Panel Discussion: Being Young, Creative and Black in Scotland Event

Being Young, Creative and Black in Scotland: Collaborative Opportunities like Nowhere Else

Join us for this live panel discussion on our Facebook page*, a collaboration between Africa in Motion, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), GMAC Film, Fans Youth Film Festival and Fair Access at RCS. This collaboration brings together young black filmmakers and creatives for an on-line discussion that forms part of RCS’s Film Department’s Open Day, Africa in Motion’s Industry Programme and GMAC Film’s Little Pictures training programme (a new short film scheme specifically aimed at BAME and under-represented communities).

Young, black film creatives based in Scotland will discuss their journeys in the creative industries, from acting and performance, to directing, scriptwriting and curation. Our aim is to encourage young black creatives to engage in the arts and to signpost the RCS as an opportunity to develop their craft and career. 

*It will also be recorded and uploaded to our Vimeo page within 24 hours of the event.

Panellists include: 

Tomiwa Folorunso, moderator: Tomiwa is a writer from Edinburgh. She is currently the Scotland regional editor for Black Ballad and a commissioning editor at Bella Caledonia. Earlier this year Tomiwa presented the BBC Radio 4 documentary The Art of Now: Black and Creative in Scotland, contributed to Monstrous Regiment’s anthology, So Hormonal and was Fringe of Colour Films responses sub-editor. Tomiwa has written for the Herald, tiata fahodzi and Bella Caledonia. She is currently studying a Master of Cultural Studies at KU Leuven, Brussels.

Etienne Kubwabo: Etienne is a filmmaker and DJ from Glasgow who moved to Scotland 10 years ago from the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2012, Etienne joined Clydebank College to study Film and Communication and holds a degree from Glasgow Caledonian University. He has directed multiple music videos for artists in Scotland, Sweden and Belgium. Etienne has directed the children’s show Sho-time, as well as the documentary Scotland’s Memoir, and is currently working on a new documentary entitled We are Scotland, featuring young creatives in Scotland. In 2020, he created and released Scotland’s first ever black superhero comic book, Beats of War.  

Tanatsei Gambura: Tanatsei is an intermedia artist and cultural practitioner concerned with decolonial efforts. Tanatsei often centers archival material as the point of departure for her work and whilst drawing from personal experience. Her themes of interest include identity, indigeneity, and black womanhood in the context of modernity, immigration, and geopolitics. Tanatsei completed a diploma program in African Studies, Writing and Rhetoric, and Entrepreneurial Leadership at African Leadership Academy (South Africa), and is currently a Mastercard Foundation Scholar at the University of Edinburgh. This year, she was awarded the runner-up award to the Inaugural Amsterdam Open Book Prize and has been longlisted for the Rebecca Swift Foundation Women Poets' Prize. Tanatsei's work has been recognised by United Nations Women, the Goethe Institut and Diana Award, amongst others. 

Akuc Bol: Akuc is a London-based actor and creative who graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2019. She also writes poetry exploring womanhood, the African diaspora and her identity, and won the Elaine Campbell Gullan poetry competition whilst training at RCS. Akuc is currently writing her first play. Previous work includes Invisible (New Forest Films), Messiah (Netflix), Casualty (BBC), Doctors (BBC), The Dumping Ground (CBBC), The Last King of Scotland (Sheffield Crucible), Bite Your Tongue (Talawa Theatre) and Encourage the Others (Almeida Theatre)

Vanessa Kanbi: Vanessa is a Scottish-Ghanaian filmmaker, podcaster and presenter who has a passion to shine a light on untold stories. Vanessa has grown her YouTube channel to 77,000+ subscribers and over 7 million views. Vanessa has appeared in the likes of BBC Scotland's documentary 'Black and Scottish' and 'The People's News'. She also has a successful podcast called 'Magnificent Mothers'. 

If you have questions for panellists to answer during the live discussion, please email them in advance to: info@africa-in-motion.org.uk with "Young, Creative and Black - question for panel" in the subject box.