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| L-R Mr. Francis Onuchi, Mammud Alli-Balogun, Shuaibu Hussein and Tunde Kelani. |
The third edition of I-Represent (iRep)
International Documentary Film Festival, which took place recently at the
Freedom Park, Lagos, Nigeria showcased huge African talents.
The annual festival, dedicated to promote
awareness about the power of documentary films served as a means of deepening
and sharing social and cultural education as well as encouraging participatory
democracy in African societies.
Titled: “Reconnections: Africa in
self-conversation,” the festival, which began on Monday March 21 and ended on
Sunday March 24, featured over 30 well packaged and award winning documentaries
sourced from notable and upcoming filmmakers around Africa and its Diaspora.
The films treated themes that concern developments and realities around Africa
and its people. Specifically, the films dealt with issues like culture,
politics, affirmation, spirituality, religion, conflict, and gender
discrimination, among others.
Award winning films that were screened at the
festival, among others include: Orisa by Kunle Afolayon, Rolling Dollar: Legend
Unplugged by Femi Odugbemi, Mbekk Mi by Sophie Bachelier, United States of
Hoodoo by Oliver Hardt, Crackle of our times by Sybille Dahrendorf, Oranian by
Tobias Lindner, J.D Okhai Ojeikere, Master of photographer by Tam Fiofori, Ifa
of the Yoruba by Tunde Kelani and Holy Land by Anna Somershaf.
Ifa of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, a
57-minute film was shot in Oyo State. The film explored Ifa literary corpus
derived from a complex divining process, which is a collective knowledge system
of the Yorubas, combining their history, philosophy, medicine, mythology,
religion including performance poetry and more. This documentary was done prior
to the inscription of Ifa as worthy representative list of intangible cultural
heritage of humanity by The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO). Tunde Kelani revealed that Prof Wande Abimbola, Prof
Akinwunmi Isola and Prof Ajuwon invited him to provide the video documentary
evidence of their academic work on the subject matter. So the documentary
created awareness on the importance of Ifa and hopefully trigger a process of
re-orientation into African values. In the film, Ifa faithfuls frowned at the
way Islamic and Christian religions have wooed African s and they advised
African people to go back to their roots. The Ifa aesthetic poems were rich and
the film revealed that some Yoruba people still patronise Ifa priest to get
prediction about issues bothering them.
Mbekk Mi, a 55-minute film comprising two
words of Wolof evoked the clandestine emigration. The expression beats echoing
the pirogues which throw themselves against the ocean waves and which are often
wrecked at the end of their journey. But Mbekk Mi is above all the refusal to
resign oneself to the deadly blows of an unjust destiny. If these young
Senegalese men in their prime pit themselves against so many perils, it is in
hope of finding a better life. But what happens on the other side of the
disaster? The ‘wretched of the sea’ leave their loved ones behind- their wives,
their mothers. It is these women’s unique voices that are heard in this
documentary.
Indeed, the festival was an avenue where
stakeholders in the film industry interacted and networked.
The keynote address was presented by Prof
Awam Amkpa, Dean of African Studies at New York University and co-founder of
the Reallife Documentary Film Festival, Ghana. He discussed at length the theme
Reconnections, and its composites, spirituality, identity and economy. Prof
Femi Shaka and Prof Niyi Coker also presented papers.
This year’s selection of festival’s films was
co-curated by Femi Odugbemi, iRep Film Forum/Festival’s Executive Director and
Professor Niyi Coker, an E Desmond Lee Professor in the Department of Theatre,
Dance and Media Studies at the University of St. Louis. He is an Executive
Director of the African World Documentary Film Festival (AWDFF). Other iRep
directors include Jahman Anikulapo, Makin Soyinka and Theo Lawson.
Shortly
before the round off of the film festival, the Committee for Relevant Art
(CORA) organised Art Stampede which provided an opportunity where issues like
Nigerian Films and the challenges of funding were treated.
Moderated by
Shuaibu Hussein, many movie makers aired their views concerning Nigerian film
industry. One of them is a prolific film maker, Tunde Kelani, who said
“Nollywood has crashed. None of us can make a film now and recoup our money.”
he revealed that there are over 13,000 screenings in India where about 15
million people watch films at cinemas everyday while South Africa has about 761
screenings. “I see nothing stopping Nigeria from having up to 5,000 screenings.”
Also
speaking, Mammud Alli-Balogun was of the opinion that most filmmakers don’t
know that they need to engage professionals like lawyers. “Distributors are not
here. Meanwhile, we have Digital Video Disc (DVD) and Video Compact Disc (VCD)
market in Nigeria because people hardly go to cinema, we need to re-jig and
retrace our steps.”
Hope Okpara
insisted that the issue of piracy must be dealt with for a movie producer to
make profit from his work.
Other speakers
including Francis Onuchi and Charles Novia said that there is need for more
cinemas in Nigeria, including cottage cinemas, where people in the rural areas
would pay N100 and buy N10 popcorn to watch a movie.
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