NEWS

Award-winning filmmaker, Dirk Simon, has been in Dharamsala, India mentoring the 16-year-old, exiled King of Tibet in the art of filmmaking. Namgyal Wangchuk, is making a film about his life. With Tibetan news on the front pages, this is a rare and intimate view.

Namgyal Wangchuk, the descendant of the Greatest King in Tibetan History, Songtsen Gampo, was born in Indian exile and has never seen the country of his forefathers. The weight of keeping a 1,400-year-old lineage alive rests on his shoulders and “it’s simply not safe for him to go,” explains his mother. Even before riots broke out in Lhasa’s streets, in order to get a visa for China and Tibet, he would have to sign a paper that identifies him as Chinese – giving up his Tibetan identity. “And that is impossible!” he says.

BYkids is named a semifinalist in the 2008 Echoing Green fellowship competition out of 1,500 applications.

Through BYkids, Alcides Soares finds his 13-year-old brother with whom he lost all contact ten years ago when their parents divorced. A BYkids camera is sent back to Mozambique so that Alcides can film their reunion – where he tells his brother about the loss of both of their parents to AIDS.

BYkids wins three major foundation grants totaling $45,000. Additional grass roots funding enables the second BYkids film – the exiled King of Tibet – a story of perseverance in the face of oppression. The 16-year-old Namgyal Wangchuk Trichen Lhagyari, the only living descendent of the first Dharma King of Tibet (617-698 AD), begins filming in February 2008 under the mentorship of award-winning filmmaker Dirk Simon.

Peter Scarlet, Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Festival, agrees to premiere final films in the festival to a large and committed New York audience of 250,000 people.

Teens For BYkids, a youth-organized BYkids development program, is launched. High school junior Sophie Bressler initiates planning for a fundraising designer fashion show to be held on May 10, 2008, at the newly opened Times Center in NYC. Seventeen-year-old Ben Laflamme begins designing a BYkids shirt to be sold at his high school.

Board member Alan Murray, Executive Editor of The Wall Street Journal Online, hosts a fundraiser for 40 BYkids supporters. At the event, BYkids Founder and Executive Director Holly Carter announces that Neal Baer has the support of NBC Universal to make the first BYkids film into a full-length feature documentary. “There is so much here, it will make an incredible film,” says Neal.

We had a great day again. We call Alcides “Little Oprah,” because he shoots interviews at first behind the camera, then pulls up a chair and talks to people right on camera. His personality is lively; his questions direct and often suprisingly sharp. Alcides also interviewed a family of six AIDS orphans who live on their own. It’s heartbreaking, but these kids are resilient.

Neal Baer (Executive Producer of Law & Order: SVU) and Chris Zalla (2007 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner) leave for Mozambique to teach 16-year-old Alcides Soares the art of filmmaking. Shooting 37 hours of footage, Alcides chronicles his inspiring story – echoed by so many youth in his country – of life after losing both parents to AIDS. Actors Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni purchased the camera and sound equipment for this project. You can see the trailer at www.BYkids.org.

Actor and director, Campbell Scott agrees to be a Film Mentor in our second year. He says, “BYkids is a powerful and poignant idea. Film has always shown the capacity to be an important social, political and emotional tool – maybe never more so than when it is placed in the hands of the world’s youth, guided by some of our greatest documentarians. This is a formula that can only benefit everyone involved – the kids, their countries, the filmmakers, and most significantly, the audience.”