confiscated knives taken off the streets and recycle the steel into outdoor community gyms. To date they have built three around London and have more to come around the UK.   

HunkyDory director Nick Jay said of the film: “For me this is a powerful initiative and I felt compelled to create this Film. Ben and I had spoken about this for a while and finally the timing worked. The project was directed, edited, and shot by me and it takes me back to my grassroots of shooting a story with just me and a camera. As a storyteller it's all about the script and idea and how well can you execute that. For me on this project I wanted to bring you into a world that you may not know about and give you a sense of what Steel Warriors has created which is a powerful concept. I knew I would have to dig deep on this project and really work hard to bring all that energy to life, focus on all the intricacies of the art in the sport, the craft, the stories, the people, stay true to their environment and hopefully end up with a f'ing cool inspiring film. 

I had some incredible help a long way with my friends Frederic van Strydonck, Tom Kral and Ben Fyfield shooting the film, Denis Kilty on sound design, Will Douglas on photography and there was an amazing team day to day running Steel Warriors carried out by Juan Lopez (community manager) and Elly Dymond (managing director at Steel Warriors) with support from Lucky Generals advertising agency here in London who are a Steel Warriors partner. 

Overall, I'm proud of this one. It's a raw, honest film and I hope it motivates a few people to go out a do some positive things with their life no matter how big or small that change may be.”