ACCEPTED (aka What About Me?)
A documentary by Susanne Brandstaetter
Anticipated running time  105’
Production status : currently editing
Expected Completion January 2026
Format DCI-Flat 1:1,85   2K
Production company Susanne Brandstaetter Filmproduktion
Producer: Susanne Brandstaetter

Immigration and segregation are issues that whip people’s emotions up throughout the world. How do kids from migrant backgrounds cope with the repercussions of segregation in their everyday lives? And what can they do to rise above the limitations that are geared to tamp them down?
 
When Susmita first starts attending Hobby Lobby’s after-school ceramics class in Vienna, Austria, she can barely speak German. But that doesn’t matter – a lot of the other kids there can’t speak German that well either. In Hobby Lobby, all the different accents don’t bother anyone a bit – quite the opposite. 90% of the youths attending the Viennese NPO Hobby Lobby have migration backgrounds and come from at risk, low-income families.  In the space of a year, Accepted gets close to the 14 to 16 year olds, Susmita, Lea, Ksenija and Tatjana, as they take part in classes and a year-long course of leadership training called the Hobby Lobby Youth Leaders. Parallel to this,  a series of group talks initiated by the film director gives the four kids the space to openly voice their dreams, fears, problems and hopes. In group training and in discussions with other Hobby Lobby kids, they gradually gain more insight into the individual challenges they are all up against – and begin to learn the skills to successfully assert themselves and push their own boundaries.