Ujuaku Akukwe

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Ujuaku Akukwe
Alma materUniversity of Nigeria, Nsukka New York Film Academy
Websitewww.ujuaku.com

Obianujuaku Nwakalor-Akukwe is a Nigerian documentary filmmaker. [1] [2] She is a founder of the Eastern Nigeria Film and Arts Initiative (ENFAI) [3] and the Festival Director of the Eastern Nigeria International Film Festival, which holds annually in southeast Nigeria. [4] [5] [6] Her films focus on cultural heritage. Akukwe is a TEDx speaker and the author of the book, "Nuts and Bolts of Parenting". Her film, Afia Attack, won the Documentary Short Length Award at the 2017 Silicon Valley African Film Festival. [7] [8]

Contents

Education

Akukwe attended the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, graduating in Social Works in 1999. In 2012, she graduated from Entrepreneurship Management, Pan-African University, Lagos State, Nigeria. Akukwe earned a degree in Film Producing from the New York Film Academy Los Angeles, United States of America in 2015. [9]

Career

Akukwe co-founded the Eastern Nigeria Film and Arts Initiative (ENFAI) and began the Eastern Nigeria International Film Festival in November 2020. [10] As part of the 4th Edition of the film festival, Akukwe organized a workshop which had a session led by Frank Nweke Jnr. In a previous edition, the veteran actor, Pete Edochie, won the Lifetime achievement award. [11] Akukwe became the global creative director of Innovate Africa Corporation in January 2024. [1] [9] She is the founder of Francis Ashley Media productions, a Managing Partner of Leap Bound Entertainment Limited. [2] Akukwe is a TEDx speaker (October 2018). [2] [12]

Filmography

Recognitions

She was honoured with the Nigeria Women Entrepreneur Award for her contribution to positive parenting through her project "Polishing the Diamonds". [2] She also received a Certificate of Recognition from California State Legislature Assembly for using film as a vehicle for community engagement and education. [2] Akukwe is a Fellow of the Acumen West Africa. She was given the Star Award (Lift Effects London, UK) for "Positively Touching Lives" and the Diamond Bank BET Scholarship. [9]

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Amarachi Attamah-Ugwu is a Nigerian Chant Performance artist, writer, poet, broadcaster, and an advocate for the preservation of the Igbo language from extinction. She is an Igbo language Instructor in the Harvard African Language Program, department of African and African American studies, Harvard University. She is also an Igbo language instructor in the Directed Independent Language Program (DILP), at the Yale center for language study, Yale University. In 2023, she won a grant of $4000 from the Mark and Pearle Clements Internship Award in Syracuse University to support her independent research work: "Museum mapping of Igbo masks in United States and indigenous conceptualization". She was a presenter in the Enugu State Broadcasting Service, and the vice president of the Association of Nigerian Authors. As a chant artist, she has performed in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom. Attamah is the executive director of Nwadioramma Concept and founder of OJA Cultural Development Initiative. In 2020, she made a poetic documentary of the abandoned heroes of the Biafran war, entitled, Ogbunigwe. She also made another documentary about the horrors of the Biafran war as told by war veterans entitled, "Biafuru". She is the author of Tomorrow's Twist (2007), My Broad Daydream (2011), Making A Difference (2014) and Akuko lfo Nnemochie Kooro m (2014), a collection of short stories in lgbo. In 2021, Attamah co-authored Elephant Tusk with Jeff Unaegbu and others. She is a member of the African Studies Association; Enugu Literary Society, and Association of Critical Heritage Studies.

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