S1 E3 Achiro OLWOCH, Filmmaker and Playwright

I am delighted to talk with Achiro OLWOCH for this episode of Cerdan Stories. Olwoch is a playwright and filmmaker now focused on LGBTQ themes. She lived in the city of Kampala until she fled to New York for safety last year, where she is currently an artist at risk.

Olwoch is prolific writer, working across genres. Her short films include The Surrogate, The Mineral Basket, and Maraya Ni. She is currently working on a feature documentary, My Prison Diary, due for release in 2023 and she has three feature scripts in development. She is also the creator and writer of the TV series Coffee Shop and is the head writer at Yat Madit. She also has in the works a memoir about her life as a lesbian in Uganda and her eventual escape.

In her interview, we learn a bit about Achiro's love of her homeland village of Gulu in the north, her interest in language, and a song that moves her. We also learn about her writing and her thrill for being able to now write about what she wants without constraint. Achiro's description of Uganda for LGBTQ is honest but also fairly graphic, so sensitive listeners may want to skip that section.
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Achiro is being helped by Artists at Risk Connection (ARC). You can learn more about her there, or on her website achiropolwoch.com.  
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Listen to this episode, or any of the Cerdan Stories episodes, on our Episodes page.