Pamela Adie, a Nigerian LGBTQ rights activist is prepared to release the first-ever gay movie in Nigeria titled ‘Ife’.
The plot of the movie centers on two lesbian lovers, Ife and Adaora, who struggled through the challenges of being in a same-sex relationship in the West African nation.
The movie directed by Uyai Ikpe-Etim is set to challenge the narrative and the misrepresentation of LGBT (Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer) in Nollywood.
The story
The producer, Pamela said that the portrayal of same-sex relations in Nollywood is not the reality of everybody and their stories, especially lesbians, need to be told.
“We only see stories about LGBT people that condemn us, to say that we are people to be beaten, sometimes even killed. That is the kind of narrative that we get from Nollywood but that is not the reality. We are human beings too, just like everybody else.
“The idea was just to show that we are normal people who fall in love, who have their hearts broken, who break hearts, who have troubles, who triumph. We also aim to increase the visibility of the community, to tell the lesbian story too and to drive social acceptance,” she said.
Ms Adie said that creating the project was easy for her and she had enough hands who were ready to work for her on the gay movie which has amassed support from the LGBTQ community
She said, “We didn’t really struggle to find actresses to play the roles. One of them already knew we wanted her to work for us, the other one was found through a call for an actor. We sent out an invitation for auditions and we added in our call what exactly we were looking for. She came for the audition and we were impressed.
“For the crew, most of the heads of department were people that I already knew and I have been building a relationship with for a long time. They are people that understand my vision, where I am going with the movie. It was just a matter of a phone call or a personal message to say, hey it’s time to make that movie that I talked about.”
Release
The trailer of the movie will be out on Wednesday, July 15. The release date is undecided.
The producer said that the movie is not going to be released on YouTube or any indigenous streaming platform.
“It’s not going to be on YouTube, we are building our own platform where people can pay to watch movies like an on-demand streaming platform. Maybe if Netflix decides to show it after a year of release, why not? For now, we don’t plan to release it on any other site.
“I intend to make more films that centre on stories about LGBTQ people, particularly Nigerian lesbian, bisexual, and queer women,” she said.
- Source: Premium Times
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