BusinessDay 01 Apr 2018

Sunday 01 April 2018
United States supports new
TV drama ‘In Love and Ashes’
…Series premieres April 4th
OBINNA EMELIKE
On Wednesday
March
28, 2018
Ambassador
W. Stuart
Symington of the United
States of America, joined
Innocent Idibia, prominent
Nigerian singer, record producer,
and entrepreneur at
the gala launch of a new TV
drama series “In Love and
Ashes.” The eight-part series
was funded by the U.S.
Agency for International
Development (USAID) and
addresses the impact of war
and terrorism on everyday
people’s lives.
The star-studded launch
featured a screening of the
first episode, which centered
on the predominantly
Kanuri-Muslim society of
Borno State in the northeast
of Nigeria. The ongoing
insurgency in that region
and the resulting disruption
of institutions, destruction
of infrastructure, and
displacement of people
have hit this society hard.
Despite the devastation,
hope still thrives on the
streets of Maiduguri, where
the drama is set.
The series touches on
themes such as tribal and
Patience Ozokwor in ‘In Love and Ashes’
religious intermarriage, the
status of women and girls,
the drivers of radicalization
and violent extremism, the
influence of political “godfathers,”
and the hardships
connected with being an
internally displaced person.
“This series illustrates
what every Nigerian knows
by heart: the greatest resource
of Nigeria is the Nigerian
people themselves,”
Ambassador Symington
said at the launch. “This
dramatic and entertaining
series reminds us why so
many Nigerians take such
pride in being Nigerians.
It celebrates Nigerians’
diversity, resilience, dynamism,
creativity, tolerance,
and warmth. Those are the
forces and the qualities
that unite Nigerians and
Nigeria.”
The title track of the
series was produced by
NowMuzik, which was performed
by Innocent Idibia
at the launch.
The series features a star
studded lineup including;
Patience Ozokwor, Charles
Etubiebi, Nafisat Abdullahi,
Sani Danja, Tijjani Usman
C002D5556
Faraga, Anita Pam and Meg
Otanwa.
“In Love and Ashes” was
scripted and produced by
Watershed Entertainment,
and will be broadcast by
Ebony Life TV (DSTV channel
165) starting on April
4, 2018 with additional
broadcasts on NTA and
Startimes channels to follow.
41
Arts
DStv, GOtv
to serve
subscribers
exciting menu on
Easter holidays
DStv and GOtv subscribers
will over the long
weekend of the Easter
holidays, enjoy more
entertainment at no extra cost.
DStv and GOtv subscribers
will be treated to footballing
action from the Premier League,
including the match between
Manchester United and Swansea
City, the Spanish La Liga and
more. Drama and comedy lovers
are not left out as omnibus episodes
of Battleground, Hustle,
The Johnsons and more will be
shown on Africa Magic.
Martin Mabutho, general
manager, marketing and sales,
MultiChoice Nigeria, said: “This
long holiday weekend we want
to ensure that our customers and
their families stay entertained
with our existing content line
up. We encourage customers to
renew their subscriptions in time
and avoid the holiday rush, even
as they can also take advantage
of our self-help options to ensure
that they enjoy seamless, world
class entertainment throughout
the holidays.”
Viewers can also stay tuned to
the everyday drama and intrigue
in the Big Brother Naija house,
and the excitement and suspense
of the Sunday live eviction show
after Ebuka’s promise of a surprise
for the housemates at the upcoming
Saturday night party.
DStv subscribers can also take
advantage of the Easter Explora
Slash which ends on March 31,
2018, and get the DStv Explora
with a month’s compact subscription
at N29, 000. Movie lovers can
also rent exciting movies like the
Emoji Movie, Dark Tower, Murder
on the Orient Express and many
others from BoxOffice.
Terra Kulture boss, FilmHouse Cinemas mentor
aspiring talents at Young Nigerian Symposium
With the sole aim
of empowering
the average
young Nigerian,
male and female alike,
with their various growth
interests, The Young Nigerian
project was established
to help enhance the much
needed growth; with the
knowledge that an empowered
body of youths makes
up an empowered society.
In the light of this, The
Young Nigerian Project held
the maiden edition of its
monthly symposium aimed
at developing the interests of
young Nigerians and helping
them find their stance in a society
that has posed quite unfavourable.
To achieve this,
iconic individuals from various
walks of life were guest
speakers at this month’s
edition; where young people
had a one-on-one interaction
with them.
The symposium, which
held on March 29, 2018, with
the theme “Finding Yourself:
Making a Mark”, witnessed
the two guest speakers rubbing
minds with 50 privileged
young Nigerians. The
speakers are Bolanle Austen
Peters, founder, Terra Kulture;
premier arts, education
and cultural organisation
and Kene Okwuosa, group
deputy managing director/
co-founder, Filmhouse &
FilmOne Productions.
Bolanle Austen-Peters
has proven herself as one of
the iconics in the Nigerian
arts sector, with the establishment
of a first-of-its-kind
educational and cultural organisation,
Terra Kulture.
The establishment, preoccupied
with educational and
recreational artistic purposes
was set up in 2003 by the
Bolanle Austen-Peters
International Law graduate
and has since promoted the
richness and diversity of
Nigerian languages, arts and
culture; with 200 arts exhibitions,
135 plays, 65 book
readings and over 10,000
local and international attendees
of their language
classes.
Before his time at Filmhouse
and FilmOne, Kene
Okwuosa was a founding
employee and head of field
operations, Genesis Deluxe
Cinemas (now Genesis Cinemas
2008 – 2011) and was
responsible for the cinema
chain’s roll out to Port Harcourt
and Enugu. He is the incumbent
group deputy managing
director, co-founder,
Filmhouse & FilmOne, and
has been in the business for
16 years developing new
cinema sites and exploring
new cinema markets. Film-
house is the largest cinema
chain in West Africa and FilmOne
is the fastest growing
studio-styled organisation
responsible for box office
hits such as Logan, Assassin’s
Creed’, Fifty, Wives on strike,
A trip to Jamaica, Alakada
Reloaded and The Wedding
Party, Nigeria’s highest
grossing box office film ever.
With our ideals formed on
Self fulfillment, Identity, Direction,
Empowerment and
Nation Building (SIDEN),
The Young Nigerian project
has painstakingly partnered
with these two icons, for its
March edition, to impact
the lives of a few privileged
young Nigerians in diasporas;
who would get the opportunity
to have resourceful
and impactful conversations
with them; to birth their
directions towards achieving
their purpose.