Grace
(23 minutes) Philippines

Director: Meagan Kelly
Producers: Rouven Steinfeld, Florian Hoffman

Description:
Thirteen-year-old Mary-Grace Rapatan has lived on a garbage dump in the Philippines her entire life, picking through mountains of trash to help feed her family. She is trapped in a cycle of poverty, but Mary-Grace is determined to give herself a better future by getting an education. She scavenges on weekends to pay for school, but a family tragedy soon takes hold. While in Grade 5, Mary-Grace’s father, the family’s provider, has a stroke. The girl is left a choice: quit school or starve. She begins scavenging eight hours a day on the Umapad garbage dump so her family can afford rice. Footage from a head-camera worn by Mary-Grace gives us a close and disturbing look at the conditions of the Umapad garbage dump. After months of scavenging in the heat only to make about a dollar a day, Mary-Grace begins wondering if she’ll ever have a second chance to build a future for her family. This film shows us the enormous burden one girl must carry, and the power education has to give children hope for the future.

Biography:
Grace is Meagan Kelly’s debut film as a documentary director. With a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, twenty-five-year-old Kelly has gone to work internationally as a reporter and videographer. In 2010 Kelly was selected for a prestigious media fellowship with Dekeyser & Friends Foundation, and traveled across Asia and Europe producing the travel video podcast Inspiration Nation. While living in the Philippines, Meagan directed, shot and edited Grace as a tribute to a young girl she met on a garbage dump in Cebu. Inspired by the making of the film and the public’s response, Kelly has started The Gift of Grace Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating children living on garbage dumps in the Philippines.

Contact Information:
E-mail: meagan.kelly76@gmail.com
Web site: www.thegiftofgrace.com/mary-grace