Behind the scene | 20 February 2008 11:22 CET

NIGERIAN WINS FILM AWARD ON CLIMATE CHANGE

By Abimbola Akosile

A young Nigerian, Tunde Aboderin, has won an award for a film he produced on climate change, a current global issue which has generated a lot of discourse over its potential threat on man's existence.

In 2006 Tunde submitted the film script of 'Faceless' to the Nordic Youth Film Festival NUFF (Global) and won an award to shoot the film, according to the Community Conservation and Development Initiatives (CCDI), which has been gathering information and identifying key actors involved in climate change activities in Nigeria, as part of its programme on climate change.

Aboderin's feat was achieved with a grant from the Minor Foundation for Major Challenges and he was then able to enter it into the NUFF Global Film Festival in Tromso, Norway, which is a film competition that invites youth from all over the world to make films and the focus for that year was on climate change.

His film came in third place out of the 25 films from all around the world that made it to the final stage, Mrs. Kofo Adeleke, CCDI's Director of Programmes, disclosed.

CCDI met Tunde Aboderin, a young Nigerian who has produced a film on climate change called 'Faceless'. While the film does not have the scope or depth of Al Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth', it is nevertheless a film which highlights an African perspective on climate change.

According to Adeleke, "it is a very valuable step forward and hopefully the beginning of a wide range of actions, using this type of medium, which are sorely needed to bring focus to climate change in Nigeria".

Aboderin is a young graduate of the National Film Institute (NFI) in Jos and his film was recently shown at the Heinrich Boll Foundation in Lagos.

His film, 'Faceless' concentrates on images of Lagos as a coastal city being affected by global warming, with sea level rise, coastal erosion, flooding, dislocation of settlements and livelihoods and its impact on fisheries and tourism.

An attempt is made to explain the scientific background to climate change and the consensus that it is human induced as a result of increased CO2 emissions from factories, vehicular emissions, burning waste and how the destruction of forests is eliminating the natural processes for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thereby firmly placing the responsibility for tackling the problem on everyone.

As a means of creating awareness about global warming and climate change, Aboderin, who has also been trained as an actor, is planning to screen sixteen of the films on climate change that made it to the final of the NUFF competition in schools and colleges in Nigeria.

According to Adeleke, "the films are of different genres ranging from documentary and fiction to animation. He is currently seeking sponsorship and can be reached through CCDI".

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