Kelly Ramundo

We Keep Pedaling Forward is one of a series of short films I produced for the Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance.

In this modern-day epic journey, our unlikely hero has a singular calling: to protect young girls from the many dangers that keep them from getting an education.

This film was released by Michelle Obama to celebrate International Day of the Girl in 2019 and features the work of the non-profit Rock-Paper-Scissors Children's Fund in Vietnam.

Mine was the last generation to never experience active shooter drills in school. With the same monotony we used to file out of classrooms during fire drills, today’s teens practice hiding in closets and waiting for help to arrive. It’s not fair – and they know it. And with a fire inside of them lit by the Parkland activists, students countrywide are demanding change.

Thank God there are people like Phil and Theresa Sturm to help host the revolution. Their story, uncovered just two days before the March For Our Lives, was too powerful to ignore. Within hours, I had mobilized a talented, justice-minded group of filmmakers to donate their time to help tell it. We knew the story would be strong, but we had no idea what a thoughtful, inspired bunch of students would arrive at the Sturm’s door. We are eternally grateful to have met them all. The arc of history, in their hands, will bend towards justice.

At the present moment, when politicians seem to fancy themselves gods or kings, Pablo Soto breaks the mold. An former programmer and protestor with roots deep in Spain's historic 15-M Movement, this unexpected councilman is challenging the very definition of democracy. In Madrid and beyond, people are taking notice.

“Our Power is Our Pain” was the most emotionally challenging film I’ve directed, and that's why I was especially honored to have it featured as part of the Washington West Film Festival official selection in 2016. The film features two parents - one Palestinian, one Israeli - who lost a child to the conflict and have teamed up to stop it. I still can't fathom how this mother and father revisit their grief over and over again so that others may learn from it. I can only say that the world is brighter because they are in it.

"Jason’s Sentence” is one of a three-part series I helped produce as part of the ACLU’s Smart Justice campaign. To find Jason, I spoke to over 20 individuals who had been ensnared, harmed or wronged by a criminal justice system that punishes poverty, exacerbates racial inequality, and does little to rehabilitate or to heal. Although Jason has every right to be resentful for the decades taken from him, he was instead passionate, reflective and determined to turn his experience into meaningful change. “I am what a second chance looks like,” he said - and isn’t that the truth.

Fired Up is a short animated film that depicts the origin story of President Obama’s famed “Fired up, ready to go” chant.

The work was truly a labor of love of its talented creators, Dan Fipphen & Elyse Kelly, and the handful of global animators that dedicated their time to making it happen.

I loved the idea from the very beginning and was thrilled to be able to provide strategy and guidance along the way. Released by the Atlantic on President Obama's last day in office, the film went viral in a hurry, with over 6 million views in just a few days. 

Uniting a range of diverse and influential female voices, Break the Roles is a campaign I helped create in collaboration with the Open Government Partnership asking member countries to take meaningful action on gender and inclusion in 2019.

Of all the amazing people I spoke to for the Open Government Partnership's Break the Roles Campaign, this one struck a chord. Icelandic businesswoman and political revelation Halla Tómasdóttir thinks people are ready for leadership that looks and feels different; that rejects the short-termism that has left us with a burning planet, broken social contract and lowest levels of trust on record. We hope Halla is right - for the good of us all.

One of three short vignettes that form part of the Open Government Partnership’s 2019 Break the Roles Campaign advocating for meaningful action on gender and inclusion. Here, the former President of Ireland and lifelong human rights advocate makes the case for justice.

Marcia is one of 250 Pathfinder-supported activists in Mozambique serving as a first line of defense for students who may not have access to crucial information on their sexual and reproductive health at home. That Orange Shirt is one of two short films I created for Pathfinder's By Her Side Campaign in 2018. It screened in the Official Selection at the 2019 Women Deliver Film Festival.

Heart researcher Sharon George has a brilliant scientific mind. As an immigrant visa-holder, she also has an uncertain professional future. This short film, produced for TheAtlantic.com, explores the quandary foreign academics face in a Trump administration.

On the night of April 4th, 2017 - as the production team and I were filming a World Food Program brand video elsewhere in Uganda - we got word of an influx of around 3,000 South Sudanese refugees streaming across the border from a village that had been brutally attacked by government troops the day before. Though the refugees were entering Uganda around seven hours from where we were at the time, our team left at first light and made it to the border to capture the very first stages of a humanitarian response - tired, hungry families arriving to safety as the aid workers scrambled into action to provide for their immediate needs, while longer-term plans were laid.

I’ve witnessed some powerful scenes in my many overseas film trips, but this was an experience I will not soon forget.

"Just Bring a Chair" features perhaps the best motif of any film I've directed: the unprecedented hospitality of Syria's neighbors in the form of tiny, mismatched plastic chairs scattered throughout an Amman classroom. After more than five years of conflict, much of Jordanian society had buckled under the weight of the refugee crisis. But at this one school, Ms. Maha held it all together: proud, defiant and endlessly compassionate, refusing to turn away the mothers begging to register their daughters, telling them: "Just Bring a Chair."

Amani Mustafa Abu Tair is not your typical Palestinian student. In fact, she’s not like anyone I’ve ever met. From a young age, the inventor and engineer set out to solve problems she saw in the world, teaching herself whatever skills she needed along the way. In June 2016, "Amani's Big Idea" was played to a room of elite investors and top influencers at President Obama's 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Silicon Valley. As the film ended, Amani texted me: "I'm like Beyonce, but with a headscarf." Next stop, world domination.

“Ruben, Violence Interrupter” was my final shoot for USAID, and it was also the most challenging. For many Americans, Jamaica means Reggae, all-inclusives and white sand beaches. But a stone’s throw from Montego Bay’s five-star resorts are some of most notorious neighborhoods in the Western Hemisphere, including Canterbury, where I got to know Ruben. A reformed ex-gangster, Ruben was hard-edged, and the security situation in Canterbury was tense. But with time, I was able to break through, and I think the result is one of the most powerful stories of redemption I’ve had the privilege to direct.

I’m not often awed by teenagers, but that changed when I visited an elite STEM school in Cairo in late 2015 to produce this film for the U.S. Let Girls Learn initiative. The 120 girls accepted here each year are among the smartest in the country, and many have faced formidable obstacles just to enroll. Having a bit of fun with this one, I came up with a ‘Mad-libs” inspired script, adapting the girls’ own answers. For Nada, Azza, and Nourhan, acceptance into the Maadi STEM School was a dream come true. Becoming “movie stars” was just icing on the cake.

“An Olive Peace” is the first in a series of mini docs I directed for USAID in early 2016 throughout Israel and the West Bank to feature the agency's peace-building portfolio. Ayala, an Israeli olive press owner, and Khaled, a Palestinian engineer and olive grower, were brought together by the project Olive Oil Without Borders and developed a rare and special bond. We spent just half a day at Ayala’s farm, but were able to capture a touching story of friendship in a part of the world that could use more of them.

Seldom have I had so much fun on a shoot, and that was in large part because of Tania. Tania is a philosophy student and transgender activist whose personality is as big as her ambition to upend the status quo. Although Tania is from Cartagena, Colombia, where life can be hard, and even dangerous, for transgender people, she refuses to be intimidated. “What really matters is how you feel as a human being,” says Tania, “and that you are not defined by a gender to feel like one.” I couldn’t agree more.

There were many stories to tell in this rural community in upper Egypt, where poverty is rampant and traditions deeply held. In Doaa Mohamed Bakr, I found, above all, a story of charity: a young girl paying forward her good fortune just as her parents taught her. Although we couldn’t use all the adorable duck imagery that was shot due to concerns about avian flu protocols, the generosity of spirit underlying "Ducks for Doaa" makes it perhaps the most heart-warming film I've directed to date. 

In late Fall 2015, I set out for Jordan looking to tell a positive story in the education sector against the backdrop of the Syrian civil war. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect outcome: In "Raghad’s Refuge" we found a beautiful friendship that crosses borders and transcends war. After many viewings, these girls still make me smile.

This was one of the earliest films I directed for USAID, and narratively, it's one of the most complex. We wanted to show a portrait of a troubled town in transformation: buoyed by the outreach centers keeping young people away from the gangs that prey on boredom; to the police trying to break down barriers of mistrust. As told through the concurrent stories of Kevin, the troubled teen with good intentions, and Sandra, the officer with a soft spot for kids, “Finding Peace in Ilobasco” is one of my most honest films: in turn, heartbreaking and optimistic.

This story had a wide umbrella of themes to explore - gender expectations and tradition; economic struggles and the lure of extremism, and the bond of sisterhood - and my main challenge was to keep the narrative focused. In the end, I think we found the right balance, letting these girls’ incredible personalities shine through. In just a few short months, their story has hit a nerve: the aspiring mechanics met Michelle Obama and danced with Meryl Streep; they’ve been featured on Moroccan TV and in a Spanish newspaper. In short, they've become a global sensation!

This shoot took us deep inside the cradle of civilization: to Luxor’s ancient temples and burial grounds, where we were granted unparalleled access to pure inspiration. It was impossible not to be overwhelmed by the history - both ancient and recent - where day laborers toiled among antiquities, praying for the return of tourism and their full-time jobs. I will never forget my interview with archaeologists Sa'ad and Ali inside a 5,000-year-old tomb. While the political and economic situation in Egypt left me deeply saddened, this was hands down, the most beautiful film I’ve had the privilege to direct.