A few words about your artistic journey

My love for story telling drove me to tell stories in whatever shape or form. I started writing articles for the newspaper and this developed my love to literally hear my characters speak as well as see them on screen. This thus begun my writing for radio and the wide screen.

How long have you been an artist ?

I started writing almost 15 years ago and have never looked back. .

Why did you apply for this grant ? How will the grant support you ?

As the lockdown persisited, even the few jobs that I had already booked cancelled and decided that they would do things either online or not at all. This grant will help sustain my livelihood even as I continue to create art.

What are your concrete artistic objectives after this residency ?

After this residency I would like to get this short film produced. I will be working on developing a treatment and shootable script during the residency.

What did you achieve during this creative residency ? What is the result (created work) ? Who was involved in the creation process ?

I started developing a story with the idea that I had pitched to Africalia. It started with deciding what the logline would be, then the synopsis and then I started to develop a treatment for the script. I went through a number of treatments to get the story down and experimented with a number of ways that the story could go. After the fifth draft of the treatment, I settled and started to write the script.

After the film script was done, I made the decision to adapt the story into a short theatre script as well. So the final result of this residency is a short film script and a short theatre script as well. I am happy with the results as I have done even more than I had set out to do in the first place.

How do you think these activities contribute to a reflection on today’s world, in relation to the COVID-19 crisis, and/or on the shaping of the future ?

In Uganda especially at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis the LGBTQ community was directly affected after one of the safe houses was raided and a couple of the occupants arrested and jailed for a couple of weeks. It reminded the community again of the fragility of its situation. This story that I am telling rings true to the reality of anyone in the queer community in Uganda. For me telling a story starts a conversation and this is what I have done. Thus in terms of shaping of the future, my stories in whatever form they are told in this regard, brings attention to the situation of a marginalized group of people even in the middle of a pandemic and helps us start a conversation in terms of shedding light on a situation.

How did you feel during the residency ? And at the end of it ?

During the residency I was happy and confident that I would be able to churn out a story because I had lived through the story. As this residency comes to an end, I am happy with the results because I have done more than I set out to do. I had intended to write a short film and I have managed to create the short film script as well as adapt the story for a stage play.

Discover Achiro Patricia Olwoch’s artwork