The film is the brain child of MIND (Media Information and Narrative Development) an Abuja-based NGO. Making the film a success involved equipping young women from the heart of the Niger Delta region with the tools and skills to become filmmakers. The concept was part of the organisation’s capacity building program entitled FEMSCRIPT.
It has won five international awards which includes, Audience Choice Award, AfryKamera Film Festival, Warsaw, Poland in April 2014, Audience Favorite Award, London Feminist Film Festival, London, United Kingdom in November 2013, Best Documentary Award, Abuja International Film Festival, Abuja, Nigeria, September 2013, Best Documentary Award, La Femme International Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA, USA, October 2013 and Special Mention, Pineapple Underground Film Festival, in Hong Kong, June 29, 2013.
Film director Ilse van Lamoen-Isoun said: “This public recognition is a fantastic crown on the work of everyone who helped producing ‘Daughters of the Niger Delta’ – especially for the female filmmakers and interviewees from the heart of the region whose voices rarely are heard in the public domain.”
Unlike other films and media reports about the region, ‘Daughters of the Niger Delta’ gives a taste of everyday life in the Niger Delta through the eyes of three ordinary women, their struggle to build lives of dignity for themselves, the human impact of corporate irresponsibility, gender injustice, and failing government service delivery.
