About this submission

I made Dead Flowers and Red Roses to explore the inner conflict queer people face In Nigeria, culture and religion shape how people live and judge, often telling queer people they are sinful. This film looks beyond that, focusing on identity and humanizing the characters beyond the labels attached to them. Vincent and OJ are not just hiding from society, but from their own doubts, asking if they are anomalies. The films implies through voiceover and symbols, the Amphitheatre becomes their tragic stage, a place to exist freely. This film is for anyone who has loved despite feeling wrong.

Tolsss

Creator

Tolulope Akande is a Nigerian based Filmmaker. Actor and Voice over artist. He was born in Ibadan, Nigeria. Tolulope bagged his B.A in Theatre and Media Arts from the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti state in 2023. His works have been exhibited nationally and internationally at festivals, including the Student World Impact Film Festival, Cinephile Screenplay in Chicago. He is a UNESCO Plural+ award winning voice over artist for the film Ghost in 2022 His work ‘Again Again’ was a nominee and made it to the semi-finals of the Student World Impact Film Festival in New Jersey 2022. Tolulope is a socially conscious Nigerian filmmaker building cinema that is culturally rooted, politically aware, and visually expressive — with the ambition of an auteur but the hunger of an independent. more...