WE ARE EXCITED TO SHOW YOU A SAMPLING OF THE AMAZING FILMS WE HAVE SELECTED FOR THE SEVENTH ANNUAL BOSTON INTERNATIONAL KIDS FILM FESTIVAL.
| FILM | DIRECTOR | COUNTRY | LENGTH | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microplastic Madness | Atsuko Quirk | United States | 76 minutes | |
“Microplastic Madness – Brooklyn kids take on plastic pollution” is an inspirational and optimistic take on the local and global plastic pollution crisis as told through a refreshing urban youth point of view with a powerful take action message. Fifth graders from PS 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn – a community on the frontline of Climate Change that was severely impacted by Superstorm Sandy- spent 2 years investigating plastic pollution. Taking on the roles of citizen scientists, community leaders, and advocates, these 10-11 year olds collect local data, lead community outreach, and use their impressive data to inform policy, testifying and rallying at City Hall. They take the deep dive into the root causes of plastic pollution, bridging the connection between plastic, climate change, and environmental justice before turning their focus back to school. There they take action to rid their cafeteria of all single-use plastic, driving forward city-wide action and a scalable, youth-led plastic-free movement. With stop-motion animation, heartfelt kid commentary, and interviews of experts and renowned scientists who are engaged in the most cutting edge research on the harmful effects of microplastics, this alarming, yet charming narrative, conveys an urgent message in user-friendly terms with a take action message to spark youth-led plastic free action in schools everywhere. Showing | ||||
| My Beautiful Stutter | Ryan Gielen | United States | 90 minutes | |
Five kids ages 9 to 18, from all over the United States enter experimental, interactive and arts-based programs at SAY, The Stuttering Association for the Young, based in New York City. After a lifetime of bullying and stigmatization, some have found themselves close to suicide, others enter withdrawn and fearful, exhausted and defeated from fluency training and the pressure to not stutter or remain silent. Over the course of a year of SAY events, workshops and camp, we witness firsthand the incredible transformation that happens when these young people of wildly different backgrounds experience for the first time the revolutionary idea at the heart of SAY: it’s okay to stutter. Showing | ||||
| My Beautiful Stutter (Second Screening) | Ryan Gielen | United States | 90 minutes | |
Five kids ages 9 to 18, from all over the United States enter experimental, interactive and arts-based programs at SAY, The Stuttering Association for the Young, based in New York City. After a lifetime of bullying and stigmatization, some have found themselves close to suicide, others enter withdrawn and fearful, exhausted and defeated from fluency training and the pressure to not stutter or remain silent. Over the course of a year of SAY events, workshops and camp, we witness firsthand the incredible transformation that happens when these young people of wildly different backgrounds experience for the first time the revolutionary idea at the heart of SAY: it’s okay to stutter. Showing | ||||
| New Homeland | Barbara Kopple | United States | 93 minutes | |
Every summer since 1914, Camp Pathfinder, a summer camp located on a small island in the wilderness of Canada’s Algonquin Park, invites a community of boys and young men from all across Canada and the United States to spend a few weeks in the backcountry learning how to camp, hike, canoe and fish. Two years ago Camp Director Mike Sladden, heartbroken by the tragic images from the growing global refugee crisis but inspired by Canada’s growing intake of asylum seekers, had an idea. What if he could find a way to bring a group of displaced boys from war-torn Syria and Iraq, who recently settled in Canada, to spend the summer at Pathfinder? If the camp experience could have such a profound effect on generations of boys already, imagine what it would be like for these refugee boys. Directed by two-time Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple, in collaboration with NowThis, NEW HOMELAND offers a unique and intimate perspective into the experience of building a new home after fleeing the traumas of war. Showing | ||||
| Under Pressure | Four Rivers Class of 2019 | United States | 47 minutes | |
As their for-credit senior class project, student filmmakers from the Four Rivers Charter School in Greenfield, MA produced Under Pressure, a documentary film that investigates the 2018 gas disaster in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts, explores safety issues in the nation’s gas distribution system and challenges the value of gas and other fossil fuels in an era of accelerating climate change. Showing | ||||