Please join us for our special screening followed by Q&A with
HOLLY CARTER
Founder and Executive Director, BYkids
GEORGE BATAH
Co-Founder, Syrian Youth Empowerment
FIRAS KAYAL
Senior Policy Advisor, UNHCR New York Office
MARLENE SPOERRI
UN Representative at Independent Diplomat (ID)
6:00 p.m. | Registration
6:30 p.m. | Film Screening
7:30 p.m. | Q+A
Screening begins promptly at 6:30 p.m.
Dolby 88 Screening Room
1350 Avenue of the Americas (at West 55th Street)
Lobby Level
New York, NY 10019
ADMISSION
UNA Members: $10
UNA Student Members: $10
Guests and Non-Members: $15
In OUT OF ALEPPO, young filmmaker Mohammad Shasho (age 17) makes 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, Mohammad finds his own voice and gives voice to his fellow refugees. He explores loss, art and hope in his debut film.
Over 5.6 million people have fled Syria and its deadly civil war since 2011. Creating a tragic human rights crisis, this mass exodus has not only displaced millions of Syrians, but also rendered them largely voiceless. By documenting his experience and interviewing fellow refugees, 17-year-old Mohammad reclaims his narrative and lends a voice to refugees silenced by circumstance.
In 2013, under the pretense of taking a prolonged holiday and returning in a month, Mohammad’s family left their home in Aleppo. As the conflict worsened, the temporary flight became a permanent escape. Mohammad and his family endured the treacherous journey to Turkey, from where his father (a surgeon) traveled on to Germany on a fragile raft to secure his family’s safe passage. One year later, Mohammad, his mother and his four siblings, are reunited with father and husband in Berlin.
Caught between painful remembrance and hope for the future, Mohammad’s family simultaneously celebrates safety, longs for home and adjusts to their new life in Germany. While each family member processes the trauma of displacement differently, Mohammad finds solace in art. He writes poetry and participates in theater, finding the silver lining in life’s conflicts and challenges, and in portraying a fragile sense of happiness, also helps create it. Connecting poetry, theater and film, he highlights the plight of his fellow refugees, and lends a voice to new friends.
Mentored by Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker Anja Baron, Mohammad uses his artistic instinct to provide an underrepresented perspective. He neither preaches, indoctrinates or politicizes his project. Instead, Mohammad humanistically shares the refugee experience with the candor and nuance of a teenager.
Join us to watch this 17-year old’s documentary, one of four BYKids Season Two films airing on Public Television in 2019. Our guests this evening to discuss the film after the screening will be George Batah, co-founder of Syrian Youth Empowerment, Firas Kayal, Senior Policy Advisor at UNHCR's New York Office, and Holly Carter, founder and executive director of BYkids.
GUEST SPEAKERS
HOLLY CARTER
Holly Carter is the Founder and Executive Director of BYkids. Holly began her career as a writer and editor at The New York Times and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Since then she has lived in Korea as a Henry Luce scholar and print and television journalist; produced an award-winning documentary on Margaret Sanger; co-founded North Carolina's Full Frame Festival; served as a consultant for The After-School Corporation; produced the PBS series Media Matters; and most recently was the Executive Director of The Global Film Initiative.
GEORGE BATAH
George Batah is a consultant at Deloitte and a Syrian activist based in New York. He has recently been named a Schwarzman Scholar, a Global Shaper and Blossom Hill Fellow. He actively advocates and fundraises for causes like Education, Humanitarian Relief and Youth Empowerment in the Middle East and especially Syria.
In 2015, George carried on a successful petition to increase the number of refugees admitted by the U.S. and has been invited to the White House. Eventually, the efforts led to the administration's decision to increase the refugee cap and humanitarian aids to Syria.
George is the co-founder of Syrian Youth Empowerment, an organization to empower and help Syrian high school students in Syria and neighboring countries. Since inception, SYE, secured admissions and full scholarship totaling +$14MM for Syrian students at Harvard, Stanford, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Columbia, MIT, Duke, Georgetown among many others.
FIRAS KAYAL
Firas Kayal is currently the Senior Policy Advisor at the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
His service with the agency spans almost 15 years and includes working as a Legal Protection Officer in many countries including Iraq, Yemen, the Gulf Region, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Switzerland. His last position was in UNHCR’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, where he headed the External Relations Unit at Middle East and North Africa Bureau for almost five years, during which UNHCR was responding to multiple displacement emergencies. Mr. Kayal works closely with diplomatic missions, donor countries, other UN agencies and international organizations on matters related to public and government relations, public and private fundraising as well as media relations.
Mr. Kayal holds a B.A. in Law from Damascus University and a Masters in International Law (LLM) from the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, USA. He is also a Fulbright Scholar.
MARLENE SPOERRI
Marlene Spoerri is a UN Representative at Independent Diplomat (ID), where she leads ID’s work on Western Sahara and women’s political participation. Marlene advised the Syrian opposition, Syrian civil society groups and Syrian female negotiations throughout the UN-led peace process on Syria, and currently contributes to ID’s work to address the Rohingya crisis.
Marlene is the author of Engineering Revolution: The Paradox of Democracy Promotion in Serbia published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. Marlene has a PhD in European Studies from the University of Amsterdam, and an MA in International Relations, with a minor in Gender Studies. Her published work includes articles on transitional justice, democratization, democracy promotion, the Balkans, as well as nonviolent strategy and tactics.
Prior to joining Independent Diplomat, Marlene worked for the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, the Balkan Trust for Democracy, the U.S. Embassy in Zagreb, Croatia, and Serbia’s Humanitarian Law Center. She has served as a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University and Central European University. She is also a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
ABOUT BYkids
Because kids tell honest and important stories, but often go unheard, the non-profit organization BYkids was created to pair master filmmakers, such Albert Maysles and Ric Burns, with youth (ages 8-21) from around the world, to create short documentaries that educate Americans about globally relevant issues.
By giving kids the tools and mentoring to make documentary films about their lives and packaging those films for a wide American audience, BYkids gives voice to youth from diverse cultures, and encourages international understanding and engagement by giving viewers concrete ways to respond.
In October 2011, Edmond Mulet, Assistant Secretary-General for U.N. Peacekeeping Operations, became a core advisor for developing BYkids partnerships with United Nations agencies, extending the story sourcing, on-site logistics and strategic outreach for BYkids films. "Each BYkids youth storyteller mobilizes our conscience towards a larger sense of global solidarity. BYkids reminds us that we are one Humanity," said Mulet.
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