BYkids currently has nine completed films. With the help of expert mentors, kids around the world tell their own stories, in their own words, through documentary film. Come see the world through their eyes.
I Could Tell You ‘Bout My Life
United States
Mentored by filmmakers Chiemi Karasawa and Hollis Meminger, 19-year-old Michael Martin reflects on his incarceration on Rikers Island and the affect it had on his life.
Walk on My Own
Senegal
13-year-old Ndèye Fatou Fall illuminates the cultural shift in Senegal that has allowed her to remain in school and to make decisions about her own future.
Out of Aleppo
Syria
Mohammad Shasho (age 18) made the perilous journey from Syria to Berlin and struggles with his family to set up a new life. Mentored by award-winning documentary filmmaker, Anja Baron, Mo finds his own voice and gives voice to his fellow refugees.
My Beautiful Nicaragua
Nicaragua
12-year-old Edelsin Linette Mendez illuminates the consequences of climate change on the coffee market, her community’s traditional source of livelihood and Nicaragua’s primary agricultural product.
Poet Against Prejudice
United States
Faiza Almontaser, a 17-year-old from New York City, immigrated with her family to the US from Yemen when she was in middle school, and she faced vicious bullying because of her Islamic identity. Mentored by the legendary pioneer of direct cinema, Albert Maysles, Faiza shows us her courageous and inspiring journey from victim to activist.
Displaced But Not Defeated
Colombia
María Ceballos Paz, a 16-year-old girl, is one of the estimated four million Colombians driven from their homes by decades of civil war. Now living in the slums of Cali, she intimately brings us into her world. Through her lens and mentored by Hollywood television producer, Susan Hoenig, María puts a human face on the cost of civil war and the drug trade.
Fire In Our Hearts
India
India native, Jayshree Janu Kharpade (age 16) illuminates the immense social and economic potential of educating girls in the developing world. Jayshree’s film mentor is the renowned Joyce Chopra, a pioneer of documentary cinema.
My Country Is Tibet
Tibet
The 17-year-old exiled King of Tibet tells his rare, personal and timely story. Namgyal Wangchuk Trichen Lhagyari is the only living descendent of the first Dharma King of Tibet (617-698 AD). Namgyal Wangchuk represents his long lineage after being coronated a Tibetan King by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. He struggles to retain their traditional culture in the face of persecution.
Home Is Where You Find It
Mozambique
Two film luminaries help 16-year-old, Alcides Soares, make a short film about his life as an AIDS orphan in Maputo, Mozambique. One of the 500,000 Mozambican kids who lost both parents to AIDS, Alcides’s documentary about finding family is both intimate and inspiring.