UTRGV partnered last May with Arigatou International, a global nonprofit founded to advocate for peace and the well-being of children worldwide, to create a documentary film and music video highlighting the global crisis of displaced children.
“Working with … UNICEF, [we] realized that the only way to achieve [peace] was to put children in front,” said Alibe Hamacher, chief partnership and development officer for Arigatou International. “… We want to achieve peace not just for now but to secure the future for our generations.”
With offices in multiple countries and partnerships with major organizations, the nonprofit works at the grassroots level to support children’s rights and promote peace through local initiatives.
The number of children on the move has increased significantly in recent years, from 37.8 million in 2022 to over 50 million today, according to Hamacher.
She said the collaborative song and music video, “Stand Together,” involved UTRGV’s film and choir students, and aims to raise awareness and funds to support the efforts of assisting displaced children.
Hamacher, along with filmmaker and producer Jeff Oppenheim, sought a youth choir for their “Stand Together” campaign that led them to the Rio Grande Valley.
The partnership with UTRGV’s Master Chorale and University Choir programs was attributed to the Rotary Club International, who introduced them to Jeffrey Ward, dean of the School of Fine Arts, she said.
The choir programs, with their diverse student body, proved to be the perfect fit, said Oppenheim.
Eighty-five students from both the Edinburg and Brownsville campus choirs, and about 12 students from Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Southwest High School, contributed to the project.
“And boy, when we landed, they were so on mark,” Oppenheim said. “They were so professional; they were so wonderful. They were almost too good. But it was … the moment we walked in. We went, ‘Yeah, this is spot on.’ Boy, we were driven divinely to land here.”
During the production of the music video, film students also collaborated with Oppenheim and Hamacher on a documentary that will premiere in the fall. The funds will help support the release of the film at the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival, according to Ward.
The film is also slated for a larger international debut in November at Arigatou International’s annual Global Network of Religions for Children Sixth Forum in Abu Dhabi.
“This is going to be one of their intros into their career,” said Peter “Trey” Mikolasky, chair of the department of Theatre and associate professor, about the students who participated.
The project provided the students with valuable professional experience, Mikolasky said.
“It’s cathartic, right?” he said. “We have that moment of catharsis that we don’t get in any other field.”
Hamacher admired and related deeply with the students and said the project gave them a voice to advocate for their own experiences.
“I was born under dictatorship,” she said. “… All the dreams that you could dream were cut off because there was not enough money. … So, when I landed here, and I started talking to the kids … I felt there was something oppressing, even though they were smiling.
“Then, with the interviews, we started learning about their own realities and the dreams [they had]. And, as soon as they try to fly, their wings might be cut off because of the [political and economic] circumstances they’re living under. … You can’t do that to a young person.”
