Education

Lucky Express - docu on India's platform kids

• Inspirational
• Adventure
• Fascinating

Lucky Express: a full length feature documentary that winds through India's railways and stations, in the company of destitute children who have made Indian Railways their vast network and home. Confiding their life stories, fears, hopes and dreams, these disowned and abandoned youngsters  astonishingly entrust their sobering reality to Lucky ‚a former train station kid himself. Through him, we experience a rare and intimate connection, shaping the tone of the film. Criss-crossing the plains of India all the way to Nepal, we wind our way up the foothills of the Himalayas in search of Lucky's family.

These children are in constant danger. It has been estimated that it takes an average of twenty minutes after arrival at a station before a child is approached by an older sexual predator, or is offered drugs in exchange for sex. Some children have to prostitute themselves to gang members in order to ensure themselves a somewhat safe place to sleep at the station. Life is hard, a daily struggle to survive. As the children get older, their only chance of survival is to to join the gangs. Life at the train stations is as tough as it gets for a kid in India.

 With the completion of this documentary, our aim is to spread awareness of the hardships of these children and to start a worldwide discussion on possible solutions to get these kids off the platforms and into shelter homes. In the documentary we highlight the work of several Non-Governmental Organizations in India that are already setting in motion several groundbreaking projects. One such project is the implementation of "platform schools", which are mobile schools that come to the platforms everyday to offer the children a basic education.

The money we are asking for, will help pay for:

1- salary for the editor and director 

2- distribution and dubbing of the DVD once the film is finished

3- costs for entering Film Festivals

4- licensing for music

and last, but not least,

5- the Lucky Express team is sponsoring Lucky's film course in New Delhi. This is all 'out of pocket" expenses and has pressured us to take on several jobs at the same time as we are editing and working on the film. A donation will help us enourmously to focus on finishing the film and helping Lucky's future.

To find out more about Lucky's education, see a rough cut of the trailer or contact us; please visit the website at www.luckyexpress.org