Taking the Stage 2022 - African Film Night

Nana Oguntola - Curator

Nana is an author, a filmmaker and a social entrepreneur. Her film and TV productions include drama and magazine programmes and her latest documentary was premiered online in 2020 during the lockdown. She is the founder of World Media Initiatives CIC, a media production, training and events organisation. Through this Nana runs Junior Filmmakers a film training programme for young people aged 9-19, which takes them through the entire filmmaking process. The programme has worked with close to 2000 young people over 9 years and produced more than 100 films. They also created an anti-knife crime project which has produced 5 films and an educational pack which will be distributed to all schools in Milton Keynes. Nana has been a parish councillor for 9 years and she also runs and organises events such as music and food festivals and business exhibitions for Black History Month in order to mainstream black history and storytelling.

Talk - How To Fund Your Film

Lumino Films - Jane Sanger

Jane Sanger is a multi award winning writer and director for films and showreels. Having produced 6 shorts and a couple of features she also advises on funding short films and crowdfunding campaigns. She has a tv series in development called The Nightriders. A period drama set in 1714 based on true events. If you would like to book a contemporary or period showreel look here: www.luminofilms.co.uk/workshops If you would like to watch a webinar on funding, crowdfunding film or making a pitch deck please also look on www.luminofilms.co.uk or email on info@luminofilms.co.uk

Veronica’s Wish

Michael and Veronica are engaged to marry but their journey takes a drastic turn when Veronica gets hit by a mysterious illness days away from her wedding. Veronica must choose between love and saving lives.

Nisha Kalema -Writer

Nisha Kalema is one of the rare talented gems who can write beautiful stories and bring them to life. She was awarded Best Actress at the Uganda Film Festival for her role as the orphan Amelia in the movie Freedom (2016), for which she also wrote the screenplay (her first). This went on to win six other awards including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Film of the Year’. She started her acting career in 2014 with a supporting role as Jackie in Hanged for Love, from then she never looked back. Other acting credits include: Prossy in Jinxed; Grace in The Tailors; Clara in Girls about Town and Lee Krasna in the Ugandan remake of Pollock. In 2017, Nisha featured in movies produced from Kenya and Egypt; The Heist where she appeared as Amani and Theodore the Great as Ahmose. Other writing includes: Hijjab Cool for Modanisa in Turkey (2017); and her current script Veronica’s Wish which she has also produced (2018). Nisha is very passionate about using her talent to make the world a better place through story telling aimed at edutainment. This is evidenced through Veronica’s Wish whose aim is to create early cancer screening and hopes to hold public screenings in different parts of the country.

Coat of Alms

A beauty queen on a quest to eradicate street urchins discovers her lover is part of the network that collects vulnerable children for the purpose of trafficking and road begging.

Producer - Blessing Effiom Egbe

Blessing Effiom Egbe Writer, Producer & Director - Coat of Alms Blessing is a writer, director, producer and editor, working on over 330 episodes of TV drama content and 15 feature films, including the highly popular and successful Lekki Wives drama series and The Women movie. In 2021, she was awarded Best Director at the Florida Flow Festival and Film Market for the feature film Coat of Alms which she wrote, produced and directed during the pandemic, with over 100 children playing the roles of street beggars & victims of trafficking. Blessing holds an MA in film from the University of Kent, a BA in Theatre and Film from the University of Calabar and a Certificate in Screen Writing from the City Varsity School in Cape Town. She is the managing director of B’Concept Network Productions, a Nigerian based Film and TV company and currently teaches film and television to 6-18year olds at the PQA academy in Canterbury.