YouTube Premieres ‘Creators For Change’ Videos At Inaugural Tribeca TV Festival

At the inaugural Tribeca TV Festival over the weekend — which serves as a supplementary event to the flagship Tribeca Film Festival in April — YouTube took the opportunity to showcase the work of its Creators For Change initiative during a premiere event moderated by digital star Todrick Hall.

Creators For Change was established last year and will see the video giant supporting a diverse array of YouTube stars — led by ambassadors like John Green and Franchesca Ramsey — who tackle social justice issues in their content. At the Tribeca TV Festival over the weekend, YouTube premiered three new videos from its first class of 27 Creators For Change fellows — or emerging creators exploring issues like racism, religious discrimination, and xenophobia, Engadget reports. Given that YouTube has committed $1 million in equipment and production grants to fund videos that tackle social issues, this was just the tip of the iceberg.

One of the videos screened at the Tribeca TV Festival was a music video from Australian hip hop artist L-Fresh The Lion for a song called Raci$t/Our World. This was followed by Tasneem ‘Tazzy’ Phe‘s visual essay I Wanted Nothing To Do With This Country. In her video, Phe describes the challenges of growing up Muslim in America, as well as feeling like an outsider when visiting her family in Pakistan.

Finally, U.K. creator Sam Saffold premiered a short film called A Welcoming Place that follows a young man who visits his father’s old home. The film — below — explores issues like xenophobia and grief.