North Philly kids debut movie made as part of mentoring program

PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - Dressed to impress from head to toe. These kids hit the red carpet tonight to debut a short film they wrote, produced and edited.

"I'm in it. I'm one of the stars in the movie," said 17-year- old Kwadir Scott. He says the group is also the cast of the movie and came up with the plot.

"It's a twisted hood love story about a girl who had straight A's. Her grades start falling," he says giving a hint about the film. Friday night was the movie premiere watched by their peers, parents, mentors and people in the community. It was held at the Lenfest Center in North Philly.

"I'm so hype. My kids are so dope," said Ryan Harris. He's the founder of an organization called "As I Plant This Seed". It's a mentoring program for kids in the community. The movie is one of the projects the kids participated in through the program.

"This is them completely expressing how they feel, their everyday life and what they go through in this area. We understand this area is an impoverished community and they wanted to do something to exemplify what they go through on an everyday basis," said Harris.

The kids say it's an opportunity for them to be part of something positive.

"It was something fun for the summertime so we can be involved instead of in the streets. He was like let's make a movie. Something we can be proud of," said 16-year old Trayquan Willis.

One father says the program helps him keep his son on the right path.

"I do what I can and the community does what it can to help them and we just try to make him a good man," said Kevin Smith. The children say making the movie is a small part of the all the big things they learn being part of "As I Plant This Seed".

They meet three times a week and often have role models come in to help them with issues they may be dealing with.

"They tell me how they did things in life and how they messed up. And I know he did this and that didn't work out for him so maybe I should not do this," said Kwadir.

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