Twenty-one-year-old Taron Lexton’s passion for film began at a very young age and has blossomed into a full-blown — and already successful — filmmaking career. After graduating from Los Angeles Film School in 2004 he asked his mother (YHRI’s president, Mary Shuttleworth) what he could do to help her teach the basic principles of human rights to youth. Says Taron, “She suggested I create a human rights music video that would touch people from all walks of life and in every corner of the world,”

Taron then joined Mary on a 45,000 mile YHRI world tour to 13 countries where he captured footage that then became a center-point for his inaugural video project. Joined by a 150-strong multi-ethnic cast who donated their time and talents to the project, Taron immersed himself in the creation of “UNITED,” an emotionally riveting hip-hop music video released in August 2004 at the United Nations in New York. UNITED has since won film festival awards around the globe and is used broadly today as an educational tool for youth.

His next major human rights project was the production of 30 and 60 second Public Service Announcements (PSAs) that depict the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since their release last June, the PSAs have aired on 2,800 TV stations in a total of 60 countries with an estimated viewership of 100 million. They have run internationally on CNN, and on ABC, NCB, CBS and FOX in the USA. In addition to the use of these PSAs as a teaching tool in schools, by youth clubs and at seminars, conferences and training sessions, they also reach thousands at a multitude of public venues, including airports, bus lines, fashion shows, concerts, sports stadiums, restaurants, fairs, department stores, malls, exhibitions, film festivals and even gas stations.

“Film making is the most powerful means of broad scale communication,” says Taron when asked what drew him to a filmmaking career. “You can speak to people who might not otherwise listen to you. They might not read a book or listen to a speech, but nine times out of ten they’ll sit down and watch a film.”