It’s a story about three South Africans whose lives were anything but easy. It’s about the power of unrelenting love in the face of anguish. But, perhaps more than anything, it’s a story about one woman’s dream to teach hope through education.

“Ithuteng {never stop learning}” is a documentary produced by alumnus Kip Kroeger about a school, called the Ithuteng Trust, in South Africa. Kroeger and two friends who helped create the film, Charlie and Willie Ebersol, will be featured on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” Thursday afternoon to discuss the film.

“You’re sitting there with someone, one of the most influential people in the world on a daily basis, and she’s interested in something we were able to be a part of,” Kroeger said. “You see how much her thoughts and opinions mean [to the audience] and to sit there and just talk to her and share with her your experience — it was just surreal.”

Oprah has said she was touched after watching the documentary on a plane to Johannesburg last June and has already donated $1.14 million to the school. Because of her donations, Kroeger said, the school has stayed in operation.

“She gave them operating costs because they’d been given buildings and facilities from other donors, but they hadn’t been given money to maintain those things,” he said. “So, she’s allowing them to keep the school running with new facilities and the new things they’ve been given.”

Kroeger said he hopes the documentary conveys to viewers that Mama Jackey, the woman who created and runs the school, teaches rehabilitation through education and that students see education as the biggest step anyone can take to better their own lives and the lives of those around them.

“It helps put things in perspective when you see what these kids have been through and you see how genuinely positive their outlook is on life,” Kroeger said. “It gives you perspective that you can do the same thing no matter what you’ve gone through.”

The documentary received awards from various film festivals, including Best Documentary Film at the Hatch Film Festival and Best Humanitarian Film at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival.

The film will be featured on HBO in the beginning of December, and Kroeger said they are still working on getting it distributed to theaters nationwide.

Kroeger made the documentary after watching Charlie Ebersol’s footage from a trip to the school in 2003. It was shot in 17 20-hour days with a $23,000 budget. The trio received support from many people and donations of Apple computers and Canon cameras.

“If you just decide to do something and you’re passionate about it, people gravitate to that,” Charlie Ebersol said in a previous interview.

Kroeger and Ebersol worked on different projects together in high school, making music videos for bands and a rap group the summer before making the documentary.

Kroeger graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and is currently living in Los Angeles, working as a post-production assistant for the television show “Scrubs.”. He said he likes working in television and ultimately wants to produce films.

“There’s a lot of logistical things you learn from making a film with a very low budget and sort of by-the-seat-of-your-pants that I’m sure they’re almost just innate after a while,” he said. “I think the bigger thing I gained from making this film was just a different perspective on your day-to-day life.”

Kroeger referred to a plane crash that Charlie Ebersol was in with his father and 14-year-old brother, in which his brother died.

“When we came back and Charlie was in the plane crash and his brother died, we didn’t even realize it until weeks later when I was talking to him and his brother [Willie] about the situation and how we were able to apply those things to the way that they were going through.”

Kroeger said the film was holding back emotion that, after the plane crash, they realized needed to be unleashed.

“We went back and watched the film again and realized we need to take some sort of approach to making the film — unlock the emotion on it and not try to rein that in,” he said.

The documentary will be premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on May 2.