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Opinion
'They are doing their very best to build a future': Filmmaker Greg Byrne on working with undocumented teenagers in Ireland
The filmmaker collaborated with undocumented youth who had grown up in Ireland to help tell their story.
FILMMAKER GREG BYRNE and his collaborators recently made a short film dramatising the lives of undocumented youth growing up in Ireland.
The film is based on the real-life experiences of Dublin youth group Young, Paperless and Powerful (YPP), whose members – all currently undocumented and living in Ireland – star in the film.
“A lot of them are born here,” says Byrne. “Their friends are here, they have gone to school here.”
These young people aren’t going to be able to contribute [to Ireland] what they could and what they want to.
Byrne says that they are as “Irish as your or me” but that their opportunities are being blocked. “They are doing their very best to build a future here,” he says. “But they are going to need a lot of people’s help.”
You can watch the short film here.
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