OYA Media Group Marks Adoption Awareness Month and World AIDS Day with the Award Winning Film, Promise Me
“Yolonda and her daughter Charlie are ripped apart by illness, an unjust system, and a failure to face the truth.”
Toronto, November 28th, 2022 - OYA Media Group marks the end of Adoption Awareness Month, November 2022, and the observance of World AIDS Day, on Thursday, December 1, 2022, with the award winning film, Promise Me (2019), starring Olunike Adeliyi.
The short narrative, 25 minutes long, neorealism film is directed by Alison Duke and co-written with Lindsay Addawoo. Promise Me is inspired by real events which occurred while filming the documentary, The Woman I Have Become (2008) about eight African, Black, and Caribbean women living with HIV/AIDS in Toronto trying to build awareness about their struggles in Canada’s health care and Child Welfare systems. In the case of the Child Welfare narrative, details of that experience and inspiration, in Alison’s own words are available here.
Racialized women from the African diaspora continue to be at higher risk of HIV/AIDS infection (Ontario HIV Treatment Network), while Black children remain overrepresented in child welfare in Ontario (OACAS/OVOV, 2018).
Upon release, Promise Me has been a category winner or official selection across multiple national and international film festivals, including two Golden Sheafs from Yorkton Film Festival for Best Direction for fiction, and Best Writing for Scripted respectively, and Bronzelens, an Oscar qualifying festival (Official Selection, 2020), Reel World International Film Festival (Winner, Standout Short Film Writers Award 2020), among others.
Women’s Health in Women’s Hands is hosting a screening of Promise Me on December 1st. Film teaser is online here, and screeners are available upon request.
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For more information contact:
Wendy Vincent
Director, Konvo Media Inc
416.722.0608
