Learn about our vision and mission, why we founded Lyfta and the team who is responsible for making Lyfta a reality.
Filmmaker couple Paulina and Serdar met on their MA in documentary filmmaking in 2003 and have worked together ever since. Once they graduated, they had the privilege of travelling to numerous countries around the world, getting to know new people and places, and crafting stories, while pushing the boundaries of documentary storytelling with new technologies, interactivity and design.
Pre-Lyfta, Paulina and Serdar shared their work with hundreds of millions of viewers all over the world, but very few of these were children. Following a suggestion from Serdar’s dad, a career-long teacher, the couple shared their debut immersive-interactive documentary with a mixed age-group class at a primary school in Ipswich. Paulina and Serdar quickly realised that this was the most exciting and inspiring audience experience they had ever had, and decided to dedicate their careers to making learning exciting and real for children.
With the help of two amazing co-founders, Tiina Rantakokko and Kari Tervo, Lyfta was born. We are here to give children and teachers the opportunity to have meaningful learning experiences all over the world, showing them how interconnected and interdependent we are, and helping them to develop a deeper sense of belonging in themselves, in their communities, and in the world.
We have seen and experienced how powerful immersive documentaries can be to make learning real and meaningful and the long-lasting impact that real-life stories can have in children’s lives. We often hear people say: ‘I wish I had Lyfta when I was at school’. As educators and storytellers, we feel that it’s our responsibility to make Lyfta an entitlement for the next generation.
Lyfta is made possible by our talented, global filmmaking community, whom we collaborate with to create our storyworlds. We have worked with over 60 filmmaking teams from all over the world to bring the best films and educational experiences to our community of learners and educators.
Our content team carefully selects filmmaker partners to access the most fascinating and unique stories from far-flung destinations. Our filmmakers often come from the countries and communities that they represent. This not only enables us to amplify local voices, but also allows our films to be really authentic and unique. This is what makes Lyfta so special - and different from many other educational platforms - and ensures we have the widest range of stories, topics and representations on our platform.
