Netflix Director of Content for Africa, Ben Amadasun tells Vanessa Obioha in an interview the streamer’s commitment to spotlighting the various talents in the creative industry to a global audience while building a home for the best-in-class African stories
There was a lot of fanfare last year when Netflix announced plans to make Nigeria originals before the pandemic struck hard. What has and hasn’t changed since then?
Nothing has changed. Sure the pandemic did have an impact on film production on a global scale, but we at Netflix are still committed to the Nigerian film industry. We recognise that being part of the local creative community in Nigeria/Africa also comes with responsibilities, in particular the need to develop the talent pipeline and give new voices the chance to be heard. We will continue to develop and work with the industry on initiatives such as the post-production workshops, Realness Institute partnership for new scriptwriters.
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Netflix kicks off inaugural skills development initiatives in Africa
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The program, launched by the Realness Institute, a non-profit organisation committed to fostering a new wave of African storytelling in partnership with the world’s leading streaming service Netflix, will kick off this week (13 June) and will run until September.
Six of these candidates will have the opportunity to participate in the Episodic Lab (EPL) where they will develop their story concepts alongside expert Story Consultants and Creative Producers.
The selected participants include Andile Ngcizela with Drummies (South Africa); Ayoade Adeyanju with Agent 419 (Nigeria); Dominique Jossie with Fafi (South Africa); Kehinde Joseph with Osupa (Nigeria); Kudakwashe Maradzika with Bad Influencer (Zimbabwe / South Africa) and Mary Waireri with Sheitain (Kenya / United Kingdom).