Seychelles 1st youth-led series Positive to be premiered |24 November 2017

On December 1, high officials and media houses in Seychelles will be among the invitees present at the premiere of Positive, a youth-led series directed by Queen’s Young Leader of 2017, Demien Mougal, and written by Joshua Sophola to commemorate 30 years since the first HIV case was detected in Seychelles.

The premiere will be held in the conference room at the Citizens Engagement Platform Seychelles (Ceps), Orion Mall.

Following his appointment as chairperson of the Youth Action Movement (YAM) in 2016, 19-year-old Demien was keen on introducing new ways to educate people about Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH). YAM is a youth-based organisation located at the Association of Solidarity for the Family (ASFF) at Dr Chetty’s private clinic and advocates for SRH by teaching the youth about various issues such as teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and abortion. 

“Given that I am dyslexic, I wanted to use videos as a medium to create awareness about SRH. I had previously met Joshua through SIDS Youth Aims Hub – Seychelles and knowing his talent in art, I sought his help to write the script for a short video called Positively Hurting which was released in 2012,” explains Demien.

According to Joshua, who is also a member of YAM, he was reluctant at first to take on the task but agreed after realising that the video would be an educational, entertaining piece and felt that it would be an opportunity to be part of some additional volunteering work.

“Positively Hurting was a means to educate and entertain people about sexual health. Despite being only a short 22-minute video, the youth absolutely loved it and wanted to know what happened next,” remarks Joshua.

The idea to produce Positive, a series made up of 6 short videos was conceptualised by Demien after his return from the United Kingdom this year where he met Her Majesty The Queen and attended training sessions on leadership skills. Demien says that it was after this particular experience that he felt ready to take on the challenge to produce more videos and to challenge himself to do even better than before.

Positive was filmed mainly around Victoria and is said to stand out among other locally-produced videos as it is the first youth-led series in Seychelles that has been made without a budget. The story focuses mainly on a young boy’s life while he battles with HIV and how he attempts to remain positive despite the circumstances. Other sexual health issues are depicted to give various perspectives, but these are to a lesser extent.

“Positive is also different to other videos relating to SRH in that it is light-hearted as opposed to being dramatic and has a sense of humour,” says Joshua. Both the director and writer feel that the genre of the series helps to create acceptance and reduce the stigma around people living with HIV/Aids.

In order to reach a larger audience, both nationally and internationally, Positive is entirely in English. “We feel that it is the most suitable language for the series as it will be screened in various countries across the world,” say Demien and Joshua. 

Demien recounts that production of the videos was not easy as the work was done entirely by volunteers. He adds that the actors were the most challenging aspect but at the same time, it was the resilience of some of these very actors, like Ramuss Vidot (one of the main characters who is also known as the ‘face’ of Positive) that kept everyone else going.

While the main objective of the premiere is to meet various officials and media houses to discuss screening options, Demien explains that as of December 2, it will also be screened in consecutive weeks at no cost to members of the public at various venues, including Victoria, Perseverance and the Baie Lazare community centre.

Demien also intends on having the videos screened on Praslin in the near future and says that “all going well, we have plans for a second season which will focus on mental health, puberty and discrimination issues”. 

For further information: follow Demien Mougal’s YouTube channel to view a trailer of the series or follow Positive on Facebook and use #staypositive to view discussions on sexual health.