Nollywood actor and mannequin, Emmanuel Ikubese has taken his craft a notch greater, producing and directing a film titled Mzigo that throws the highlight on the Sickle Cell illness and the way its warriors have confronted stigmatism.
Mzigo tells the story of a person who fell in love with a stupendous woman battling sickle cell and in opposition to the tide and parental consent, went on to boost a household together with her and confronted the pains and penalties.
The solid are the lead actor and director of Mzigo, Emmanuel Ikubese, Tanzanian actor, Elizabeth Michael, Mercy Isoyip, little one actors – Angel Onyi Unigwe and the well-known Pamolerin Ayodeji. The others embrace Paul Adams, Gloria Younger, Seun Ajayi, Daniel Etim-Effiong, Paul Itombra amongst a number of.
Talking on the personal screening in Lekki, Lagos, the co-producer and lead actor, who twin function within the film manufacturing — co-producer and lead actor — stated that movie manufacturing is a part of a multimedia marketing campaign to dismantle the general public stigma and widespread ignorance that always surrounds these residing with sickle cell, bringing it to mainstream media and provoking hope inside the group.
He added that the movie has premiered at each native and worldwide festivals, was nominated for an award at one of many festivals in Abuja, and screened on the Zanzibar Worldwide Movie Competition in Tanzania.
“The aim of this personal premiere is to principally align with our sponsors and our companions and the Sickle Cell stakeholders in Nigeria; convey them into what now we have made for them as a software. We additionally need to showcase the burden of what it seems like residing with Sickle Cell, not simply the Sickle Cell group, however individuals outdoors the group.
“The entire concept is to take it into the movie area by way of movie festivals. We screened at Zanzibar Worldwide Movie Competition in Tanzania and a few festivals in the USA as nicely. One of many issues I would like individuals to get from this movie is that it’s a software to advocate for Sickle Cell, altering the false narratives, the myths, the very ignorance that individuals have about Sickle Cell.
“I’ve seen how impactful that has been in serving to us change the narrative round HIV and AIDS. Utilizing all of that have, going to 12, 13 years, I simply felt like that is one illness that has been swept beneath the carpet,” Ikubuese stated.
“I really feel like Sickle Cell nearly seems like there’s a massive elephant within the room, and nobody is speaking about it, and the stigma doesn’t even add up. I needed to make use of this movie to point out individuals what it feels wish to dwell with Sickle Cell. The burden is not only on the one that has Sickle Cell, however on your complete household system and your complete life,” Ikubuese enthused.
“Plenty of occasions, individuals don’t perceive that storytelling is such an amazing software to convey individuals right into a world. And I need to convey individuals into the world of what it seems like residing with Sickle Cell day-to-day from a caregiver perspective,” the co-producer cum director added.
