Youth Bridge Foundation, through the JSE Production, and with support of OSIWA, has launched an edutainment and social inclusion movie titled: ‘Wildfire’.
During the launch, the Programmes Coordinator of Youth Bridge Foundation, Joyce Nyame, stated that ‘Wildfire’ gives a perfect representation of the balanced and unbalanced value systems in the society, and seeks to highlight how the COVID-19 pandemic affected people, especially the vulnerable groups.
“Wildfire presents to us how COVID-19 impacted our social, economic and cultural lives. It tells the untold stories of how individuals just like you and I had to find alternative means of survival and co-exist amid the pandemic and ultimately during lockdown,” she added.
She added that in the quest of the foundation to contribute to effective policy implementation for community development, Youth Bridge Foundation – under its Access to Justice Programming – enacted policy issues in a youth and disability friendly format to be easily accessed by the youth and persons with disabilities.
“For us, drama resonates with the African cultural method and storytelling, where heritage, values and systems are passed on; hence, its importance in how we carry our advocacy,” she said.
In an interview with the Executive Director of Youth Bridge Foundation, Seth Oteng, he stated that ‘Wildfire’ is a compelling and appealing movie that seeks to tell a story and re-enact the impact of COVID-19 on the marginalised in the society.
“Wildfire highlighted issues of coexistence, disability, religion’s clash with reality, students and young ladies who were sexually harassed, and other related human rights issues,” he said.
The movie explores the talents of proficient actress and actor, Martha Ankomah and Adjetey Anang respectively, with the former being the major character. It also featured Richard Kwaku Asante (Kalybos), Zimran Randolph Clottey, Gina Ama Castle, among others.
Multi-award-winning actor, Adjetey Anang, who was starred in the movie, mentioned that Wildfire is an exceptional and social inclusion movie with a storyline which is not normally seen in the Ghanaian movie industry.
“Wildlife is not the everyday kind of movie. This movie factors all group of individuals we normally do not consider in our storytelling. For instance, we are looking at the visually impaired, the physically challenged who, most of the time, we think they are not part of the society,” he stated.
The movie integrated sign language interpretation and audio drama version for the visually impaired.
It would be premiered on 21st October, 2022 at Alliance Francaise, Accra.
