ARAMIDE ARIBIGBOLA
Beautiful Nigerian filmmakers: Tope Oshin, Belinda Yanga- Agedah and Grace Edwin-Okon joined author of “Ladies Calling the shots”, Niran Adedokun, to celebrate the 2019 edition of the International Day of the Girl Child at Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls, Oregun, Lagos on Friday.
Apart from the girls from the hosts school, girls from Canon James Pearse Anglican College and Topgrade Secondary School also joined the fun-filled event where two films: Amaka’s Kin and Heavy Beauty directed by Tope Oshin and Grace Edwin-Okon respectively, were screened.
The filmmakers spoke to the girls about the peculiarities of the film industry in Nigeria, the importance of acquiring the necessary skills needed for whatever career the girls desire to pursue as well as being confident in the ability to attain whatever they set their minds on.
They urged them to put aside distractions that could stop them from attaining excellence.
Engineer-turn-filmmaker, Belinda Yanga-Agedah, encouraged the girls to flourish and not let anyone tell them they can’t achieve their goals.
Director, MTV Shuga Naija, Tope Oshin also dished out some advice to the girls:
“Be yourself, no one has all the things you have. It is not a mistake that you understand some things better than some other people. Remember that none of us would know how we look if there was no mirror, so the person you really are is inside of you. Listen to yourself, listen to your intuition, develop yourself,” she said.
Edwin-Okon, filmmaker and model, also urged the female students to use the experience of others as a guide in making their lives better.
Adedokun, whose book profiles 17 top female filmmakers in Nigeria, advised the girls not to “listen to the lies that the society tells”.
“Don’t let any one bring you down. Know in your mind that there is nothing you set out to achieve that you cannot achieve. Don’t believe that anyone is better than you, you are as good as any other human being that walks on the surface of the earth. So, believe in yourself and strive for whatever you need to achieve,” he said.
Check out some other photos from the event:
