BYkids welcomes 17-year-old Faiza Almontaser, as the fifth filmmaker to share her experiences of Islamophobia in a post-9/11 New York, bullying and immigration after she arrived in Brooklyn from Yemen. Faiza will be mentored by the legendary Albert Maysles.

BYkids premieres a short film created by advertising superstars Jill Andresevic, Alonso Davila, Ty Baker and Stephanie Apt and her generous team at Final Cut. Their 90-second masterpiece captures the BYkids vision: https://bykids.org/films/see-the-world-through-my-eyes/

Bowdoin College, led by two summer interns, begins using BYkids films in their curriculum and hosts a campus-wide screening of HOME IS WHERE YOU FIND IT.

BYkids and Albert Maysles host a benefit screening and Q&A of rarely seen films by Albert to raise money for the upcoming film that Albert will mentor. Attendees celebrate at dinner at Red Rooster Harlem with chef Marcus Samuelsson.

The International House at UC Davis and Senses Cultural sponsor a screening of BYkids films in Sacramento on October 23 and then BYkids will take four of their films for a festive night at the University of London’s Brunei Gallery in London on November 30th.

https://www.soas.ac.uk/cccac/events/bykids—senses-cultural/

16-year-old director, Jayshree Janu Kharpade, wins the One to Watch Award for her FIRE IN OUR HEARTS at the 35th Annual Asian American International Film Festival in New York City. “With a strong courage to learn and conviction to give back to others, Jayshree documents her family and village, as well as the tenacious efforts of the tribal union for the equal rights to education, thanks to which she is able to attend a school for tribal girls,” says the festival director.

Jayshree is getting media attention in India and raising awareness about the struggles of 80 million tribal people in her country.

http://www.sunday-guardian.com/masala-art/storyteller-at-sixteen-one-girls-remarkable-rise

In a feature article and video on Boldfacers, Holly Carter (Founder and Executive Director of BYkids) talks about how to engage American kids in global issues and explains how helping kids will help us all.

We are lucky to have some very special interns for the summer. Starting with Jordan Wechsler from Dalton, who spent the month of May working for BYkids as his senior initiative, we also have Matthew Marr and Molly Rider from Bowdoin and Noelle Durkin and Hannah Kliot from Dalton. Thanks to the other members of the Junior Committee including Alex Mabred and Veronica Mukhia and the gang from Collegiate.

Our sold-out Benefit is a fantastic success! The sneak peak of our upcoming film by 16-year-old Marí­a Ceballos Paz of Colombia aroused passionate interest amongst benefit guests, and Film Mentor Susan Hoenig shared fascinating stories of the making of this powerful film. Thanks to all, the evening raises over $40,000 for BYkids. See photos here »

We also unveiled a rough cut of our new promo donated by advertising wizards Alonso Davila and Ty Baker and the generous Stephanie Apt and Betty Jo Moore of Final Cut Pro.

Overseen by film producer and mentor, Susan Hoenig, editing begins on our Colombian film in Los Angeles.

International pop-superstar, Juanes, is writing original music for our next film BYkids: Colombia. Both a Grammy and 17-time Latin Grammy winner, Juanes is Billboard’s “Star of the Decade”.