Kids of the Majestic

This documentary upholds a strong moral content by not only depicting the reality and hardship of these children, but also the positive aspect of this social group that works within its community.

KIDS OF THE MAJESTIC won Best Feature Children's Advocacy at the 2010 United Nations endorsed Artivist Film Festival Raising Awareness for Humanity, Animals and the Environment, and the Direction and Writing Insight Awards of Recognition at the National Association of Film and Digital Media Artists. Picked up by TeleProductions International.

AS THEMSELVES

Joti, Mental Manja, Baba, Kumar, Rafik, Basuraj, Arun-Badur, Arkesha, Shakina, Fakrudin, Valekumar, Shivkumar, Ismael

CREW

Director: Dylan Verrechia

Written and Produced by: Suhas Radhakrishna, Dylan Verrechia

Production Supervisor: Suhas Radhakrishna

Associate Producer: Allison Albino

Director of Photography: Dylan Verrechia

Editor / Sound: Dylan Verrechia

Translation: Suhas Radhakrishna

Location Scout: P Jagan

Production Assistants: Sidju Daniel, HC Manjunath

dylan@verrechiafilms.com

212 671 2522

AWARDS & OFFICIAL SELECTION

United Nations endorsed Artivist Film Festival Raising Awareness for Humanity, Animals and the Environment Best Feature Children's Advocacy

The Egyptian Theater, Hollywood, CA, November 30 - December 4, 2010

New York Premiere, Tribeca Cinemas, NY, December 11, 2010

The National Association of Film and Digital Media Artists

Direction and Writing Insight Awards of Recognition, Venice, CA, 2009

San Antonio Film Festival

San Antonio, TX, June 26, 2009

PRESS

Artivist Film Festival: 7th Artivist Film Festival Announces Artivist Award Winning Films for 2010. (read more...)

Platform Magazine: Dylan's filmography is as multicultural as his lineage and each film honestly explores the multifaceted aspects of identity, situation and context. This new-age independent filmmaker explores life and individual lives through his art and has created a very moving, real and honest piece of cinema with "Kids of the Majestic". (read more...)

BACKGROUND

When they met, Suhas had just come back from working in a public clinic in Mumbai dedicated to children, and Dylan had finished a low-budget independent feature about a young adolescent’s relationship with his dad.

In the past, Dylan had worked on documentaries about the condition of children in New York Public Schools, homeless families on the streets of Paris, foster care in the USA, prostitution and runaways in Mexico, and children training to become puppet masters in North-East Brazil.

Suhas expressed his desire to work with orphans in his family's hometown, and out of their conversation they decided to make a project that would be a medium for the young children they would meet to share their own vision of their world.

When they left the US, they had little idea where their journey would take them. It may have been simple fate that brought them to these children. As Dylan and Suhas were walking around the periphery of the train station they saw a few children sitting on a concrete barrier near an abandoned lot. Mutual curiosity led them to start a conversation. Soon the children were treating Dylan and Suhas to tea with their own money.

There are many bitter and painful realities in these children’s lives. However, there is also great camaraderie, hope, faith, art, and joy. Dylan and Suhas made this film to bring their stories to light. The goal of the film is to inspire viewers to support marginalized children either in their own neighborhoods or abroad.

Suhas is now a pediatric rheumatologist in Los Angeles. Dylan has finished his second feature film about the struggle of a mother to provide a better future for her daughter.

Every day, a sea of passengers floods the Majestic Railway Station of Bangalore City. Beneath the commotion of commuters, a group of orphans live beneath the station, collecting the trash that the passengers have left behind.

KIDS OF THE MAJESTIC is a documentary by filmmaker Dylan Verrechia and Dr. Suhas Radhakrishna that follows a group of such orphans: Rafik, a smiling young drug addict; Mental Manja, nicknamed "mental" because he didn't speak until he was 10; Arun-Badur, the artist and the writer; Baba, who at 8 has travelled throughout India alone; and Joti, mother-to-be at 16, who was abused at 9.

The filmmakers befriended these children who, uneasily and slowly, opened up to them, sharing their life stories as no one before has ever heard.