Meet Amarachi (she/her)
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As a Filmmaker, Storyteller & Creative Executive worldwide, she's dedicated to telling unique stories that bring identity and culture to light through film, media, writing, and curated experiences.
Amarachi's platform, Melanin Unscripted, is a media platform and creative studio aimed to dismantle stereotypes and blur the lines by exposing complex identities and cultures around the world. Through their global creative community, they create stories, conversations, and experiences centered around underrepresented narratives that are both timely and timeless.
She took some time to share with us her work and what Support means to her.
Support in a creative context is limitless. Support can mean investing in my vision whether that is through monetary funding, sharing my work and recommending me, or even giving me feedback that allows me to see how I can expand and grow in the future. Support stems from the intention to help and amplify in any way possible.
One of the first major artists to support me was Chi Modu, my late mentor who taught me the business of storytelling and educated me on the value of IP and ownership. When I launched my platform Melanin Unscripted and we did our first partnership with Budweiser to showcase his work in our home country Nigeria - he fought for my company to be at the same level of him and the brand. That set the tone for MU and I will never forget how he taught me the power of knowing your value and fighting for what you believe in.
Funding. Black and Latinx women still get just 0.64% of venture capital funding. As a black woman business owner who is breaking into the media and entertainment world, to create powerful stories globally and have a strong team, funding is necessary and something more BIPOC creatives and especially women need access to.
My advice for all creatives is: trust your vision and hold onto why you started. That is the foundation and no matter how life and career may shift - stay rooted in why you started and what you believed was possible. It absolutely is.
I’m Nigerian-American. It has shaped so much of who I am and my creative approach because stylistically I take inspiration from West Africa and create from an Afrofuturistic lens. Nigerians are natural-born hustlers so it has also impacted my work ethic. I have been a part of amplifying the current African and diasporic creative renaissance as a storyteller and that is rooted in my heritage and purpose to create a platform for creators of different backgrounds.
Because for stories, products, or experiences to truly be authentic - it needs to be from a diverse lens. The more BIPOC creators the more inclusive our world becomes and the things we experience within that world.
This is important because people should have access to creative spaces no matter what cultural, ethnic, or economic background they come from. This is especially important in film because it is a lens into culture and unless we have more diversity behind the scenes the stories on the screen will not truly reflect or fully represent that diversity.
Telling BIPOC stories is important because I want to create a world in the film where I redefine narratives that have been traditionally associated with certain demographics and debunk them by showing the unscripted and real-life perspectives of these stories. I also want to tell scripted stories one day and I want to make sure that people from the cultures we represent visually are also in the writing and production rooms creating these stories. Overall through Melanin Unscripted, I want to create the infrastructure for the change I want to see in the world.