A Voice Online profile:
When director Destiny Ekaragha set her sights on filmmaking, she had one clear goal.
“I just wanted to tell my truth, not everybody's perception of what my truth is,” she says.
Born to Nigerian parents in New Cross, south London, during the Eighties, Ekaragha's life was far removed from the picturesque life of the families she would often see depicted in film and TV.
The third of six children, Ekaragha grew up on a “gritty and grey” London estate, surrounded by young people, much like her, who were not defined by what the media would have them to believe was an deprived upbringing. “It was colourful, funny and we cracked a lot of jokes,” she recalls.
“I wanted to draw on my experiences and put them on screen.”
Though she had initially hoped to become a television presenter to fulfil her schoolgirl ambition of interviewing Nineties R&B heartthrobs 3T, who she was “obsessed” with, her filmmaking ambitions kicked in during 2007 after watching a play by Nigerian playwright Bola Agbaje at London's Royal Court Theatre.
Gone Too Far!, which explored the numerous racial and cultural tensions and conflicts between Nigerian, British, West Indian, black, white, mixed-race and Asian youth on a south London estate, struck several chords with the 32-year-old who had never before seen her story brought to life on stage.
The play told the story of two brothers, one raised in Peckham and one in Nigeria, who meet each other for the first time in England, while exploring the uncomfortable racial prejudices running rife on London's streets in a humorous, though not flippant, way...[continue reading]