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EMOTIONALLY CHARGED MUSIC VIDEO BRINGS
HUMAN RIGHTS MESSAGE
Taron Lexton, UNITED's young filmmaker, speaks to guests and well-wishers at the event after the New York Film Festival.
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Claire Kevitt, Youth President of Youth for Human Rights International, welcomes members of the newly formed Harlem and Midtown Manhattan Groups.
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Last week, six months since the premier at the United Nations of UNITED, their emotionally charged human rights music video, Youth for Human Rights International and the director of the film, Taron Lexton, were back in New York this time gathering accolades at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.
The message, delivered with an inescapable emotional impact, was one familiar to those who know the works of American writer and human rights advocate L. Ron Hubbard: “Human Rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream.”
Following the screening, a reception was held just off Times Square at the Church of Scientology of New York. Gathered were United Nations diplomats and human rights advocates from the U.S., Ghana, Guatemala, Holland, the Middle East, Bangladesh, Nepal, and other countries, as well as filmmakers and well wishers. This music video had already been nominated for Best Short Dramatic Film, and accepted into half a dozen other top festivals.
“It’s amazing when you consider how young we all are,” said director Taron Lexton, a Los Angeles resident who was 19 years old when he filmed the music video last year. The majority of the cast and crew consisted of teenagers and pre-teens. “And I guess it also goes to show that the world actually can respond to positive material.”
UNITED tells the story of an inner-city kid who has to fight for his right to play basketball. It was filmed over 8 months in 14 countries; in fact, the filmmakers completely circumnavigated the globe during the course of the movie’s production.
It is just part of Youth For Human Rights International’s master plan. Within a week of the festival showing, two new Youth for Human Rights clubs had been formed, one in Harlem and one in Midtown Manhattan. These groups join a network of youth working to get the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights known and applied worldwide.
Anyone in New York interested in joining or forming groups, or arranging a showing of UNITED, should call Barbara Carmichael in New York at (212) 397-1574 or Mary Shuttleworth in Los Angeles at (323) 663-5799.
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