In our Young Explorers film series, toddlers take you with them as they journey around their hometowns with the people who care for them, and share the opportunities and challenges they encounter every day.
Explore Recife, Brazil
In Recife, a city of over 1.6 million inhabitants and over 4 million in the wider metropolitan area, families with young children can face violence and inequality. Parents of toddlers may not feel safe and, therefore, it is not so usual to meet outdoors for their children to play. Public life can be a challenge.
Meet 2-year-old Lulu, 4-year-old Ze, and 5-year-old Elloah:
- Join Lulu – climbing steep paths, buying a carton of drink, watching older boys play football, and visiting the community centre with her mother.
- Join Ze – chasing pigeons, walking through a closed market, drinking from a coconut and playing on the beach with his father.
- Join Elloah – taking the bus to the market, looking at chickens, shopping for beans and bananas, and waiting for the bus back home.
Explore Pune, India
In Pune, with over 3 million inhabitants, families with young children face some unfavourable challenges with respect to clean air and traffic conditions. Babies and toddlers breathe up to four times as fast as adults and travel closer to the ground, where cars and buses release exhaust fumes. Sometimes streets are congested with few safe crossing places for children to commute.
Meet 13-month-old Mokshada and 18-month-old Ahaan:
- Join Mokshada – shyly meeting other children, enjoying a drink of lime juice, climbing uneven steps and crossing a busy road in her father’s arms.
- Join Ahaan – chasing a dog, climbing in a tuk-tuk, meeting artisans at work making copper bowls, and reaching for brightly coloured produce at the market.
Explore Beit Shemesh, Tel Aviv and Tira, Israel
In three very different cities in Israel, families with young children navigate densely populated neighbourhoods and transportation systems in search of safe spaces to play and explore. The smallest of the cities, Tira, is home to 26,000 people; Beit Shemesh has 118,700 inhabitants; and Tel Aviv is close to half a million residents.
Meet 18-month-old Adel in Tira, 3-year-old Naftali in Beit Shemesh, and 3.5-year-old Gefen in Tel Aviv:
- Join Adel – playing in a local playground and traveling to day-care by car.
- Join Naftali – cycling, enjoying time in a playground and traveling to a local toy store by public transport, accompanied by his 11-year-old sister Adel.
- Join Gefen – running around a public square, visiting a local market and cruising the streets on his balance bike.
Explore Lima, Peru
In Lima, with almost 10 million inhabitants, families with young children navigate a tricky and, at times, challenging landscape in search of fun and safe places to discover and play.
Meet 14-month-old Rodrigo and 4-year-old Zoe:
- Join Rodrigo – proudly climbing stairs on his own with the help of a toddler-level handrail, marvelling at water in a fountain with his mother and paddling in the sea.
- Join Zoe – climbing stairs, watering plants, exploring colourful murals, and playing at the neighbourhood’s recently installed ‘calm zones’.
About Young Explorers
The Young Explorers short films in Brazil and India were developed by NYC-based filmmaker Jacob Krupnick and supported by the Bernard van Leer Foundation as part of our Urban95 initiative. Urban95 is rooted in the belief that when urban neighbourhoods work well for babies, toddlers and the people who care for them, they work well for everybody. These videos follow the filmmaker’s earlier project ‘Young Explorers Club’ in which he showed what happens when children explore the world on their own terms.
Using these as a blueprint, the short films in Israel were produced by CamelCopter, and the Tel Aviv film was commissioned by the Municipality of Tel Aviv; and in Peru by the Alto Peru Organization, Marca Lima, Metropolitan Municipality of Lima, and Urban95 Lima.
