Richard Akim is a South Sudanese filmmaker, mentor, community activist and cofounder of Bidi Bidi Media Lab. He is currently working on a series of documentary films about life in Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement.
A refugee produced and directed documentary that provides rare insight into the structures of electoral politics and self-governance in Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement, Uganda where the first female candidate was elected to the Refugee World Council.
Refugees share firsthand accounts of arriving in Uganda, being screened and processed at UNHCR distribution centers, then dropped off in the bush with thousands of other refugees and nowhere else to go.
In episode III of the Bidi Bidi podcast we hear seldom heard stories of survival from refugees on the road from Equatoria, South Sudan to Uganda.
Testimonies from South Sudanese women rebuilding their lives in Zone 2 of Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement, and an ex-rebel soldier who fled from his past to seek peace in Uganda.
In the first episode of the series we are invited into Bidi Bidi in the West Nile region of Uganda, one of the world’s largest refugee settlements, with storyteller Richard Akim.
In early 2020, graphic journalist German Andino and filmmaker Ray Styles were preparing to launch the Bidi Bidi Media Lab in Uganda when Covid-related travel restrictions forced them to improvise and collaborate across thousands of miles to co-produce their first animated film together.
