Edo State Skill Development Agency has received 1, 551 movie entries from 94 countries for the international film festival scheduled to be held in the state next month.
Managing director of the agency Ukinebo Dare, who is also the co-chairman of the festival, made the disclosure while unveiling the festival’s logo in Benin on Tuesday.
She said the festival slated for between September 1 and 4 is geared towards boosting the film industry in the state and employment.
“During the festival we are bringing international film makers to train local filmmakers and expose them to the international world. The festival will also empower Edo citizens to take the centre stage in the film industry.
“We have received 1,551movies movies entries which come from 94 country of the world for the Edo film festival. We also have a team of international jury would watch all the films and select the best movies that would be showed during festival at Kada cinema among others,” he said.
The programme has three categories: Best Student film, Best Technology film and Best phone shot film. Winners will be awarded cash prices. The price of 2000 dollars each would go to each of the categories.
According to Dare, the programme will feature 200 movies showing for the four days event. Various partners like Kada Cinema, GIZ international, Presco company among others are sponsoring the event.
On his part, the commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Bamidele Obaitan, said the festival was to enable Edo people their own story to the world, as the Edo story has been narrated by other people.
He said the state government is using the festival to attract investment to the state and empower its citizenry.
Abuja Hosts Women Affected By Terrorism Exhibition On Saturday
Abuja, the nation’s capital, will on Saturday play host to exhibition organized by the Gender Strategy Advancement International (GSAI) in partnership with The Korean Cultural Centre in honour of women affected by terrorism.
The women and peace cultural exhibition is in commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Insurgency and Acts of Terrorism.
This was disclosed yesterday by the executive director of GSAI, Adaora Onyechere, in a statement she issued to journalists.
Onyechere said over the years the role of women in peace, mediation and reconciliation has diminished even in a time where insecurity is heightened in the country and women and children have become the burden bearers of this.
She stated that the plight has left a lot of women silenced in pain and some revisit misery as a consequence of serial attacks in their states and in their communities.
“The electioneering period has also set in and the conversation between candidates and the politics have further divided voices into ethno-religious and also reducing the most significant attribute of our nationhood which is our culture, our heritage and our diversity”, she added.
The exhibition, according to her, is in honour of the many women and girls excommunicated by the terrorism in the communities, to reignite hope in the hearts of those who remain by rekindling their trust through this exhibition of culture through arts, diversity through exclusive photography works of indigenous women from across the states.
She added that the exhibition will also showcase the works of the vulnerable women and how they have managed to survive through using arts and crafts.
According to her, “the objective of this event is to curate a support network for these women to enable them, with platforms to showcase their works and build partnerships.
“To unveil their talents, crafts and exhibit some of the amazing works these women have done and also to see through the works of artists their collection on how the journey of survival, the story of our culture and the trajectory of our diversity has been documented using creative arts.
“To raise awareness on the role of women, peace and mediation and engage key stakeholders.”
The gender advocate explained that the events will also popularize the need to end all forms of violence against women; bring a sense of understanding to the need for emergency intervention in the area of insecurity in the country as it affects women most. And build a compendium of visual data through the program.
“This is is an emergent situation and the need to raise awareness across all social clusters of both national and international is important”, she explained.
The event is scheduled to be flagged off by the Korean Cultural Centre and hosted by Gender Strategy Advancement International in partnership with Businessday, Nigerian Women Arts association, The Skilled Women Initiatives, Alex Reporters, Sparrow Productions, AIT, Arise News and others.
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