A 12-minute version of our Mozambique film is one of ten films selected from 300 as part of the second annual Youth Producing Change series (a collaboration between Adobe Youth Voices and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival) to screen at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. “The Adobe Foundation is proud to partner with Human Rights Watch in providing a platform for these remarkable young filmmakers to explore and comment on their world,” says Michelle Mann, executive director of the Adobe Foundation. “By calling attention to human rights issues, these youth are inspiring audiences worldwide and demonstrating the power to express ideas, engage stakeholders and effect change through digital media.”

HOME IS WHERE YOU FIND IT wins Best of the Fest and the Dan Eldon Activist Award in the My Hero Short Film Festival, at the University of Southern California’s Norris Theater. In addition to well-deserved kudos and bravos, young filmmaker Alcides Soares receives a $2,000 cash prize that will support his next film.

Griffin Adams, a member of the Junior Board and a senior at the Collegiate School in New York, assembled 250 Collegiate high school students for a screening, discussion and lunch with Holly Carter. The reviews from the audience were heartwarming. “Watching the movie made me feel the problem…I felt involved and affected,” said one student. And Laura Hansen head of the upper school, offered this: “BYkids allows American youth to become genuinely engaged in the lives of young people from places far away, using the power of story to help turn strangers into friends.”

HOME IS WHERE YOU FIND IT screens in Berlin at the Globian DocFest and is chosen for the Manhattan Short Film Festival, the New Orleans Film Festival and the South African Film Festival.

HOME IS WHERE YOU FIND IT wins first place Directorial Discovery Award at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and best Documentary Short at DocuWest. Congratulations to Alcides and the many people who made the film possible.

HOME IS WHERE YOU FIND IT premieres at SilverDocs and Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York with Alcides Soares, our young director from Mozambique, in attendance with both his mentors. He is poetic and inspiring.

The BYkids gala benefit – hosted by TODAY show anchor, Natalie Morales – is a resounding success and raises over $55,000 toward the third BYkids film to be done in Colombia by a displaced young girl. 200 guests see the Mozambique film and enjoy a festive and global evening in lower Manhattan. Photos at www.bykids.org.

BYkids Film Mentor, Dirk Simon, returns to India to continue helping Namgyal, the exiled King of Tibet, tell his incredible story. Namgyal narrates MY COUNTRY IS TIBET while they are together and final production begins.

New Board Chair and Film Mentor Neal Baer arranges to have Alcides Soares spend three weeks studying English before his voice-over work in the Henry Mancini Sound Studio at NBC/Universal in Los Angeles. 18-year-old Alcides, the star filmmaker of BYkids: MOZAMBIQUE, will narrate his own 27-minute film. Upon completion of the voice-over and final touches in the editing room, the film will start the film festival circuit.

The BYkids Junior Committee, led by 18-year-old Committee Chair Sophie Bressler, begins planning for the second BYkids annual benefit to be held at the Scholastic Auditorium in Soho, NYC on May 16th. The festive celebration will be the venue for the premiere of BYkids: Mozambique by 18-year-old Alcides Soares of Maputo, Mozambique.