Storytelling is the most powerful force challenging outdated narratives

In December 2018, CNN International’s program Inside Africa explored the people and powerful impact of FilmAid Kenya’s Media Entrepreneurship Training courses in Dadaab and Kakuma Refugee Camp.

FilmAid Kenya’s training course consists of a 12 month period of course work and practical training, serving 80-120 youth every year. Students gain skills in film, photography, journalism, radio, digital media and entrepreneurship, allowing them to access the invaluable creative and technical skills needed to explore issues within their communities and to express themselves creatively. For the past 12 years, FilmAid Kenya has hosted a film festival that showcases the students’ work alongside international features and shorts by, or about, refugees and other displaced people.

In this episode, CNN Inside Africa follows FilmAid’s students and graduates as they take their filmmaking journey from inspiration to exhibition.

Along the journey you will meet some extra special FilmAid graduates - the dynamic duo Amina Rwimo and Abdul Patient, founders of the production studio Exile Key Films - during the making of the Sukar Music Video by artists Mercy Akuot & Scoobylincos.

Amina and Abdul use their own independently produced work to empower, educate and impact their audiences about the realities, both hopeful and heartrending, that many refugees face. Their ambition and subsequent success has taken the duo many places. Amina and Abdul’s film It has Killed My Mother has won several festival awards including: best picture, best screenplay and best actress, and best emerging filmmaker at the IOM Global Migration Film Festival in Geneva. In June 2018, Amina took the stage at TEDx Kakuma Camp, the first TEDx event hosted in a refugee camp, with refugees, and for refugees (watch her full talk here). This January 2019, Abdul traveled to Davos for the World Economic Forum, as part of the media team of videographers, to document the yearly gathering that brings together leaders of global society.

The episode also follows Mercy Akuot, a talented musician, outspoken activist and refugee from South Sudan. In 2017, Mercy’s outstanding voice and stage presence drew the attention of FilmAid and the renowned Kenyan R&B and reggae producer Wyre. This lead to the launch of the FilmAid project ‘Finding A Star’, a talent scouting programme promoting youth economic empowerment through video and music. The project resulted in the production of the music album From Kakuma to the World and several music videos, one of them being the Sukar. Like Amina, Mercy was also selected as a TEDx Kakuma Camp speaker where she shared her grueling story of being married off to an uncle as a teenager (watch the full talk here).

Mercy Akout (left), Amina Rwimo and Abdul Patient behind the scenes during the making of the ‘Sukar’ Music Video

While the episode aired on CNN International last December, we are now excited to finally share the full episode with you!