Girl Nation 2019-2020 is a social impact film project that was piloted to target female university undergraduates in public universities with technical filmmaking skills and to support them to produce advocacy documentaries and short films that screen in local communities to amplify the compelling stories of adolescent girls and women and to facilitate informal conversations that challenge social norms, so community people change their negative attitudes and behaviours towards girls and women.
The Girl Nation social impact film project was implemented in the University of Abuja (representing North Central Nigeria) and the Bayero University, Kano (representing North West Nigeria). The project was proposed to target 150 young women in both universities (75 in each university) but closed out reaching 216 young women in both universities (95 in Abuja and 121 in Kano). Both cohorts completed a 4-days Empowerment and Personal Agency training as well as the intensive 2-weeks film training from script writing through to editing. Next, the ladies had to carry out a practice production before carrying out a full production process of a documentary and short film production. Both cohorts were split into 2 production groups to work on the documentary and the short film simultaneously while they learnt to work together and on a small production budget. For a first production, both cohorts did an excellent job writing stories that were authentic and important for them to tell at the moment. And the young female filmmakers went on to screen their films in their communities and foster authentic conversations during the screening events. The highlight of the project was the special screening event hosted by the French Embassy and the French Institute in Nigeria. The screening held at the French Institute, Abuja targeting diplomatic officials, representatives from the Government, civil society, private sector, media, and young people who watched some of the documentary and short films produced by both Girl Nation cohorts from Abuja and Kano.
Girl Nation BUK Films and Documentaries
Uwani Trailer
Uwani Short Film
A Girl Against the World Trailer
A Girl Against the World Documentary
Girl Nation Abuja Films and Documentaries
It’s A Girl Trailer
It’s A Girl Short Film
Uncaged Documentary
This phase of the Girl Nation Program was critical to explore a deeper impact with the previous Girl Nation cohorts from the University of Abuja and the Bayero University, Kano. The young female filmmakers, in both cities, were experiencing their second professional film production. And this time, the ladies had the opportunity to produce a more challenging production telling a unique story with dialogue and working with some famous Nollywood actors. This experience raised the bar for the ladies and challenged their learning and their capacity to work with professionals and maintain standard professionalism. And feedback revealed an all-round successful production experience for the ladies, and all the cast that they worked with. The Nollywood actors that supported the project were impressed with their skills and their interest to learn.
Girl Nation documentaries and short films from Abuja and Kano
The pilot Girl Nation project was successfully implemented to display the potential that girls possess to champion advocacy for girls’ and women’s rights using film. And the sustainability of the project proved to be very potent, with Girls Voices Initiative committing to keep supporting the girls to sustain the impact of the project. There was a strong recommendation to invest further to strengthen the initiative for even greater impact and to widen the scope across the country. The launch of the project proved to break the limitations placed on girls and young women in northern Nigeria and it was a positive indication to reach other vulnerable women – to build their filmmaking skills and use same to challenge the social norms that limit girls and women in their region. Having explored the northern region in the pilot, Girls Voices Initiative was inspired to explore the South South region and hopefully explore context-specific themes like the ‘money marriage’ practice where young girls are married to pay off debts in the family. The choice to explore the South in a future edition of the Girl Nation program was informed by the poll that was conducted on Facebook with girls being challenged to make the case for why the Girl Nation program should come to their school. In any case, the films continued to screen in physical and virtual gatherings in Nigeria and around the world, including in several film festivals.
Girl Nation Abuja and BUK Practice Videos
Girls Get Equal Through Film (UniAbuja)
Girls Get Equal (BUK)