Films

Located just 15 miles west of New Orleans, the tiny town of La Place escaped the cruel flooding of its neighbor only to suffer a different kind of flood: the overnight influx of 20,000 displaced hurricane victims. Electricity, food, water and shelter became scarce; traffic, unemployment and long lines prevalent. The school system was overrun with 1700 displaced students.

At East St. John High School, teenage boys blown together by the winds of Katrina are forced to overcome the tragedy of losing their homes and school.   Kids with vastly different racial, economic and religious backgrounds must quickly learn to co-exist.  And one-time rivals are challenged to band together and lift the spirit of their broken community.

If you don't shed a tear, you ain't right - Terry Bradshaw

Narator and Executive Producer

KEVIN LAUE began fighting for his life before he was even born.   With his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck in the womb, Kevin fought back using his arm as a shield.   Due to a lack of circulation from the cord, he was born with an arm that ended just below the elbow.   His disability is a testament to his toughness and refusal to quit:

It was either my arm or my head, Kevin often jokes.

Kevin's father, a former athlete and demanding youth coach for his son's teams, had great difficulty accepting Kevin's disability, struggling to cope with having a son who would never have a normal life.  Kevin's mother and father divorced when he was six years old. Four years later, his father died of cancer and Kevin became determined to carry on his family's name and make his father proud by proving that he could be a success not only in life, but in basketball.

Long Shot: The Kevin Laue Story chronicles the day-to-day struggles of a teenage boy coming to terms with his need for his deceased father's approval by pursuing his seemingly impossible dream of becoming the first one-armed player in the history of college basketball.

With former street kids behind the camera, director Billy Raftery's Children Rise provides an authentic and intimate look into the lives of Durban, South Africa's most visible members.  In search of better lives, these kids find only a world of prostitution, drug addiction, and extreme violence.

As their innocence is ripped away, all we can do is watch this gut-wrenchingly true story unfold. Our hope lies in the hands of former street children to reach these kids before the government sweeps them away for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Raftery's film challenges viewers to look past the violence and often-times graphic images of Durban's street kids and to see the homeless youth for what they are...children.

Children Rise is a co-production of Dutchmen Films and Children Rise Pictures.  Franklin Martin is a Producer of the film; Billy Raftery a Director-Producer.