James V. Hart (J.V.)

“Made by young people from all ethnic origins and cultures, BYkids films make us feel our co-existence across the planet. They’re proof that the arts will save us.”

James V. Hart (J.V.) hails from Shreveport, Louisiana and grew up in Fort Worth, Texas thriving on drive-in movies and Saturday matinees. He began producing films in the 1970’s, and his first feature film, Summer Run, opened the USA film festival at Southern Methodist University, his alma mater, in Dallas, Texas. After settling in New York City, J.V. began his screenwriting career, writing and producing such celebrated films as Hook directed by Steven Spielberg, Bram Stoker’s Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppola and Muppet Treasure Island directed by Brian Henson. Other writing and producing credits include Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Sahara, Lara Croft: Tombraider – The Cradle of Life and August Rush. His production of the 20th Century Fox film The Legend of the Leafmen, a collaboration with children’s book illustrator William Joyce, is his first animated epic and is followed by a book series by J.V. and Joyce.

J.V.’s first novel, Captain Hook – Adventures of a Notorious Youth, was published by Laura Geringer Books for Harper Collins and named Top Ten Young Adult Books in 2006 by the American Library Association. Its sequel, Captain Hook – Pirate King, was released in 2011.

Celia Lowenstein

“BYkids offers a unique possibility of mentoring a creative journey with a child. Their films take us not only back to childhood, but to stories that change how we know the world.”

Celia Lowenstein has directed and produced over fifty films with subject matters extending across science, art, philosophy, human portraits, dance, and music. She has worked in a variety of cinematic genres, including fly-on-the-wall documentary-making, narrative fiction (including musicals), films in verse, and long- and short-form documentaries, often of great ethnographic appeal. She has traveled all over the world with small and large crews, and her work has been commissioned by the BBC, PBS, Channel 4 (UK), Channel 5 (UK), ARTE/ZDF, Planete (France), Discovery, National Geographic, NOVA, Animal Planet, and CBS. Her film and television work has received critical acclaim, and she has been the recipient of numerous awards, nominations, and academic residencies, including an Emmy nomination and selections at some of the most prestigious film festivals worldwide.

Karen Goodman

“BYkids is an extraordinary opportunity for the next generation of cinematic storytellers. It also provides an intimate window into their disparate worlds, and a means of self-expression and support not found elsewhere.”

Karen Goodman’s documentaries have garnered an Academy award (“Strangers No More, 2011”), three previous Academy Award nominations, many Emmys and the Dupont-Columbia Award for Independent Programming. She has received filmmaking grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, The Ford Foundation and the American Film Institute. She has been making documentaries for nearly four decades and is currently working on Season Two of the HBO series MASTERCLASS. She is a partner in the Simon & Goodman Picture Company, based in New York City.

Her documentaries have been broadcast nationally on PBS and HBO, and screened at festivals around the world including Sundance, New Directors/New Films, London, Berlin, Montreal, and St. Petersburg.

Ms. Goodman is a member of the Executive Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Documentary Branch. She has served as a consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities Media Program, and as a judge for the Emmy Awards and the DuPont-Columbia Broadcast Journalism Award.

BYkids ongoing collaboration with DoSomething.org now features trailers of BYkids films on DoSomething.org’s Cause Video platform, bringing BYkids films to social changers under 25 years old and reaching two million teens.

16-year-old Jayshree Janu Kharpade, BYkids youth filmmaker of FIRE IN OUR HEARTS and mentored by Joyce Chopra, is celebrated in a lengthy feature in the December issue of Femina, one of India’s oldest and best known magazines. See the Femina article here.

BYkids third film, FIRE IN OUR HEARTS, made by 16-year-old Jayshree Janu Kharpade of India, is completed and begins distribution. Mentored by the esteemed Joyce Chopra, Jayshree’s film sheds a personal light on the immense social and economic potential of educating girls in the developing world. See trailer here.