NEWS

Cultural Survival Quarterly published this profile of BYkids filmmaker, Daunnette Reyome-Moniz, and her film, AGAINST THE CURRENT. READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

The Forward’s PJ Grisar published a feature on the BYkids film L’CHAIM as two generations of Germans look to the past and future of the countries Jews.
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Creative News announced that Final Cut has collaborated on all three seasons of the Films BYkids series for public television alongside Significant Others, Final Cut’s sister company, which completed the finishing for all three seasons. Stephanie Apt, founder of Final Cut and board member of BYkids adds: “I am passionate in my belief that film gives voice to issues that we need to confront. The films in season 3 lend fresh, deeply empathetic perspectives to some of the most pressing issues faced by humanity around the globe. Final Cut is proud to help cultivate the talents of the next generation of storytellers.”
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

BYkids Founder and Executive Director is interviewed for WNET UP NEXT.
LISTEN HERE

The Baltimore Sun features Faith Guilbault and her BYkids film, FAITH’S WORLD about being differently abled and how her film will serve as a global teaching tool. The story was picked up by Yahoo News and the Kaiser Health News.
READ ARTICLE HERE

“Nothing stops 17-year-old filmmaker, model and activist, Faith Guilbault – not cerebral palsy, epilepsy or cortical vision impairment.” Meet Faith on An Apple a Day podcast.
LISTEN HERE

Our partners at HundrED wrote this wonderful piece. “Films BYkids gives voice to young people and uses film as a tool for global understanding,” says Sandra Sheppard, executive producer for THIRTEEN and director of WNET’s Kids’ Media and Education. “We are delighted to provide resources that can help educators foster cross-cultural awareness and empathy in their students.” “Virtual learning provides an opportunity to evolve education — by bringing the world to kids – wherever they are, in classrooms and homes,” said Holly Carter, founder and executive director of BYkids, a nonprofit,  which uses documentaries made by kids to support social-emotional learning. “Film is the perfect medium for 21st century learning. It is intimate, authentic and captivating.”
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Matt Nink leads an engaging 75-minute, middle- and high-school workshop using MY BEAUTIFUL NICARAGUA. “This workshop was very helpful for me to add to my tool box. Thanks for such timely resources and ideas,” says a middle school teacher from Wisconsin.

1. View MY BEAUTIFUL NICARAGUA (27 min) 
2. High School Lesson Plan: Role of women in coffee production and how climate change affects the growers. Climate Crisis 
3. Middle School Lesson Plan: Where coffee comes from and how it gets to your kitchen 
4. Q & A and Discussion

Thanks to the profound words from Messiah Ramkissoon and everyone at Final Cut and Significant Others (especially Stephanie Apt and Miky Wolf) we are proud to present this powerful new message about listening to our youth. WATCH HERE

BYkids partnered with the NationSwell Council to screen and discuss AGAINST THE CURRENT with filmmaker, Daunnette Moniz-Reyome, her mentor, Evan Mascagni, and BYkids Executive Director, Holly Carter. It was a lively Zoom conversation, moderated by A Picture’s Worth Elissa Yancey. The audience was blown away:

“So moving. One of the best short films I’ve ever seen.”

“Bravo! This was amazing and powerful storytelling! Thank you for sharing your journey!”

“Wow! Just wow. Thanks so much for this beautiful, heart-warming film, Daunnette”

“This is extraordinary. From turning negative experiences into love as a form of medicine to embracing two-spiritedness to healing oneself from historical trauma and being a cultural warrior — so many lessons and sources of inspiration!”

“Wonderful, powerful imagery and messaging. Healing trauma by acknowledging it, releasing it, sharing the experience with others. We do not have to he held back by our past, ancestral or in this life! Beautiful film!”

“So inspiring! To sustain tradition and community amidst so many barriers and direct resistance! an incredible model of resilience.”

Join BYkids at the WNET Youth Collective Summit 2021 for Session #3/Taking Action on April 28 from 7 pm to 8:30 pm Eastern.

In addition to a panel with Changemaker Award recipients Nupol Kiazolu, Dustin Liu and Meera Dasgupta about their work as youth leaders, our BYkids workshops will focus on how young people can take action.

We will lead two workshops: Documentary Filmmaking for Change. For students interested in documentary filmmaking, we will give young people a stage to share their perspectives on today’s most pressing global issues by empowering them to explore topics that impacts us all. In this session, explore how filmmaking can be a form of action and shed light on issues that are important to us all.

TICKETS HERE

In this special episode of A Picture’s Worth: Refocusing Narratives, award-winning documentary filmmaker and teen Daunnette Moniz-Reyome shares the story behind a single frame of AGAINST THE CURRENT that shows her in conversation minutes before her long-awaited feathering ceremony. 

The BYkids’ film, which debuts on public television in April 2021, was named Best Documentary Student Short at the 2020 Woodstock Film Festival and won the Emerging Filmmakers Award at the Socially Relevant Film Festival.

“It felt like in that moment, it was like all these women really became like, like mothers to me and like a sister to me,” says Daunnette.

Daunnette Reyome’s feathering ceremony in August 2019 was a testament to the strength of the women in her life. The image she chose for this special APW episode shows a scene just before the ceremony, where she is surrounded by her mother, her Auntie Marissa, her Auntie Shelby (who holds her ceremonial feather) and Shelby’s daughter Sidney, who has become like a sister to her. Reyome was selected by the New York-based nonprofit BYkids to direct a documentary about her life in Nebraska, and that film, Against the Current, debuts on PBS this month. In advance of its release, Reyome took the time to connect with APW for this exciting collaboration. LISTEN HERE

Films BYkids pairs master filmmakers with teenagers from around the world to create short personal documentaries that encourage understanding and engagement about globally relevant issues. The young storytellers featured in Films BYkids grew up experiencing the effects of exile, illiteracy, disease, war, and bigotry.

Learn tips and strategies for teaching with digital media, get the story behind the FILMS BYKIDS series, and find out about ways to enrich and expand student understanding with this free webinar recording from EdWeb.

Additional classroom resources are available on the BYkids website. You can watch the full-length films on Thirteen.org. Extend the learning with PenPal Schools, an organization that connects students from around the world to learn and share perspectives on Films BYkids .

What educators are saying about Films BYkids:

“The films are fascinating for me and my students. They offer a perspective that my American students rarely see–that of a child in another part of the world.” 

“The films not only inform, they engage students’ imagination and passion–which is always at the heart of true learning, true understanding and insight.” 

“[These films are] important in building bridges of understanding across cultures.”

AGAINST THE CURRENT Educational Material

BUDDHISM, BHUTAN AND ME Educational Material

L’CHAIM Educational Material

FAITH’S WORLD Educational Material

Finally, a THIRTEEN blog features POET AGAINST PREJUDICE in a roundup of Arab Americans in the news and films, a bit of NY history, and featured partners including BYkids. https://www.thirteen.org/blog-post/arab-american-heritage-month/