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My African Aesthetic
This podcast is part of My African Aesthetic.
On this Podcast, we shed light on the central and important roles Africans themselves have had, have and will have in creating sustainable neighborhoods and communities around the globe.
Our work centers African Aesthetics, African design philosophy and placemaking. We do this through dialogue, project work, research, documentation and education.
This podcast features thoughtful, constructive and reflective conversations with architects, artists, curators, designers, creatives, activists, innovators, community leaders and African design enthusiasts.
We hope this podcast helps you expand and deepen your knowledge on African aesthetics, African design philosophy and placemaking and its role in creating inclusive and sustainable communities in Africa and beyond.
https://www.myafricanaesthetic.com/
My African Aesthetic
6.1. Regina Ohiama Udalor: Nigeria.Norway
Discover how youth-led filmmaking is reshaping cultural narratives in Norway and beyond.
In this episode, Regina Ohiama Udalor, producer & director at Peridot Films and founder of the Bragi Film Festival—shares her journey of building a sense of home in Norway while staying rooted in her African identity. Through the Bragi Film Festival, she empowers young people to tell their own stories, explore filmmaking as a career, and or as a bridge to cultural and generational gaps.
Regina discusses how collaborative storytelling helps youth tackle personal themes like family, body image, and identity. Her unique approach connects kids from different backgrounds through shared stories and ideas, fostering empathy and highlighting their common humanity.
As a film director, Regina blends traditional African storytelling with modern media, creating a powerful space for youth to express themselves as individuals while engaging in cross-cultural connection.
Her film @The Lost Cafe was featured on Netflix and won the afriff Audience Choice Award Film 2017
This year another film «A warm Christmas» directed by Regina will be showcased on Friday, May 16, 2025 at the African Pavilion/pavilionafriques at the Cannes Film Festival.
@peridotent
@reginaudalor
@bragi_film_festival
https://www.pavillonafriques.com
@pavillonafriques
https://bragifestival.com
https://www.youtube.com/@peridotstudios
Visit our website or follow us on social media for updates on our work and opportunities to collaborate or support us.
Instagram: @myafricanaesthetic
Website: https://www.myafricanaesthetic.com/
Welcome to my African Aesthetic. On this podcast, we shed light on the central and important roles Africans themselves have had, have and will have in creating sustainable neighbourhoods and communities in Africa and around the globe African design philosophy and African placemaking. We do this through dialogue, project work, research, documentation and education. This podcast features thoughtful, constructive and reflective conversations with architects, artists, curators, designers, creatives, activists, innovators, community leaders and African design enthusiasts. I hope this podcast helps you expand and deepen your knowledge on African aesthetics, African design philosophy and placemaking, and its role in creating inclusive and sustainable communities in Africa and beyond.
Speaker 2:Thank you for tuning in. Welcome again, listeners to our podcast, my African Aesthetic. I am honored and glad to have Regina Udalor a producer at Peridot Films. She is passionate about young people and when she is not spending time with youth she is advocating for and making films and movies that affect change among youth, and she is born in Sokoto, nigeria. Regina, welcome to the podcast, I am so glad to have you.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you very much, Eunice. I honestly feel it's an honor to be here, and especially after I met you, I was like, oh my God, that is some amazing speaker and you know, you just really spoke right to my heart. So I am really, really honored and glad to be here today.
Speaker 2:Thank you. So I would like to dwell on two things from your introduction, and one is your name. Help us decode.
Speaker 3:I'm Nii Idu actually, so Odalo is after I got married into the Odalo family, who are a really amazing family I got married into but I was called Idu. So if I have to translate my name, regina Idu, it means Queen, warrior, or rather so Idu means warrior and lion and interestingly, when I got married to my husband, in his tribe his language also has Idu and Idu in his tribe also means lion, so I was like huh.
Speaker 2:I have arrived. Do you feel like you live up to your name or do you feel like your name has kind of caught up with you? Is it you feeding into the name or the name actually inspiring you, and how do you? What is your relationship with that, that name?
Speaker 3:so I was named I I don't, so I didn't really resonate around. Regina, right? Regina for us is a Christian name. So I actually have my Nigerian name, which is Ohiama, and I love it. So I have to say the truth, I wish my parents gave me Ohiama Regina, because Ohiama means the apple of my father's eyes. Depends on translation too. You could also say treasure. I guess there is a bit of the interweaving there where your name really catches up to you and you kind of catch up to your name. So in my case I think it's a bit of the interweaving aspect of it.
Speaker 2:You have chosen to live in Norway. Do you call norway?
Speaker 3:home. Yes, I, I call norway home. Really, I and I don't know why I should feel not at home when I am actually home. You know, I don't know how to explain it I feel like wherever we find ourselves at a particular time in our lives, that's where we're supposed to be. There is a reason why we are in that country, in that space, in that city, and so if that is the case, then I have to own this. And the moment I understood that and luckily I understood that early when I moved to Norway I've moved to Norway 12 years ago yeah, it's 12 years this year I didn't take long to actually acclimatize. To be candid, I love culture, so I naturally started teaching African dance already to people who were interested in dancing, or I was already thinking about doing something, because I felt that this was home.
Speaker 3:And then, if I have to compare it to where I grew up, which is Ogoja in cross-diversity, nigeria, dramen, where I live, you won't believe it is so similar in what ways? In what ways? You know, everybody knows, everybody kind of. You know, of course, the only difference is you don't have a neighbor walking by say hello, good morning, are you there? You know? But that's yeah, but it's a smaller community. We who live in drama, like those of us who have lived there at least 10 years now, saw the shift in population. I have seen the growth of, for example, how many more Africans have moved into Drummond, because it was very easy to see. You understand, you didn't have that many Africans, so it was easy to see more Africans, but it was also easy to see all the other. For example, when Syrians moved in, we started having more friends from those parts as people migrated into the country and into Drummond. So it is home.
Speaker 2:It is home for you. You seem to have a very, very high sense of belonging when you talk about Drummond and your immediate neighborhood, and you have children, yes, and I also would like to think that your children feel and feel like Drummond is home and Norway is home. As parents, if they're not thriving, we easily find a way to just get out and find another way or have a place where they thrive. What are the specific things that you could point out that make Drummond home, that make it easy for you to call Norway home.
Speaker 3:It is easy going to live here. It is easy going. I did live in Oslo before moving to Drummond, felt like things started working in terms of probably what could say that this was a fresh start. In many sense of you're moving to a new place. There is a need for something that I'm offering, and so it became easier for me to acclimatize. But then the truth is I also never sat down in my house and said, okay, you know, I got a fast job after 10 years, but I never sat down in this 10 years at home I was. I felt I needed to go out there, try to get what I can do.
Speaker 3:My friends tease me. My God, regina, your networking is crazy. I'm like it's more like I meet you, eunice, and I remember you and somehow I don't know. I actually think that is a gift. I don't know, but I do remember you.
Speaker 3:Probably the most tiniest thing you would have mentioned, that in your mind would be insignificant. But somewhere along the line I'm speaking to someone else and the person says something and I'm like, oh yeah, I know somebody who you understand, and that is how I started building that network. I started connecting people. It's not like the whole of drama knows me. It's just that, like I explained, I just have been able to build that networking and, like you said, it's because one feels safe, right, you feel safe that this is home. And, like you said, it's because one feels safe, right, you feel safe that this is home. Therefore, you don't think like an outsider, you don't think like you are in the community. You have to build a community. So, the same way that I speak to my kids as well, like you live in Drummond, we do our birthdays in Drummond. We don't move it for convenience, you understand.
Speaker 3:We feel like that's an opportunity for people to come into Drammen to be able to celebrate your birthday, but also get to know you know.
Speaker 3:So, for example, I told my kids you can invite them for Globus Festival, for example, and we have done that, we have invited them. You can invite them for Kul Chinat. It's different, it's a different vibe. So so, and a lot of people don't know drumming as much as drumming is famous for many reasons. They also don't know drumming because if you actually come into drumming and you spend at least one day, you would realize I really didn't know drumming.
Speaker 2:I like that you point out the importance of networking and we network differently. I'm sure there are experts that can teach us how to network depending on our personality, our context. You know you mentioned that as a key thing in creating, you know, community and creating home for yourself in drama, and I think that's a take big takeaway for me. But the other thing you mentioned at the end is choosing to involve yourself in a way that suits for you and for you. Of course, being in culture and film and all that, I can see how you know festivals and cultural events can be an easy, natural way to involve, moving forward, uh, youth filmmakers as cultural storytellers. Your work focuses on youth. Why?
Speaker 3:So thank you. That's a very important question which I recently asked myself, that I started working with youths and have been with them for a long time but never asked that question. You just ask, like, why was I that involved or why was I doing it? It came a little bit more natural to me to gravitate toward that age group and, like I said, it was also due to how I moved into Norway right and finding I don't remember if when I was in Nigeria I did a lot of stuff like things with youth. I just realized that when I moved to Norway it came in more easily.
Speaker 3:I started doing dance, like I said, and traditional African dance, and then I found out that the kids, you know the youths, were very much interested in trying to try new things. And then that graduated to film, naturally, because that's what I studied, right, and when I came in I looked for a lot of jobs and couldn't get in the film industry. So I then obviously started working in the cultural space. So I then obviously started working in the cultural space, but then even within the cultural space, film didn't come immediately. It was afterwards that film came.
Speaker 3:So, luckily for me, I got this really amazing boss called Sadie Mishny, who gave me an opportunity to do my Noshk practice at G60, which is Ungdoms Kultuers in German, and that's where the whole journey you see today started from. He found that I did film because it was like everything was like opening, it was like peeling off the onion yeah, the onion back. Nobody knew me immediately like, oh, she's into film or she's into this. They knew me in different, I mean step by step. So we have a funding called Viken Ung, where they give funding to be able to do workshops or seminars or talks for kids and youths from the age of they actually wrote the age of, uh, I think it's 12, but I do from nine, because I understand that nine-year-olds, 10-year-olds, can actually do more than you can, more than you think. So I do these workshops for this age range of nine to 20 or 18-ish, and this has been an amazing journey, and so that question which you asked was that journey for me.
Speaker 3:I was discovering that every year that passed when I most of my characters as youths featured them, it didn't occur to me that I was gravitated to. That Did the Wolf Christmas? This still occurred to me. It was actually when we started Bragging Film Festival. That's when the thing was like this is what I have been doing all this while. And why am I doing that? Because then I see the potential in them. I see, you know, when we were younger, there was always this slogan I don't know if you had that as well in Uganda the children are our future leaders. It was literally, you know, drummed into our ears Like we're the leaders of tomorrow.
Speaker 3:We are there, so obviously, when we became out of like, okay, we still sit thinking're the leaders of tomorrow. We are there, so obviously, when we became out of like, okay, we still see, thinking we're leaders of tomorrow. But I really do. But I do see that with this generation, though, I actually do see that leaders of tomorrow happening faster than when for us, for us, it felt really future. Their future is like tomorrow, you know.
Speaker 2:In that sense, as we we go deeper into this demographic of youth and film. Through the festival, you are encouraging youth themselves to make the films. What roles do films made by youth play in shaping the future of cinema for the next generation generally?
Speaker 3:uh. So you know, when one thinks about history of film, each uh continent uh discovered film at different times. So in reality, africa is the is the last, if you have to look continent by continent, where we discovered film. I bumped into film. I didn't start from the beginning and had this dream of being a filmmaker, actually went to film school by chance. I needed to present my case to my parents and so I needed to research properly about the school and, you know, show up there and then explain to my parents this is how much it's going to cost you for the next three years. This is how much you're going to pay for me to get a degree in film, like really details. And even I was surprised by my, you know, because it was so new. My parents weren't sure they had said yes, they didn't know exactly what I meant.
Speaker 3:they thought I was talking about mass communication, but with media yeah, you know you were going to be a journalist yes, but then I'm like no film that you watch, like, yeah, we get it, but I didn't resonate until I finished school, got into, got my first. In fact, that even got more scary because when I got my first job, which was in the BBC World Service Trust, my parents drove all the way seven and a half hours to where I got the job to make sure that I actually got a job with the BBC. Wow.
Speaker 2:We usually ask our guests how did you get into this creative discipline, these careers? That is like doctor, engineer, lawyer lawyer and the rest.
Speaker 3:So you can imagine, like when you came and you said you're into journalism or mass communication, Like I said, I'm like, okay, I did do a diploma in that right. So they were like, okay, she has done a diploma. So then when she's talking about film, it has to be, you understand, Related to that. In a way it has to be related.
Speaker 2:In any way yes.
Speaker 3:So the reason I'm trying to reconnect this is because the approach I then use was because we weren't exposed to film early. Europe is exposed to film early, but you would not believe it that in this generation now, at least in the last 10 years, most of the children I meet don't know that film. They don't think of film as a career choice in their scope of learning or anything. And it's amazing because today, especially today in the last what five years, we use video like crazy. Video for everything You're doing a presentation, you're making a video, a film, a short film to showcase what you're doing. There is no scope of life today. There's advertisement, there is everything Us to do with. Making film is visual. So it's amazing that you actually realize that this keeps doing so. One of the first things that happens when I meet them is you're a filmmaker, Wow. And then their brain actually connects like it is film, Like cinema's film.
Speaker 2:I'm like, yes, the youth that you interact with at NEON, but also generally in your work in Drum and Askel and the Viken region in relation to Brage Festival. This concept of film as a career option is still as a bit alien, is still distant.
Speaker 3:Yes, surprisingly yes why even?
Speaker 2:in a context where film seems to have a lot of history and is you know, yes, so I'm still.
Speaker 3:I'm still discovering the why. But then the why for me is the response I'm getting from the way they are getting so interested and involved. Like I said, when we started the workshops, I found out that we were making. Every little group of kids I meet, or youths, and I'm like, hi, would you like to make a film? And they go, yeah, you know. So I'm like, so cool. That is the reaction I get everywhere. They're so interested, they're so excited that they have to actually be in the process of making what they see at the cinemas and the.
Speaker 3:And the interesting thing, or the fun thing about this is that you know that power, that you feel what, so I can make my own story, like I can't tell my own, um, you know, so for me it is a true discoveries. They discover that I can actually make films. Then they realize, oh, my god, this is an amazing possibility for me to showcase my talent, because film encompasses everything. Whether you're good at writing a script, whether you're good at coming up with a beautiful story idea, whether you're thinking of how to put the whole thing together into pictures, you have to think of costuming. You have to think about what method you want to shoot it, the lighting, and in fact, I always always start with the simplest. Let us shoot with daylight. How would you position your camera when you have light from here? Light from here or light from there? How would you film this without having lights? So it's been an interesting journey, but do you know what, as well, I have learned so much from this as well, like a lot of the basics which I would say, um, I didn't go through film school or I didn't think about when I was in film school, because, you know, film school is it's cool.
Speaker 3:It's cool. You're thinking so many, you know I need to be this, my grades need to be that, and you know. But then with them, you're actually. They break you down, they make you understand. You have to actually go to the basics, you have to go to the you know. So I I had to actually devise a different method of teaching use, because one thing we need to remember is they don't have time.
Speaker 2:Their attention span is so short. You cannot imagine it. Yeah, and I know we can blame it on technology and everything, but it's also just being young.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's why I'm saying it's both together, yes. So I have to be on my feet thinking, oh my God, what do I do? This has to be this, and you know. And. And then I tease them. And then, once in a while, I'm like, oh well, you should act it out. I'm like, yeah, why not? You want me to be a grand man? No problem, you want me to be mommy? Just tell me.
Speaker 3:But, but importantly, that they have this platform and they have this opportunity to showcase the talent they have, the artistic nature of each individual, because I feel like every individual has an artistic nature, just that we showcase it in different aspects and then gradually, the career path begins to grow. It's like you plant a seed and then you watch it begin to, you know, to grow the state. And that for me, you know, is what is happening now. I'm seeing, I know, a group of kids now in one of the well, I guess I'm allowed to call this in Aska International School. We do have an established film club there.
Speaker 3:I've been with them for the past two years. It was such an amazing experience that they came the first year and then came back. More than half of the group came back the second year. I literally started crying because for me that meant a lot and I I had a conversation with one of them. She was telling me how they're teaching them, what I have taught them. She was like and she was like oh so, miss Regina, guess what? I was in class and then decided to be like oh, we can learn this in film club.
Speaker 2:I'm like yeah, you know about the challenges that exist in different communities and with different youth. You take on youths from different backgrounds in your club but, for example, neon, you work with Neon and there is a demographic there with so many stereotypes.
Speaker 2:The practice in being confident, in knowing that what I am making, what I am doing, even the way I think, however young and inexperienced I am, is important and I deserve to have a true and I feel like giving them a platform like film, which is a tool that they can identify with, which they relate with in this social media age, but also introducing things, like you said, about the critical element of making film, the logistical element of making film, the creative element of making film and the educative element, and just tying all this together is exciting. I think you're doing a fantastic job. What new forms of expression have you seen in these films that have been made by them, that are not mainstream?
Speaker 3:Thank you for talking about Leon, and you know I'm very happy because what Unculteur does, which is actually like our afdeling, doing a lot more than people actually realize, and that is, like you said, having a space where they feel safe and also have a voice, and they are really smart, the confident, and so for me that is some sort of what I also try to through this to. You know, there are those who are really like I said, in breaking down the process of filmmaking. You know there are those who are very good in acting, there are those who are good in writing and then making them understand that every bit and piece of all of this is teamwork, and without a script the director does not exist. Without the director, you know, know. You know when people sometimes look at him like oh, but you know it looks easy and all of them like, or even some of us in the film industry forget how important teamwork is. Samabai, which is such a an interesting terminology in norway that a lot of us immigrants misunderstand by then what it means to cooperate. For us. We call that co-production, but in Norway I found recently something by that means also something different in terms of at what stage the person gets on board as part of the project. We understand it differently because of where we come from in terms of culture and all of that. So that was interesting, even though I am a professional in you know, from film and all of that, like I said, I learned from them, so I'll give Neil.
Speaker 3:For example, we had a really beautiful documentary which was filmed by these young children on body shaming film by these young children on body shaming. But looked at it from a different perspective, it's called Me and I would definitely love to share that documentary because we've shown it in the festival. They also won an award, which I was so proud of during the festival and I also explained to the kids. I'm like, yes, I am involved in the festival because I feel that I, you know, we're trying to work to give it this platform. I also work with other people, but as I am not the juror, I'm not the one, that is, you won that award is because you did it. You were able to put out a message that people felt was important.
Speaker 3:So the style with which they shot it, the manner of in terms of the aesthetic, is beautiful. When it comes to the script writing and the style of documentary. It's not your regular kind of documentary. Secondly, we are about to finish a project with a younger demographic, still from neon, and this has been the most precious period of my time of my life because they're doing a stop-motion film and it's a lego film and they built from scratch all the sets that we filmed. One of them like no, I, regina do, can I get your son do more bees? And I was like yeah, yeah, I see you like an architect, I see you like a set designer.
Speaker 1:You know, I was just saying the the things.
Speaker 3:Of course, I know he doesn't really understand a lot of what I'm saying, but I was just literally telling him you were really good and I'm very proud that each of you thought that you could build the sets.
Speaker 3:In fact, when my colleagues were looking at it, they were like, wow, this is so beautiful. You mean, yeah, they work with Lego literally from what toddler age? And he, that particular child, also said that to me like, yeah, man, regina, you have been the only Lego. No, you're not. No, you're not. The aesthetic is discovering what kind of storytelling they're telling us, what is in their minds, how they perceive the world, how they perceive a particular topic. You know, it's unimaginable and I have to say that I can't wait, for I just really, really hope that more people come to watch the films that you know, children, nine-year-olds, 10-year-olds, 18-year-olds, 15-year-olds make, because they speak to their age group, but they also speak to us as adults.
Speaker 2:How do they explore identity, tradition and modernity?
Speaker 3:So recently, because we've had the festival not too long ago so we are still discovering a lot of things.
Speaker 3:One of the places I'm working with, let's say Caritas, the film they made last year that also went to the festival is called Got Humor. That was an interesting perspective to see, not necessarily a cult, it wasn't a cult of clash, but it was like understanding. So we were like why is it that when it is winter period we wear dark clothes? Shouldn't we be wearing bright clothes? Everywhere is dark. And so they made that film because from that perspective, they feel like if we wear bright clothes we will be happier people, especially during the darker months. And I tried it too. I tried it this period. I tried my best to not wear dark shades during this winter period and I have to say that it worked. You know, this is the cultural aspect. Like it is funny. And you know, the funny thing is that for those of us who come from Africa, we bask in colors, or I think of my Indians as the friends as well. They bask in colors, you know. But then, do you know that when you come to Norway, over the years you start from wearing brighter colors? Then you begin to change your color tone to the tone that you find around, change your color tone to the tone that you find around.
Speaker 3:I went home and my sister and my you know, my two younger siblings were like we had a film premiere, like the promotions for lost cafe and premiere and everything. So I, you know, bought things from. No, we went over, like look at my, you know, they sat like that, the two of them looking at everything. I showed them like everything is okay, they brought all their own that they had planned I was gonna wear and I'm like this color is nude. And it's true I really didn't realize it was so funny when they started breaking down the color scheme for me okay, this beige, this is brown, this is gray. I'm like and imagine you wearing all of that in Nigeria and at the festival and doing your red carpet or whatever it is. So they had already set it out everything and for me, it made me realize that and, of course, after the experience I forgot it. But when the kids did this film it actually reminded me that brighter colors make us happier. I'm not saying that it is a main source of happiness, but it contributes to your feeling and that translates in film too.
Speaker 3:Right, how do you dress your, how do you costume your characters. You know are you, is a character happy and is wearing darker clothes Right, it doesn't make sense. So all of that is also a good process that we do. It's a spot that we do with the kids as well. Like, okay, what are you thinking when you're thinking of this character and in terms of costuming and in terms of the way the person talks? And it helps as well when I think of the culture, the aesthetics in language as well. The ungdoms sprach and the way they speak comes out in the film. But yes, aesthetics in film comes in. It's always there. It's a beautiful relationship between real world culture and culture and obviously that particular story you're trying to tell. What culture do you want to have in it and how do you show that?
Speaker 2:also, the festival contributes to a broader landscape, uh, in the national cinema space. I know it is very young, you know it's not just the festival, but you use the festival as a platform to indulge all the other institutions and all the other organizations. You know, like you've talked about Caritas, you've talked about the International School, you've talked about NEON Black Nordic Theatre here in Oslo. Yes, I know that there is impact being made, but how do you see braggy festival and the work that you're doing with the youth and film? How do you see it contributing to the broader cinema scape in, uh in in the beacon area in oslo greater region, but also the rest of the world? How do you see that playing out?
Speaker 3:Like I said, from the beginning it was just a room where the kids can, you know, make film. But then you can't go without the fact that one or two or three or four of them would consider this as a career choice and I allow them experiences. I don't come from the beginning and tell them oh, by the way, you know that you can do this. You do see the ones already that are leading in that direction, and so I then obviously would plant a seed here. I'm like oh, I think you're a really good script writer, or I think you're really. You know. So I do have one of my young one or two of them actually who are most likely most definitely going into film now, because one of them is also currently going to be like my understudy in my new project, and she told me oh, by the way, I really didn't know what I wanted to do, but when I met you and when we did this film project and I was just, she really did observe me because she came around and just, you know, like every other regular youth and I'll just be talking about you know, film or maybe trying to do, you know, could they join in in the workshop and all of that stuff and she eventually did and today she honestly feels that she wants to go into that branch and is considering being a director. And I'm very proud of her because recently there is a shoot going on that she's directing and she's enjoying the process and I'm, like you know, this also makes me feel happy because then it's like the people who are with you, who you've been mentoring, are now beginning to take that leadership role and can make a decision that I have a film, I want to shoot this. Or, like you said, the networking doesn't just happen with only adults, right, it also happens with the kids. Do I see a good story here and do I think this person can direct it? And then I try to match those two people together. I'm like, what do you guys think? Would you try? And I have to say that I'm lucky because it's what you know and I really, really can't wait for that film to come to the cinema, to the festival, because I'm going to be so happy to introduce them.
Speaker 3:But one of the things we do at Bragi is that during the presentation, so we show films only made by kids, right, kids and youth. We don't show films made for kids, and the films are short films. There are no feature films, nothing of that sort. So what is amazing about this process is that when they come, we do a whole process for them. They have a red carpet moment because we feel that it's important for them to showcase themselves and be proud of what they've done right. The film is screened, we have a Q&A. A lot of them don't want to talk, but we encourage them to go out there. Tell them you need to be able to present your film. You need to be able to.
Speaker 3:Where did you get your inspiration from? Where you understand? And I remember the first film we made called Isha's Story. It was about a mate from Asuka International School, a student, the very first group of children that I started with. There were just three of them. They shot a really beautiful story called Isha's Story, and that story was about this young girl who was affected by her parents splitting the divorce situation happening at home. She stopped concentrating in school and her teacher noticed and said oh, but why do you feel this way? I said no, I'm just going through stuff. There's nobody who's going to watch that. That doesn't understand that. That story came from a place. There's no further explanation when you see what these children put out there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so in the greater context, of course, my hope and wish is that more people go to the film branch, because we do have. I feel that we have a generational gap, you know where we have a lot of people who are probably between their 40s into the 50s, 60s who went into film, a lot of that but then there's probably not that many in that age group who are going to continue the industry and I think this introduction at this early age is a good way to ease them in, because you've started making films. I mean, when you hear all the great ones, they all started as runners on set. They didn't go to film school. When you hear Spike Lee's story or you hear Martin Scorsese's, a lot of them started as runners on set and they built, you understand, and then today they are masters. We can see their work and that is the beautiful thing about film you see the finished work.
Speaker 2:Can the films these youths make contribute to changing stereotypes and encourage more multicultural, positive narratives in marginalized or misrepresented communities? Do you believe that these films can do that work?
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely. Like I said, most of the places that I have called we have the kids from already shows you what background, when you think about a lot of these places, are mixed, but the ethnic and the non-ethnic groups in these different let's say, free tees club or like schools and all of that stuff and location this helps because when they come up with their storytelling it's a beautiful process. For me, I just always think that one needs to read the room. When you come into a place you see all the kids are seated. You should actually take a sweep and understand okay, and then see the energy that they have and use that to bring out the positivity. You know the storytelling naturally comes from that. You know what is amazing? There is no place that we've met that we don't have two of the kids with similar ideas. So what we do from different cultural backgrounds, we put them together, we match the story ideas and then it becomes more beautiful. It's just a natural bloom.
Speaker 2:Generally when we talk about including Mindful. Yes, I think we forget the small deeds? Yes, that lead to the To that, to the big words? Yes, and I know that you and your team intentionally think about ways you can break down stereotypes. Yes, ways you can create, build bridges between these youths from different backgrounds. And when I say backgrounds, it could be economical, it could be social, it could be ethnic. You know, ethnic, whatever.
Speaker 3:Cultural yes.
Speaker 2:Geographical, cultural Geographical, yes, but I think I know that you do that intentionally. I think it is important that we communicate the small things that could be done to answer to the big challenges.
Speaker 3:I like what you're saying because that's also something I'm learning, because I realize there's so much that happens. But, like you said, I don't use the big words and so sometimes, even when I'm trying to express myself or telling people the stuff, I tell them in the most simplest way because I'm also very used to conversing with the young ones I can't be coming and telling them, you know, words that they don't understand you gave us this scenario and you told us most of the time, almost all the time, there is two people at least that share the same idea, that are thinking about the same theme.
Speaker 2:yes, that that is also highlighting this thing. We might be different, but we are similar. We worry about the same things. We worry about security. As a young girl, I probably worry about how do I get from neon to home safely, yes. How do I make friends? Yes. When you say you concentrate on connecting the ideas, the pieces of ideas, you don't concentrate on forcing. No, we solve it by putting two brains together.
Speaker 3:Yes, that already works. Yes.
Speaker 2:Because they're already genuinely interested in the subject.
Speaker 3:Exactly. Thank you for you know, because one can easily digress as well. It's important for brainstorming. No matter what we do, we have to have a brainstorming session, every single child. So before they come, they need to come with a character. It is a dad, a dad, right? When they come there, every single one of them would tell me what they have taught, what their character is, and all of that stuff. And it's always so beautiful to see that process because, like we said, that is when that merging happens, even while each of them is talking, and every single child must say there's nothing like no, I didn't come with anything. No, every single person has a voice. Every single person comes with what they really have in their heart.
Speaker 3:What kind of film I want to make? Now we break it down, say, okay, we understand everybody's story is amazing. We as a group now we don't really have the time to be able to do each individual story. Now we also see that two stories sound alike. You know that it's happened with a group two, three times now, so much so that I don't even start talking. They themselves begin to say, okay, yeah, so we realize this story and this story sound alike. So maybe, ms Regina, we can match those two together and this one together, and then they then start working on the script.
Speaker 3:The two people involved in coming up with the story idea get to work on the building of the story concept of the script.
Speaker 3:The script can be given to someone else, because you do have sometimes that the people who come up with the entire story don't want to write the script or probably feel like they're not talented in writing the script, so that can be given to someone else, but they always work with the script writer. There is no way that you know the script writer just takes the idea and runs with it without having the other ones involved. That's not possible. So, and this process has been so beautiful and brilliant, I have to say that the world would be a better place if we do think about it from that perspective where we know that there's no one person who comes up with one idea, like there is no human being that has only the only unique idea. It is only, like I said, every film's story idea. Someone has talked about it. At the end of the day, it is who was able to release the film first that always determines ah, this original idea came from this person.
Speaker 3:There's really nobody who had the same concept, I mean and there are and there is opportunity for nuance there is opportunity for you and the point of storytelling, and that is where the cultural background comes in as well and, like you said, the aesthetic, because a story can be the same concept told in Norway, can be told in Uganda, can be told in Nigeria and will still feel like a different film.
Speaker 2:I want to talk about feedback. We apply for funding and we collaborate with different institutions, and accountability is key. What feedback have you gotten from Drammen Kommune, from NEON, from the people that are putting in the money and the resources when you do this with the youth? Do you have one or two highlights or one or two responses?
Speaker 3:uh. So I, I have seen that. Um. So, like you heard, I've called different places or different, so naturally I started from one place. It wasn't that I did think at the beginning to just go around. It was after doing the making these workshops with some of the kids from one particular location. Then the concept came off why don't we make it a travel workshop or a travel masterclass? Because the word workshop they don't want to hear it. So workshop night I said why, yob, I'm like no, they don't want to see certain words because they attribute that to school, to work. So when you come out of the workspace you don't want to hear one. And I had to just bring that because it's true. I had to then think of, I can't say, meet up, you know. I said then in some places film club works right, film kush is also difficult, but masterclass, they find it fancy, you know. Masterclass, you know. And then I also talk about violin.
Speaker 3:In a lot I feel like mentorship is a really, really big thing that we don't. Uh, well, in europe they do pay attention, but from we who come from africa, mentorship isn't um pushed um heavily. So for me that is a major thing, you know. I have to understand that. Um, I ask people are like if you feel that I'm good enough to mentor you, please let me know. I am available to mentor. I can't tell you my process, my experience is. The point of people sharing experiences is so that people don't make the same mistake, right? So if there's no mentorship, I don't know where the world will be really. Um, but then taking us back to the feedback, I work a lot more in drumming because I live in drumming, but the film festival happens in asker and ask, as you know, because we want a middle ground for those in oslo and other regions, a bar room area to be able to come for the festival, and also people from Asker themselves and Drammen and maybe Mjöndal or Sande to come.
Speaker 3:So I had to move it there. Not that I didn't want to have it in Drammen and I wish I do. But you know we always have people say, ah, that's all langfraat in Drammen, it's half an hour, it's not that long. I also leave Drammen to Oslo. It's just half an hour. But thinking about it from how do we make the kids also feel? Because you have to think of travel time as well and save, you know, million then leave. So then we decided to have the festival is, having asked so, but then we do, of course, run uh the workshops drumming all the way to ask her.
Speaker 3:And for this year I will be having some kids sending in film from, uh, ice world region, which I'm very happy about, because when you asked me the question on demand for La Nicolederi, I was going to talk about that and I forgot that now people have heard about the festival and that kids on other parts, also from immigrant background, are looking forward to sending in their films to be shown. Some of the kids who, for example, the ones who I'm working with, and they're like, oh, they saw the festival and they saw the kids who, for example, the ones who I'm working with, and they'll be like, oh, they saw this, the festival, they saw the kids on stream, I also want to see myself on screen, I want to work on the film, to see myself on the screen, and that, for me, was a positive. They went back home and did not allow their parents. You know, for the past one year they've been talking about so much so that when I spoke to their parents they were like for something. I'm like oh, do our Regina, I heard something and it's like finally, we're making this film. So to me, this is the feedback I get.
Speaker 3:The feedback from the community is that I'm also allowed to do this, to carry this work. I'm also allowed to do this right To carry this workshop. I'm also very careful not to mix it right, because I do have my daily job, which I work in the community, right, and I have to be careful not to blend with the daily job. But I also feel like it doesn't mean I shouldn't do the workshop with the kids. So, for example, I spoke to my boss and said this kid really wants to do this as well. Can I take it, for example, during the winter period? Then that makes it justifiable, because then otherwise I cannot mix my private stuff. But then they are allowed to send it to Bragi because Bragi is an international film festival. I am not the one that chooses what film to go in there.
Speaker 3:You know, like I said earlier on, there is a group of people that's, you know, judged this. So in Oscar we've gotten funding now twice and I'm looking forward to does, she know, is looking to some abider with us, you know. So we are getting. It's a gradual process. I don't expect that everything comes down one day. Of course, I also use the opportunity to say that I think people should just come to the festival.
Speaker 3:When they experience the festival, it becomes easier for them to understand what we're trying to do. You know, we're giving these kids another platform to express themselves. We're giving them also another possibility in terms of oh, I could think about this career choice in future. You know, when I am much older, You're also giving them a possibility for them to voice out. You know what is in there. You know there's so much.
Speaker 3:There's one time I was sitting out there like, actually, do you know we have a lot of information but we don't actually understand a lot of those information. Really, there is so much and these kids are exposed to so much, but then you can still realize, like you said, we said from the beginning, as much as they're exposed to that they also don't understand. Oh, that's true, this is film, to that they also don't understand. Oh, that's true, this is film, or that I could go into making film. So I do, of course, thank a lot the drama community. On the Bragi, we're doing a special African showcase where we're going to be showing African films at Drama Chino. And this is not for children, because the Bragi Festival would happen on Sunday for children and everybody's invited to watch, but there we show only children's film. But we also thought, okay, I'm African. This will be such a missed opportunity not to use this platform to be able to also bring in African films to be showcased in the cinema.
Speaker 2:There is awards and recognitions at this festival. Why?
Speaker 3:Awards are given for encouragement. I don't look at awards as what makes you competitive. So there is healthy competition, there is negative competition. That we know all over the world. But then, at the same time, the children need to be exposed. The film world. It's big, it's wide. You're making a film that competes with millions of films, or you know, that comes out every year all over the world and we have millions of platforms that shows, showcases film. You also still have a lot of films that are made that don't get on those platforms or even, you know, seen.
Speaker 3:We need to be able to teach the children the reality. I can't say, oh, you made a film and then we wouldn't criticize your film because I'm involved or you know your mother. No, no, no, because when that film is out there, people will criticize it. Did your story? Think about your backstory? Did your story have you understand? Those are actual criticism. And there is a festival which I sent a film to and I happen to have won an award for one, christmas which luckily is a children's festival, and that festival allows both. They allow both. Yes, and this is in india. I I have to promote them. Well, because that was the first children's film festival that accepted a warm Christmas to showcase to children and I was so happy and overjoyed. It's called Kids Cinema. It's in Jaipur in India and when we got there to do the ceremony we looked at. I looked at the films that won, also made by children as well. I looked at the films that won, also made by children as well, and I couldn't hold it but like, please, can we collaborate where you know some of our best films or whatever something we have to think of something to collaborate where these films don't stop in Norway when we show them at Draghi, that we also look for other festivals, for example in Norway that showcases short films made by children and also send them to international film festivals, because I think that they need to be exposed, they need to be able to understand I make my film, I can send it and I'm proud to show this because I'm confident.
Speaker 3:Now the awards does that, not to say that other films which, for example, didn't get the recognition, are not good films. I mean, even we who make films, it's not every festival you get. If you win an award, you know that probably your theme matched with the theme they're looking for. Probably the aesthetic in terms of the style of filming is something innovative. There's always something about the film that receives an award. It's not that the entire film that the other person made is not good. What does it mean to not win? Can I tell you the truth? It encourages them. I have seen the ones who didn't win but were encouraged and went and made a better film. So I then looked at it that, yeah, I think it's important that we award exceptional stories that are told or exceptional art forms are displayed through film and all of that stuff. Yeah, so basically, that's why we give the awards.
Speaker 3:And I have to say, by the way, you know I've been talking about me, me, me, me. Not that I work alone, I work with a team. I do have you know I've been talking about me, me, me, me, not that I work alone, I work with a team. I do have you know we have a board of directors that the youths are involved. So this year the program is going to be done by the youths. So I'm excited. Like I said, I'm beginning to feel old, because that's the point of the festival, where the youths can take over, right, the point is not that we who are there are going to be there. We then become the violin, you know, and then they take it and they build the festival and see, this is what we want. This is how we envision the festival.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't want for us to end this episode without talking about a warm Christmas. First, I would want to ask you to just list a few of the films that you are proud of, but also would like for us to remember that we should watch now or in the future.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like you said, I have made a couple of films. I feel like I have learned from the one that I made to be able to be better in the other one. I have a YouTube platform called Peridot Films and we talk there about it's called Just Us, one of it. We have a makeup show that is on the platform as well, and those are series and short stories and all of that. But we also have feature films, films which is like the lost cafe, which, um, we were very lucky.
Speaker 3:A couple of years ago, we made this film which was, uh, the first co-production, basically between nigeria and norway, and, uh, we filmed both in nigeria and norway and that film was also had come on netflix. It's off netflix now. Please don't say that you went to look for the film and you didn't find it, so because netflix has a deal for it. You know it depends on the number of years that the agreement goes through. Yeah, so it was on Netflix, and so we were very happy to have had it there, so more people all over the world would have watched it, and we did get a lot of great feedback on that film, and now we also we a new film, a newer film rather, which is called A Warm Christmas.
Speaker 3:These two stories talk about the diaspora and how we in the diaspora live, or what brings us out while we live there and how that affects all of that. A Warm Christmas is a Christmas film. We watch everybody else's Christmas films. We need to be able to watch African Christmas films. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:So we just show, you know, but the demographic is. The two major characters are children eight and ten no sorry, eight and twelve in the story, 10, no sorry. 8 and 12 in the story who travel back to Nigeria for the first time to spend Christmas, but also first time visiting Nigeria, and then they visit their grandparents and they live in the village, so they don't know what to expect you call Norway home, but also you travel and collaborate with different people within the industry.
Speaker 2:How do you go about creating a bridge for cross-cultural dialogue in your films or in your work as a filmmaker?
Speaker 3:It's a really, really good question. I think. I think that right from the beginning, I probably thought that the film film is for, like you said, building bridges. The mission of our film company is archiving the present or the past for the future. For example, what I do with the kids is the same thing. We currently are archiving our stories today, our culture today, our language today, everything for the future.
Speaker 3:Because one thing we missed as Africans was that we just heard all our stories from word of mouth. We never had an opportunity where anybody wrote anything or anybody felt that. You know, we were told true storytelling and I can assure you a lot of us had many stories and thought they were just stories and didn't even realize that those were actually ancestors passing down lessons, culture, everything that you can think about of our people down to us. So for me, that was it. So let me take an example. So let me take an example when I have the grandmother in character. For example, one Christmas comes from my grandmother. My relationship with my grandmother and how I miss her, you know, those representations of that in my storytelling just makes me. How do I connect back with? You know, not only the people that I've missed, but my grandmother was one of, like I said, the stories she told us and some of the things, and I just felt like I've not done enough justice anyways to even portray the kind of person she was.
Speaker 3:And so for me, in every little bit of characterization I have, whether it is played by an African or not if you see a grandma roll, for example, tip, that is me expressing what she inculcated in me. Now that is also to say that we have my mother too, in that sense. So people use different expressions or, when they think of character, use different things to express it. For me it is building bridges, not only cross-culturally, but like even in the context of my storytelling or my style of storytelling or the demographic that I am making stories for. Who are my main people that I'm thinking? How are they going to perceive the story when they see it, or what will they get from it? You know. So for me that is it. Whatever I do has to have my Africanness in the story. I have to have my element of where my source comes from.
Speaker 2:You know, in the story, yeah so let's conclude by asking what is your african aesthetic? What? What does I mean? We're already on the subject what does the african aesthetic mean to you?
Speaker 3:thank you so much. You need that is a really beautiful question and I hope many more people can have that question, also as an introspective Jonathan, a question where you sit down at your own time and think about what is my aesthetic, what is my African aesthetic? For me, the manner of speaking, do you hear anybody who's as loud as myself? You know my feeding hello. How are they? All my Niger people, all my Ghanaian people, all my Cameroonian people, all my Ugandan people, all of Africa, all of now, where they hear pigeon, how are they? I hope now they find like, how can you take that away from an African? The dressing.
Speaker 1:They fufu, I eat fufu every dressing the fufu.
Speaker 3:I eat fufu every week. Children eat fufu every week. Every week. I'm telling you every week you know, I've introduced fufu even at work that the kids at work will be like no Scalispi. You said fufu and I'm like they come they come.
Speaker 3:No, but that is how much africanness it is, that is how much um. You know, for me I just felt like norway is home. I make what I eat, bruh shiver, which is not necessarily something I grew up with but that has become. You understand, that is norway for me, that is the aesthetic I have gotten here, and the kids, naturally. But then I was like imagine going back home to Nigeria.
Speaker 3:You visit your auntie and they make you food, and then your children are looking at the food and they are wondering mommy, mommy, what is this? Are we supposed to eat this? How do you even want to start explaining to your auntie? Sorry, auntie, you know, but to be candid, I love it. I love fufu myself.
Speaker 3:I grew up with fufu in my home. My mother ate fufu every day and we, for Nigerians who know where Cross River State, we have the most assorted soup in Afghanistan, in Nigeria, really, if you've heard of a dikai called afang, you know we don't do the normal soup as well. Yes, we do the egusi as well, but we have specialties in our region. For example, I found a granite soup that we make. The Cameroonians also make it, and that makes sense, because Cross River State actually is border to Cameroon and so naturally the people in the border have the granite soup and our fan soup, which you know is called Eru. Down my region, where I come from, ogoja, we call it Eru.
Speaker 3:So when we were sharing notes with my Camero camaronian friend, we were laughing and speaking pidgin. I'm like, ah, you don't chop. You know, I have to say thank you so much. Um, thank you for making it very free. You understand, it's not easy every time to be able to speak. Or you know, like when you hear interviews, you know you're calculating what are you gonna do or how do you adjust yourself, what do you say and not say. But you made it very easy. Um, just being myself. You know you make it that. Is it actually? What is the african aesthetic?
Speaker 2:being yourself, being being happy that you're african aesthetics, being yourself, being being happy that you're african, and just express that form thank you very much, uh regina, for taking time to talk with me, for honoring the invitation, and thank you for being on the podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much, and I hope your podcast becomes a video as well. You know, and, by the way, please, the work you do, it's amazing. Please keep it up.
Speaker 1:I'm very grateful that you started this and you've thought to make it go the way it's going. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, then I'd encourage you to visit our website or follow us on our socials for updates on our work and opportunities to collaborate or support our work. Remember to subscribe, leave a review, reach out to us or share this podcast with other people that might be interested in this content. Thank you for joining us today.