Written by Abdulla Abou Wasel, DFI Kids Access Reporter.

Hi my name is Abdulla and I got to do something really unbelievable, but before I start that story I’m going to tell you about how it started! In October 2011, I got picked to be a reporter on the red carpet for the Doha Tribeca Film Festival (also known as DTFF). The festival takes place in Doha. I got to interview many many spectacular actors such as; Robert De Niro, Freida Pinto and James Cromwell, but of course there were many more actors there …

I guess Sandy, the producer, and Peter, her boss, were impressed with my work because as soon as they went back to New York, where they live, they contacted DFI (Doha Film Institute) and asked if my co-reporter Hessa and I could come to New York to work with the TKA reporters for the Tribeca Film Festival. I was so excited! I said “YES!” straight away, and on April 20th I was on a plane heading to the “Big Apple”. As soon as we arrived I was ecstatic, I couldn’t believe I was actually in New York!

A few days into this (working) holiday I was off and reporting at The Goonies Drive-In, the Tribeca/NYFEST Soccer Day and the documentary Burn. It was very exciting. After several successful days, I had to go watch a documentary called On the Mat which is a movie about wrestling in a school located in Lake Stevens, a town that is in the USA. The day didn’t start really well because, first, the taxi took us to the wrong place, so we were late and had to pay $50 dollars. When we finally arrived, the problem was I had not noticed that my phone had slipped out of my pocket onto the cab seat so we left the taxi and arrived at the theater. As soon as we entered the theater the film had already started, it showed an interview with Steven, the team champion who was hot tempered at times. Then, while sitting down, I noticed something, my phone wasn’t in my pocket! I checked under the seat and started to get scared. I told my brother and he went outside and asked the people how we could contact the taxi to get my phone but they said it would be really hard. We went back inside, the movie was showing Eric with a messed up leg and it was very emotional. But probably the most emotional part was when Jess got taken down and smacked his head onto the ground and he was knocked out! Thankfully he recovered. This movie was really good, it had a mix of all the genres and just made the movie great, but at the same time, some parts were really sad!

New York was such a great time I had a lot of fun because I love watching movies and many movies have been shot in New York, so seeing them was a great pleasure for me! We visited many places in NY, but probably the best place was Times Square. We went there many times and had lots of fun! We also went biking many times but the best biking was when we rented bikes in Central Park and took them to the boathouse. We rented a boat and drove in the river, it was so much fun! We bought a lot of toys from Times Square and we played with them. My brother and I kind of acted like children. I met a lot of great kids in New York that treated me with a lot of respect and had so much fun working with them. Going to NY is, I hope, my first step to becoming an actor, because that is what I hope will be my career when I grow up!