In 2019 Pastor Aaron Campbell, Known with fierce affection throughout Philly as “Unc”, gathered 10 youth leaders to join him on a mission to “turn the city upside down.” Today, LevelUp Philly is a sanctuary for thousands of young people—a space of healing and opportunity. Gang beefs are alchemized into dance battles and former shooters are coding in state of the art STEM labs.

Pastor Aaron “Unc” Campbell is the son of a Jim Crow-era farm boy turned civil rights activist. Aaron was raised by a single mother and they struggled to keep the lights on and the fridge full.

While earning an Ivy League degree from U Penn, Aaron spent his college summers mopping the stalls of NYC’s Port Authority and being mentored by loan sharks and gangsters. His self-described "Jekyll and Hyde" existence—balancing pre-med studies with the grimiest realities of street life—gives him rare insight born out of experience.

From the front lines of indigenous gang circles in Alaska to the floor of the United Nations, his work has always been about solutions from within. Now, as the founder of LevelUp Philly, he has alchemized decades of experience, scholarship, and street-earned trust into a holistic sanctuary that directly addresses the youth mental health crisis behind the statistics on urban violence. Aaron is our way into the story, and into the LevelUp Philly world. Here are just a few of the adults and youth we will meet:

Agent Valdez (“Val”), Head of Security, was once a renowned "hood king" banned from every city school; now a registered PA State Agent. On warmer days, you find him patrolling the parking lot on his electric scooter, monitoring everything with his google glasses. Between him and Aaron is the unspoken language of two first responders who survived the environments they now protect.

Salethia (“Auntie”) is the LevelUp Philly’s top cook and a mother to the motherless. Even while mourning the recent shooting of her own daughter, she has taken in kids with nowhere else to go. She embodies the movement’s resilience—turning grief into home-cooked sanctuary and laughter.

Everyone at Level Up has a nickname, something unique that unites them as part of the tribe. During the development phase we will get to know many young people. Here are a few:

Traumatized into silence by the loss of his friends, Say Less communicated only through posture—until the LevelUp studio opened. Just this month he has moved from a 22-year-old who doesn’t speak to a recording artist. From Say Less to Spokesman.

Muscle & Conscience are best friends. Muscle, the former leader of the notorious "Kia Girls" car thieves, now faces her past with a humble smile. Conscience is her tether—the best friend who reads her looks and keeps her out of the fights she once used to seek.

Two years ago Bam Bam was shot in the stomach and left to heal with a walker he found in the trash. They didn’t give him one at the hospital. He walked that walker straight to LevelUp. Today, he returns to watch dance battles with his daughter, Treasure—introducing her into the family.

Philly Tangin is a high-energy, rhythmic street dance born and bred in Philly. It is the visual and spiritual heartbeat of our film. Some of the moves are so fast and intricate it seems the dancer is about to break the sound barrier. But it’s more than choreography. What seems like a wild release at first reveals itself to be storytelling around daily life, violence, and even mythology.

In the verite tradition, we are following the changes that are unfolding in this ripe moment in the LevelUp Philly story. They are receiving more recognition and support than ever before, but still dealing with grief, loss, and the impacts of poverty and violence. There are calls for Aaron to replicate this model in other cities, we trace what that could become. We explore how the adults, and the city itself, is changing because of what is going on inside LevelUp Philly to show the ways in which changing lives changes the whole ecosystem.