WHAT ABOUT ME?
A documentary by Susanne Brandstaetter
Anticipated running time  90’
Production status Post Production: currently editing
Expected Completion September 2025
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 Hobby Lobby have migration backgrounds and come from at risk, low-income families.  In the space of a year, What About Me? gets close to these 10 to 16 year olds, as they take part in classes offered by the Viennese NPO Hobby Lobby. The idea behind the NPO? Give these kids the ability to overcome segregation’s  disadvantages by training them. First, by giving them the opportunity to determine their talents, skills and potential in the free-of-charge hobby classes outside of school – and then, in a year-long course of leadership training called the Hobby Lobby Youth Leaders. It’s especially here that the 14 to 16 year old kids learn skills to push back against segregation’s boundaries and stereotypes. 

That life isn’t always fair, is part of these youths’ reality. But these kids don’t give up: they’re fighters and amazingly resilient…   And at the Youth Leaders, they gradually learn how to overcome obstacles, assert themselves, plan new goals and look for ways to reach them.