Under The Rainbow – A new documentary film aiming to promote awareness and acceptance of LGBTQ in a country where living openly as a gay woman is often a silent and secret struggle.
Written and produced by Adie, the film was shot by award-winning Nollywood director Asurf Oluseyi, who directed the groundbreaking queer short Hell or High Water. Unlike other documentaries that talk about being queer in Africa, Under The Rainbow speaks of originality as it is not made for Africans by Africans.
“Under The Rainbow” was told to combat the notion that queer Nigerians don’t exist and to challenge the idea that homosexuality is un-African by demonstrating that it is not a phase or a learnt behaviour. The documentary is intended to circulate in African contexts and, as Adie states in the film, to “create awareness and accelerate acceptance.”
Premiered at a private event on June 28th at the residence of the British Deputy High Commission in Lagos, who offered a safe space for the screening, ‘under the rainbow was however yet a very much Nigerian affair.
In attendance were several high-profile Nigerians including Nollywood actors, media entrepreneurs, and human rights activists. At the premiere, Adie emphasized that the film was also made to contribute to the conversations by and about Nigerian lesbians who are often excluded from conversations about equal rights in the country.
Under the Rainbow is very much part of a larger strategy within the LGBTQ movement in Nigeria to use storytelling for advocacy.
“We’re at a point in Nigeria where, as a movement, one of our immediate goals is to change hearts and minds.”
Pamela Adie
Watch The Officer Teaser Below:
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