Celebrating Ndi-Igbo

  Onyeka Nwelue is a filmmaker and author whose book, Hip-Hop is Only for Children won the Creative Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the 2015 Nigerian Writers’ Awards. He adapted his novella Island of Happiness into an Igbo-language film, Agwaetiti Obiụtọ, which won Best Feature Film by a Director at the 2018 Newark International Film Festival and went on to be nominated for Best First Feature Film by a Director and the Ousmane Sembene Award for Best Film in an African Language at the 2018 Africa Movie Academy Awards. Island of Happiness was inspired by true events in Oguta. Nwelue is the founder of La Cave Musik, a record label based in Paris, France. Nwelue studied Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and earned a scholarship to study Directing at the Prague Film School in Czech Republic. He is currently a visiting assistant professor and Visiting Fellow of African Literature and studies in the English Language Department of the Faculty of Humanities, M...

Chioma Ude is the enigmatic founder and executive director of Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF). An avid film watcher and commentator, her passion for the industry grew more intense after her involvement in the production of the 2007 Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) UK Roadshow. The ensuing relationship culminated in Chioma producing the 2008 Africa Movie Academy Awards and the institution of a brainchild of hers called the AMAA Charity Benefit. This novel initiative was designed to be an annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) platform for industry practitioners and stakeholders to give back to society.  In 2009, she went on to become the local producer of the ION International Film Festival (IONIFF), held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State in Nigeria. IONIFF is a global touring festival originating from Hollywood, whose objective is the promotion of global awareness and peace through arts, culture and films. Chioma has a degree in marketing fro...