[Music] the new documentary the day i had to grow up is putting a spotlight on youth activism in america the film showcases six activists and events that shape their political lives including the parkland shooting black lives matter student debt and more to talk about the impact of the film and the importance of youth activism are the film's producer and directors stefano de freit and laura pellegrini welcome you guys how are you janet thank you so much for having us on your show thank you we're
doing great thank you happy to have you so what inspired you to do a documentary about youth activism in america i think first of all the the fact that we had some watershed moments when we were kids obviously 911 had a big impact for me and laura and we were talking about this earlier on but i think what happened was we saw a wave of activism that started to happen after school shootings we're starting with sandy hook and then and then afterwards with parkland and so the impetus for that the b
eginning was really the parkland shooting and and then we started on a two-year journey yeah of of this documentary and we were also curious just as filmmakers to do a story about it because i think looking at documentaries we hadn't seen a ton of them about youth activism so that was an another extra incentive for us to explore that so what do you think your takeaway was from interviewing um the six kid students i think that i think the most important thing was that how engaged they are like ho
w aware they are of not just what their they want the world to be like but also what they've seen past generations do laura and i say this to each other all the time that youth have a very particular advantage in the world they come at the intersection the intersection of uh criticality and hope you know they see the world's pain but they also see the world's possibility and so i think with the advent of technology we talk a little bit about social media the disadvantages obviously and also the
advantages they they're the first generation really to be using social media in their activism i think that had a big impact of our takeaway of how really prepared they are absolutely yeah do any of their stories maybe like one or two in particular like really stand out to you we were asked this question a little bit before it and and it goes back and forth because it changes for for for us over time but definitively for me personally um taylor nicole turner who's who was attended parkland and h
er friend helena ramsey was killed and we were involved so much in in finding out about the family and finding out about her life i think that you know laura can add to this as well that just her perspective of how she turned a tragic event and didn't become bitter and didn't become uh she used it in a really positive way and that's a that's a miracle as a human being yeah like that definitely to have a to have a grounded perspective like that and to still hold compassion and hope in your heart
after such a traumatic incident especially at that age where you're still kind of forming your values and your views of the world and um it was really inspiring to sit down with her and also to maintain contact with her outside of the doc because you you it's seldom that you get the opportunity to do that and i want to throw some love to jeremy jeremy of course because he's the linchpin and he was the he was a another and we use his speech outside of nancy close his office is really through line
in a lot of it so i i can identify so much with jeremy that's his ups and downs and his his his beauty and his flaws and his passion so uh i imagine that this film is really meant to inspire or you know inspire people to to act are used to get involved what would you say are some key things or some key ways that our youth can start getting involved now so the first thing and i'll let laura take this the first thing is organize definitely organize you know people think of change as a really scar
y thing but youth has the advantage of seeing it as really exciting and i think now is the time for them to really link up with like-minded activists to form you know organizations within their community whether it's in a church or school or a town hall it's always so accessible to them and it's really important that they do that and they can link with other people that are passionate about the same issues that they are so they can mobilize together and really strategize on a local level while b
uilding personal connections on a community level second thing reading so important when you're starting off your life as a as a young person you're getting involved to read the different points of view people will come up to you that have a different perspective maybe it's a different political party maybe it's a different perspective on the environment or a different perspective on fossil fuels different perspective of what happens to waste and batteries or cleaning up plastics in the oceans t
hese things are important because the more you're educating yourself on a topic the more your ability will be uh augmented to have a conversation right that's really the second thing that i would say absolutely can we keep going with the third one we have a couple more things i would say let's stop there because we want to encourage people to watch the film you know get these ideas from the film and so if we want to watch it where do we go so you can see it on 2btv.com you can also see it on ple
x those are the two channels that are having it for free definitely 2b tv definitely plex and definitely amazon prime and definitely check out our website www.theday.com all one word for more updates and information about the film
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