Inspired by the coincidence of Bhutan's first democratic elections with a US presidential election year, The Emerging Lens Initiative (TELI) provides adolescents in Bhutan and the United States with the opportunity to explore democracy and each others culture through self-produced videos. In both countries, video production workshops will partner with classroom teachers to empower adolescents with the ability to produce short videos which they will then use as the medium of exchange in this cross-cultural learning initiative. In addition to the self produced student videos the process of education and student video production will be recorded within the greater socio political context in each country which will be used as the basis of a feature length documentary film The Emerging Lens.