After returning to San Francisco from the U.S./Mexico border, where Theo told the story of the struggle of a mixed-status family, he decided to start an after-school program for undocumented students to tell their own stories.  Beyond Borders was started with grants from the San Francisco Arts Council and Cal Humanities and the program brought together 11 youth with 11 photography mentors.  The group met once a week for four months and the youth learned basic photography, storytelling, and each student created a personal story with images, and sound.  The program culminated in a powerful community event where all of the stories were shown.  ‘Noe’s Story’ was later selected as part of the 2009 Human Rights Watch Film Festival and was screened at Lincoln Center.

Watch four of the youth-created videos below:

Maria

Francisco

Meliza

Noé