Know How captures the reality of life in foster care from the point of view of those living in it. It's not a documentary nor is it fiction. It’s a hybrid approach for using film to create social change. Instead of professional screenwriters and actors, these true stories are written and performed by a cast of ordinary foster care youth, and their performances are powerful, moving, and eye-opening. Know How is a musical that brings authentic voices and unseen stories to the screen, and emerged from the efforts of The Possibility Project, a non-profit organization in NYC that brings teenagers together to transform the negative forces in their lives into positive action through projects like this one.

Why a film by young people in foster care? Because the system doesn’t work and the human cost of its dysfunction is one few are aware of. Consider this: a few years after aging out of foster care, only 50% of young people will complete high school or a GED, 60% will be convicted of a crime, 75% will receive public assistance, and only 6% will complete a college degree. A system producing these results needs to change.

Short Synopsis

A film written and acted by foster care youth ripped from the stories of their lives. Five youth's worlds interweave as they confront loss, heartbreak, and come of age in this tale about transience and perseverance. Addie struggles to graduate from high school while her best friend Marie loses her grandmother. Megan copes with being taken from her abusive family and faces the harsh reality of living in a residential treatment center. All the while Eva works to be mother to her sister while their father falls deeper into a crack addiction. Finally, there's Austin who's living on the street with his brother; barely able to feed himself. All of them must decide to survive or else fall victim to a broken system.

Long Synopsis

Addie's living with her Aunt Janet in what's known as 'kinship' care; her biological parent is seen as unfit to take care of her. Addie's closest friends are from her block: Juice, a drug dealer, and Marie, a girl on the verge of spiraling out of control. Her world revolves around making excuses until she realizes it could very well lead her to a meaningless life, and finds the courage to change it. Marie's grandmother has been in the hospital for months now and the prognosis is bleak. Her boyfriend Trey takes care of her as best he can, but both of them are in foster care, and while it’s a source of strength it’s also a force that pushes them apart. When Marie’s grandmother passes away she’s left with a void even Trey cannot fill, she runs away from her group home, and finds shelter with Addie. Things take a turn for the worse when Addie’s bad behavior at school forces a massive argument with her Aunt, and they’re thrown out of the house. Eventually they find comfort with Juice and a bag of weed, but things go south at the apartment and soon after the twosome part ways.

When the Administration for Children’s services (ACS) in NYC finds out that Megan’s been suffering from physical and sexual abuse they take her out of the home. She must find her way through the foster care system where she is split from her sister Kayla, and taken for treatment in a facility that is anything but safe. Learning the ropes and advocating for herself she works to get back into a home with Kayla, but the system isn’t built for that kind of autonomy. She struggles to fit in at the treatment center, and yet can never find her footing— this leads her to hoard pills and plan her ‘escape’. When she picks a fight with the girls who have been bullying her, is beat up and bruised, she finds herself at rock bottom. In the aftermath Megan decides to take her own life.

Nearly in college Eva only has one more year of school before she’s able to leave, and yet her sister Desi cannot seem to find the time to attend classes. A family secret is discovered when ACS comes to investigate the absences and finds their father smokes crack. The family is torn apart and the system asks certain behaviors to change before they can come together: their father must be clean for a year and Eva’s sister must attend school. The separation exacerbates Desi’s depression though, and yet a silver lining is on the horizon as Eva’s father cleans up his act. Good news comes in the form of an acceptance letter to Georgetown University, but ends tragically when Eva goes to her father’s apartment to give him the news and finds an eviction notice on the door.

Austin and his brother James have been living on the street— hungry for a good meal. Desperate, they decide to mug strangers to make a little cash and live a little better. For a while things are going great, making good money, and eating well. During a botched mugging Austin reveals he’s fed up with hurting people, and yet after the fight cannot help but follow his brother to the next endeavor. They begin slinging drugs with Juice (Addie’s friend) and are doing reasonably well, but soon find themselves embroiled in a turf war that’s bigger than they are. After a few altercations with Spaz, a rival dealer, it becomes apparent they’ll need back up. Together Juice and the brothers plan to take out Spaz and his gang, they stalk him and go after him one night, and James is shot.

On that last night Addie, Marie, Megan, Eva, and Austin are met with answers they’ve sought out their entire lives. In the morning each one decides to survive and overcome the circumstances that have befallen them.