A festival of young voices

We are thrilled to announce that “Our Time Is Not Up” our 2026 student-helmed documentary debuted yesterday, Saturday, April 20 at the 2026 SHU Images and Media Festival at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ. Directed by Will You Hear Me Now (WYHMN) student producers Naarah Asimoa and Farnsworth Hendrickson Jr., the documentary features interviews with students and Philadelphia’s Mom's Bonded by Grief representatives Terrez Mccleary, Tanya Anderson and Andre Mccleary.

The 11:00 minute piece took inspiration from and in many ways is a response to Will You Hear Me Now’s original Detroit Youth Choir film which had been screened at last year’s 2025 SHU Images festival. Cofounder Michael Finan, noted: "Following the Oscar win for “All the Empty Rooms,” people are asking perhaps the most important question of all: What steps can we take to start to change the narrative?"

This emotional, impactful work that features young voices deserves a wide audience. We want as many people as possible to see this and respond to it. That is at the core of Will You Hear Me Now's mission. But there’s something else on my mind. I’m just going to say it.

Student films have gotten darker than when I was in film school. Themes of death, murder, gun violence, guilt, loss of love, self-harm, suicide, status addiction and alienation are on the minds of these creative young filmmakers. And I’m not even counting WYHMN’s submission.

The young people whose films I saw have genuine concerns. Lots of them. The number and types of these concerns validate our mission here at Will You Hear Me Now?. We serve as a platform for honest expression and hopefully a laboratory for messages that emerge from this kind of honest dialogue about the risks and anxieties young people face as they grow, learn and enter adulthood.

American kids have gotten the recent message that some gun death is necessary to support the unabridged second amendment rights of the roughly 30 percent of US citizens who are gun owners.

The message they should be getting is you're here to learn and grown. Work hard. Play hard. Expand your mind. Enjoy your life experiences. This is a safe space to do all that.

How did we lose this within a generation or two?