Uvisuals Studios rallies NGO, others for Lotus screening

By Zika Bobby

A social impact short film, Lotus, has been screened by Uvisuals Studios, Ark and Rainbow Development Foundation, with support from Nigeria Youth Futures Fund and LEAP Africa.

In his keynote speech at the screening, Femi Odugbemi, four-time head of Jury at the prestigious Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) and founding producer of Nigeria’s longest running soap, Tinsel, stressed the need for more collaboration to unlock the potentialities in the film industry.

According to him, Africa has beautiful stories to tell particularly with its diversity.

“The most education is self-dedication. Our diversity as a people can be leveraged for more exploits and we can’t do this without partnership. You can’t be a thinker if you don’t talk to people. Connection, support, collaboration and partnership is what keeps the creative industry in Nigeria booming, and we need the youth to dream bigger and think of a better Nigeria,” he reiterated.

Uvisuals Studio has also graduated a set of 20 young Microscope Fellows aged 20-25 in tertiary institutions across Lagos. They were presented with certificates as Fellows with four additional youth awarded as dynamic changemakers in Lagos State.

The Microscope Project, which kicked off a year ago with the aim of empowering young creatives, is targeted at fostering the promotion of national and democratic values for impactful social change.

Meanwhile, Uvisuals Studios’ co-founder, Tunde Raphael, has said that over the last one year, the project has built the capacity of participants on digital tools, grassroots mobilization, and other relevant subjects that would help them make social change in the society, adding that Fellows from the programme have actively participated in producing Lotus.

The Nigerian Youth Futures Fund started a funding stream response support to provide technical and financial support to burgeoning youth-led movements in Nigeria.

Initiated in 2021 and seeded by the MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation and Luminate Group, the NYFF Project is a five-year initiative dedicated to strengthen, support and enable the youth in leadership, activism and social change through outcome-driven policy engagements, and inclusive resourcing that support youth in shaping medium and long-term national development.