Kelechi Eke, founder of The African Film Festival on The E-Spot with Camille

Kelechi, is a Nigerian American Software Engineer and Filmmaker with many years of experience in the world of technology. Despite his astute technical background, Kelechi has always had a penchant for storytelling and creative arts. In the year 2011, he decided to dabble into filmmaking under biGObi Productions. Since then, he has written, directed, produced, and starred in many award-winning films that focus on Africa-related topics and human Rights. All his released films, till date, have been accepted into the libraries of various Ivy League schools (including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford University) as reference materials for African Studies. In his spare time Kelechi, enjoys coaching and playing soccer with the Africa United Football Club. Given his frequent nostalgic experience as an international student when he first came to the United States to study, he formed the club in 1997 to help provide a support group and team-building environment for young Africans far away from home. He mentored many over the years and won several soccer championships with the club, including becoming Champions of the North Texas Premier Soccer League. His passion for bringing Africans together is reflected in both his football team and in his style of film making. On April 20th 2015, Kelechi founded The African Film Festival (TAFF) with the vision to increase the availability of African films in non-African communities. Through TAFF, he has created a large network of African filmmakers worldwide. He designed and produced the beautiful TAFF Trophy, which became one of the most coveted trophies in the African Film Industry. On Nigeria’s Independence Anniversary, October 1st, 2016; Project Green White Green honored him with an award for "Outstanding Personality in service to Humanity and Society." On February 24th, 2018; the African Fashion and Music Festival honored him with African Community Achievement Award for "Outstanding Community Dedication on African Arts and Entertainment Development." On March 28th to March 31st, 2019, Kelechi launched African Women Arts & Film Festival (AWAFFEST) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He created AWAFFEST to celebrate arts and stories of African women, and to empower upcoming female artists with the confidence to become successful independent practitioners without falling victims to any form of exploitation. In June 2019, he launched ROOTFLIX - a leading streaming platform for quality festival-qualified films from various countries. Kelechi created this platform to give Independent filmmakers optional distribution channel to showcase their hard work globally. #KelechiEke #Rootflix #TAFF #AWAFFEST #CamilleKauer #TheESpotwithCamille