Paul Obazele empowers people living with disabilities for Nollywood

The capacity-building arm of Legends of Nollywood, an award and talent development platform established over a decade ago by notable Nollywood actor and producer Paul Obazele, has commenced a two weeks training of some interested less privileged and physically challenged individuals in the area of filmmaking.

Tagged ‘Legends of Nollywood Training and Capacity Building For The Physically Challenged and Less Privileged’, the training programme, which will culminate into a production of a short film by the participants is powered by Ecobank Nigeria. Every day since January 6, the training participants have been meeting at the Nigerian Institute For Sports (NIS) where they have been classes in various areas of filmmaking including scriptwriting, make up and costume, acting, cinematography and editing.

The training convener Paul Obazele explained that the training programme is expected to last two weeks, while ‘another two weeks will be dedicated to hands on production of a short films by the workshop participants from stories written by them during the training programme’.

Obazele, who has been two term President of the Association of Movie Producers (AMP) also said ‘’anytime you hear of the physically challenged, it is either about begging for alms or that they are only good for sports. But I discovered from my interaction with some of them at the national stadium that some of them desire a career in filmmaking which is why I decided on this empowerment initiative and I got facilitators like Segun Arinze, Keppy Ekpeyong, Emma Ayalogu and many others to come and prepare them for career and ultimately for life’’.

One of the facilitators of the scriptwriting class Emma Ayologu hinted that already the workshop participant are working on three scripts which will be produced by the other physically challenged participants who are being taken through the acting and production classes. ‘’It is not just teaching them but they will have to put what they have been taught to good use’’ Obazele said earlier adding that the product of the training programme will be screened at the Legends of Nollywood Award scheduled to hold in February 2020.