It’s always a tough task producing a newsletter during the hustle and bustle of a film festival. No doubt though that it’s always fun. So, during four days of the 3rd IREP International Documentary Film Festival, my team and I, with support from Goethe Institut, Lagos were able to deliver two newsletters. Some of the stories I’ll most likely replicate on this blog, but in the meantime, here’s a link to Issues 1 & 2 on the IREP Website.
Enjoy!
The top three winners in the Afrinolly Short Film Competition have finally been selected. After the event was launched on November 1, 2012, over 500 entries were received from African filmmakers around the world by the deadline of January 31, 2013.
The competition was launched on November 1, 2012 and submission of entries closed on January 31. Winners were announced today March 11, 2013.
Following an initial screening that found only 214 eligible entries, an international panel of judges in the creative industries pruned it down to the best 10 films in both the short and documentary categories.
The jury, chaired by documentary filmmaker Femi Odugbemi, comprised acclaimed filmmakers Tunde Kelani, Emem Isong, Juliet Yaa Asante and Obi Emelonye; content producer Bongiwe Selane, New York African Film Festival’s Mahen Bonetti, The Black List’s Franklin Leonard, writer Tolu Ogunlesi, Carol Kathurima and Nmachi Jidemma.
The jury shortlisted 20 entries based on concept and execution i.e the story’s originality and imaginative force, clarity of purpose and its ability to captivate as well as how effectively the filmmaker reflected technical knowledge of acting, editing, sound, lighting, camera work et c.
A voting public then had three weeks from February 15 to choose their top three favourites for the $100,000 cash prize. Voting ended on March 8 and the following films took the top three positions in both categories.
First Prize ($25,000) Dara Ju – By Anthony Onah
Second Prize ($10,000) The Promise – By Akin Okunrinboye
Third Prize ($5,000) To serve with all our Strength – By Ishaya Bako (HomeVida)
First Prize ($25,000) Hustle On A Mile – By Bemigho Awala
Second Prize ($10,000) A short “DOCUMENTARY” – By Soji Oyinsan II
Third Prize ($5,000) Black and Gold – By Joseph Akwasi
The winners in the 4th to 10th positions in both categories will receive $500 each. The official awards presentation will take place at 6pm on Friday, March 15 at the Oriental Hotel, Lekki, Lagos.
The Afrinolly Short Film Competition is an initiative of FCO Limited, developers of the MTN Afrinolly Mobile phone app. Its aim is to digitally showcase African cinema talent and provide a platform to foster the production of African content and make same available online. The Competition was supported by MTN, Goethe Institut, Blackberry, IREP and Google as the social media partner.
Memories of Kuramo Beach and its deviant denizens came flooding back at the recent screening of Andi Amadi Okoroafor’s ‘RELENTLESS.’ The film was the October selection for the IREP/Goethe Institut monthly screening, which took place on the City Hall rooftop on October 27.
Telling the story of a shell-shocked ex-peacekeeper, who embarks on a vengeance mission after twice suffering tragic love, the 90-minute flick is different from many other Nigerian films. Obi (Gideon Okeke) is an ex-UN soldier, who returns to Lagos from Sierra Leone. He settles into a ‘peaceful’ life and runs a security firm with his friend and fellow ex-soldier Ola (Ropo Ewenla).
With an impending election and a tense atmosphere, a political stalwart Anaki (Jibola Dabo) hires Obi’s firm to ‘protect’ one of the candidates played by Haitian-American actor Jimmy Jean-Louis.
Obi begins to suspect something fishy about the job when he finds a prostitute, Honey (musician Nneka) snooping around one of the party meetings. She tells him that Stella, her friend and co-worker is missing and feared dead. Things went wrong after a party with Anaki and she suspects he might have a hand in her disappearance. Obi vows to find out what happened to Stella while other uncanny incidents make him want to drop the brief from Anaki. Obi’s suspicion grows when he discovers human blood after Anaki and The Candidate visit a shrine to swear an oath.
On another worrisome note, Obi finds himself falling for Honey, much to his displeasure and haunting memories of the love he lost in Sierra Leone. More worrisome is how it seems he and Honey have found themselves in an ill-omened cycle manipulated to fatally close in on both of them.
Their survival – or lack thereof – is the thrust of RELENTLESS, a testament to the spirit of the soldier and prostitute who fight doggedly to resolve personal issues that are largely beyond their control. The story is well grounded in the boisterous city of Lagos, largely on the now-isolated Kuramo Beach. In the ensuing discussion after the screening Okoroafor makes no bones about the unique Lagos sounds that could have been a distraction and the landscape, which someone in the audience felt was for the most part, ugly.
The actors mostly deliver a good account of themselves, with the likes of Okeke, Ewenla, Dabo, Toyin Oshinaike, Victor Olaotan and Zara Udofia confirming their worth as actors. One surprise was Nneka, who despite a successful career in music gives no hint that this is her acting debut.
While the film’s plot is weaved in much the same way a reckless danfo driver might do to avoid Lagos go-slow, Okoroafor’s story is not difficult to understand nor do the side attractions detract from its unravelling. After all, there myriad things an observer might see on a day out in Lagos. The director effectively initiates all these in the story.
However, some knotty issues in the plot could have been better resolved or excluded. For example, why does Ola’s wife (Efe Orhorha) dislike Obi? Why does Stella set Honey up? Possibly questions Okoroafor alone can answer.
RELENTLESS is what you can call a visual storytelling feast, which oddly enough for a Nigerian film, you might want to see more than once. If you don’t see it for the story, see it for the scenery; if you don’t see it for the scenery, see it for the music, but just see it.
Nollywood is renowned for throwing up bad pictures. Running marginal to Nollywood’s low-quality production frenzy is an innovative sub-sector that delivers maybe not (yet) the world’s best, but a fresh deviation from the norm.
In recent times, a few Nigerian filmmakers have brought some innovation and technical superiority to the usual dross dished out in the local film sector. Regarding plot and technique, this seems to be Obi Emelonye’s task in producing the air disaster flick Last Flight to Abuja. The film from the Mirror Boy director boasts an ensemble cast with the likes of Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Jide Kosoko, Jim Iyke, Olumide Bakare, Anthony Monjaro and the surprising inclusion of banking executive Celine Loader.
Each with his/her own professional, medical and emotional luggage, a collage of characters boards Flamingo Air’s Flight 212 from Lagos to Abuja: the day’s last flight. As relationships are questioned and new friendships are made, they soon find one another ‘bonding’ over a mid-air tragedy that will most likely consume them all.
Kae-Kazim plays Adesola, the philandering and thieving company exec, who takes a dark secret aboard the flight. He begins a high-falutin tirade about life and its opportunities when he realises that death is around the corner. Jalade-Ekeinde plays Suzie, who bribes her way on to the flight and despite her emotional turmoil strikes a sudden friendship with her seat mate David played by Jim Iyke. A young footballer, on the way to trials in the English Premiership, watches as his dreams appear to go up in smoke. Jide Kosoko is the Chief, who runs the Lagos-based company that organises a retreat to Abuja for his staff. Ironically, Kosoko himself misses the flight that sets his employers on a tango with death.
Last-minute decisions save some from embarking on the unfortunate trip and lead others to the gaping mouth of death. The film’s tagline regarding what anyone would have done differently if they had 24 hours left to live will lead many to question the decisions they make and their life’s journeys in general. One thing is obvious, anyone could have been a passenger on this plane.
The film features more characters with all their stories intertwining quite ingeniously. To reveal these twists and turns though would raise a spoiler alert. Ali Nuhu, the Kannywood heartthrob is excellent in his cameo as Suzie’s fiancée, Dan. Uche Odoputa (in the role of Mr. Efe) alongside his on-screen wife embody their characters well, providing a dash of comic relief that precedes the central catastrophe.
Many of the other characters though could hardly grab the few screen minutes that was their share. Monjaro (who plays Captain George) and Loader’s cockpit chemistry was mostly unnatural. I was also keen to find out how as the flight’s First Officer, Loader managed to communicate with the control tower as her headphones had no microphone. Jennifer Oguzie as Yolanda distracts from her otherwise impressive acting talent by switching between an American and Nigerian accent without cause. Gracefully, an overdose of bad acting was not the film’s prominent tragedy.
On a positive note though, Emelonye’s film is not just a daring challenge on the Nollywood status quo. It is a daring take on the little addressed topic of Nigeria’s aviation safety records. Last Flight’s London premiere a few days after the Dana Air crash was an ominous toll on the changes that are necessary in the local sector. The Lagos screening brings this issue closer home.
One scene reveals the cause of the mid-air explosion and is a pointer to how most air passengers are unaware of what other ‘luggage’ accompanies theirs into the plane’s belly. The movie also highlights distractions in the control tower. One employee, obviously over-worked as his replacement on the night shift has yet to report, snaps easily and begins to panic when he realises he cannot save Flight 212. He shows little technical knowledge of flying a plane and is mostly helpless as an avoidable disaster endangers the passengers.
The director’s depiction of the characters and how they are directly or indirectly affected by Flight 212 is riddled with suspense and tension-filled moments. The build-up to a happy or sad ending is intricately implanted into the film’s action. The plot’s unravelling gives little away towards the impending climax. It is to Emelonye’s credit that he does not bash his audience on the head with details. He leaves many nuances to the observant viewer such that when pieced together they form a better Nigerian movie than most.
The director plays a lot on irony and flashbacks in the 78-minute picture that draws from the air tragedies that were rampant in Nigeria between 2005 and 2006. In the midst of all the irony lies some bitter truth. At the end of it all, the director offers a vision of hope and leaves us with the ringing question, ‘What if?’
With a sprinkling of 3D to re-imagine the plane in aerial transit and re-construct the eventual explosion, Last Flight to Abuja will not be easily forgotten. Following the success of Mirror Boy, Emelonye sets the stakes higher for himself with this one. His next picture should be nothing less.
After a series of editions in Abuja, the European Film Festival will hold in Lagos from October 4 to 8, 2012.
Cinephiles and film professionals have a feast of 17 films from 13 countries over a five-day period at Freedom Park, which is fast becoming a preferred location for public film screenings.
The screenings start from 4pm daily and at 12noon on Saturday and Sunday. Amongst the films scheduled to show during the festival are Orient Express (Romania), Albert Schweitzer: Anatomy of a Saint (Austria), Inside I’m Dancing (Ireland), Chico & Rita (Spain), Montevideo God Bless You (Serbia), Je Vous Trouve Très Beau (France), Letters To Santa (Poland), Cento Chiodi (Italy), The Dinner Club (Netherlands) and Let The Right One Come In (Sweden).
So, if you’ve dreamed of visiting Europe but are too broke to make that happen, check out the continent through a cinematic lens. And yes, it’s FREE!
This year, Lagos joins nine other playgrounds for the 10th edition of the Shnit International Shortfilm Festival. Founded in 2003 in Bern, Switzerland, the festival takes place simultaneously in different venues across the world. The festival commenced on Thursday, October 4 at the Ikeja-based Royal Roots Theatre and ends on Sunday, October 7 at the Freedom Park on Broad Street.
Over 300 shorts will be screened at the festival, while also availing film experts and enthusiasts a chance at networking and creative collaboration.
In a statement by the organisers, “Short films are currently an incredibly fast-growing medium around the world. It’s great to be able to offer local and global audiences, and filmmakers alike a taste of what the industry and film schools here are putting out as well as offer the local industry a taste of what filmmakers from all around the world are creating in all fields of short film.
“At its least it is merely inspiring, but our festival is also a practical tool as a platform for local filmmakers to interact with a global network, prompting collaboration and conversation, continuing to raise the standards and profile of Nigerian film.
The festival is organised by the Swiss-based shnit Foundation and holds concurrently around the world. This year it will hold in Bern, Vienna, Cologne, Cape Town, San Francisco, Cairo, San Jose (Costa Rica), Auckland (New Zealand), Singapore and Lagos.
The Lagos edition is a collaboration of Nigeria’s Da Rocque Entertainment and the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Practitioners (NANTAP) with the involvement of its president and producer Greg Odutayo. Peter Pius Omewiri is the Festival Director and Victor Okhai, of the International Film and Broadcast Academy (IFBA) is on the festival’s international jury.
Over $100,000 is available in prize money in five award categories, this include for short films running between 5 and 40 minutes, an international jury award and a region-specific award for the Made in Nigeria short films.
In a statement released by the organizers, “Each year the festival serves an outstanding menu of short masterpieces. Only thrilling, entertaining and high-quality short films find their way into the Shnit program. The genre of the selected works is trivial and the only criteria: that a film is contemporary, cutting edge and stands-out in terms of quality.”
With shorts selected from over 6000 entries and cutting across genres, the festival boasts of something for everyone. Its packages include the animated shnit, shnit experiments, peeping shnit, and feel good shnit.
“It’s our aim to actively increase the perception of short film making around the globe. Therefore we passionately promote short film as an independent art form in the field of audiovisual media and cinema; Shnit regards itself as a unique international platform for filmmakers, scriptwriters, producers and cinephiles. We embrace diversity, originality and exchange between creators and a growing audience across the globe and we are dedicated to grow in a sustainable manner: a transnational film festival simultaneously taking place in various cities.
“In addition, Shnit would not be shnit without a world beyond the popcorn and the silver screen. The cinematic experience is a doorway into Shnit EXPANDED, a playground in front of, beside and behind the screen, incorporating music, art, collaboration, discussion and expression,” the organisers said.
Described as ‘one festival in many cities’, audiences can watch daily Shnit-TV videos showing events from the nine other global playgrounds in what it calls “a global exchange of culture.”
Daily Shnit-TV videos shared among the host cities and live-crossings between countries make it a global exchange of culture – not a collection of individual festivals but one festival in many cities. Shnit’s worldwide fan base is growing at an incredible rate. In Berne alone over 20,000 visitors attend each year. Each host city is growing yearly.
According to shnit Nigeria, Lagos was chosen as host-city not just for its tourist potential, but also because of its place in Nigeria’s artistic history and the fact that it has played host to many events and awards relevant to Nigeria’s entertainment and cultural scene. With visitors at the Bern festival growing to over 20,000 in recent times, shnit hopes its viewership in Lagos will also encounter a boom.
Shnit Shortfilm Festival brings to two the number of existing short-film festivals holding in Lagos, or Nigeria for that matter. The In Short Film Festival is now in its second year and holds from October 11 to 13, 2012, a few days after Shnit ends.
Global access to African films sounds easier by the second. With various online VOD options, the world of cinema is gradually becoming well and truly borderless. No doubt, a big boost for film industries that were previously unknown in certain parts of the world. One of such new markets that are gradually opening up to African film and TV content is Eastern Europe. With specific reference to Ukraine and other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Andy Kozlov, founder at Steppes In Sync speaks on breaking the ice and rolling out the red carpet for African cinema in Eastern Europe.
Kozlov’s Steppes In Sync is a partnerships’ platform connecting creative sectors from around the world.
As head honcho at Steppes, he covers news from Africa and the Ukraine with regular contribution from Cosmos Okigbo Ojukwu, a Nigerian in Ukraine, who writes on the local and international cultural scenes. Kozlov, describes his functions as “rather humble: help those people who seek creative partnership opportunities to find each other.” A similar notion prompts his approach to global cinema. “One of the attractions in films for me is an opportunity to come closer to ethnic culture and learn languages.”
Afriwood or bust…
Now deeply involved in linking the African film market with the rest of the world, Kozlov recalls that while growing up, he could hardly tell which of the African and African-American films he saw were actually made in Africa or just stories about Africa. “Even later – up till my final years of college – the Brazilian production Cidade de Deus (City of God) was as good and educational to me as Sydney Pollack’s The Interpreter; The Mummy (1999 film), Raiders of the Lost Ark or Leni Riefenstahl: Her Dream of Africa,” he said, not forgetting to recommend TASS Is Authorized to Declare, a Soviet mini-series from the ‘80s, with an African/Eastern-European theme.
“If we talk of Nollywood and other Western African films, my first encounter with those happened during summer 2008, when I shared a house with a guy from the Republic of Guinea,” he added.
It is not a Guinean film that prompted my interview with Kozlov though, but a film with Nigerian ‘roots.’ Feathered Dreams, co-produced by Nigerian and Ukrainian partners is hailed as the first of such between both countries. Set in Ukraine, the film stars Nigerian actress Omoni Oboli and is billed for a Christmas/New Year release. After reading Kozlov’s commentary on the movie and related issues regarding the African and Eastern European content market, an interview was unavoidable.
“To me, Feathered Dreams is a promising project in terms of setting a precedent. I am also consulting [for] a Zimbabwean/South African film company on how to enter Eastern European markets. So, we will be able to learn a lot from the developments spurred by the Feathered Dreams project,” Kozlov said, in reference here to his involvement with Afriwood, a Zimbabwean distribution outfit founded by Stephen Chigorimbo, an industry veteran fully armed with forty years experience.
Indiana Jones (played by Harrison Ford) in this screenshot from Raiders of The Lost Ark.
According to Kozlov, Afriwood aims at establishing partnerships with production studios in Russia and Ukraine towards “co-producing films and TV programmes both in CIS countries and on the African continent. Afriwood also seeks to promote and distribute African movies in such a way that the producers make enough money to enable them to work on another production.” An enticing option for most local producers and directors, who are already signing up to the company for access to the Eastern European space.
Afriwood is recording some success with breaking into the CIS content market and will be in Kiev this September for the 2012 edition of the Ukrainian Content Market. “[It] is, so far, the only representative of the southern hemisphere,” Kozlov added.
Breaking the Ice
This leads to the question about whether or not there is a Ukrainian fan-base for African film. Like many around the world, the local audience appears contented with the regular ‘screen diet’ as Kozlov revealed. “According to the local media practitioners and analysts, all the CIS viewers want to watch is Hollywood blockbusters and (rather pathetic) local sitcoms. Western-ideated formats like Big Brother are on the rise.”
He is however of the conviction that if certain African-oriented productions could be local hits, nothing stops African films from succeeding as well. “If Bones, Hotel Rwanda, The Lion King, District 9 can be found in DVD stores of Ukraine and The Gods Must Be Crazy occasionally graces the TV screen here, then why can’t The Algiers Murders, Foreign Demons or A Small Town Called Descent? Shaka Zulu was an absolute hit with my family in Ukraine.”
Regarding this issue of audience reaction, I remind him of his interview with Nikolai Bazanov of Highlight Pictures, the company producing Feathered Dreams. According to Bazanov, getting Ukrainian viewers excited about African films would not be easy.
“My observation is that Bazanov’s company does not operate enough data yet to be convinced that African films will sell in Post-Soviet countries.” Kozlov began, adding that the blame goes partly to “the quality of the African product.”
Optimism
In rating the sector though, he is more optimistic. “I think I am still learning the market here,” he says of the Southern African production market, “but it is encouraging to see that there are local people who are doing something despite various challenges.” And marketing available content to less-likely audiences should not be a problem.
“In my opinion, the biggest challenge, however, lies in the PR. Basically, anything can be marketed into a megastar. But the question is who in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan etc will be pouring large amounts of money into changing people’s perceptions, or rather the perceptions of the media industry [and] decision-makers?”
But there is one reason why transatlantic co-productions might be favourable to funders from the Eurasian region. “The Feathered Dreams Ukrainian team sees the future in producing African stories at the world-class level of movie-making in Ukraine and selling them back to Africa. And I think this is already a good start.” The trend of shooting so-called African films abroad for onward distribution on the continent already occurs in the UK, US and European countries like Germany and Holland where there is an impressive Nigerian/African presence.
Kozlov believes that if the collaborative streak continues, the benefits will not be one-sided for long. “Of course, it is too early to predict. But there is hope that if the trend continues we will see more Ukrainians actively seeking to visit African countries as tourists. Or they will start considering investing into African markets on a larger scale. CIS-stemming companies like Renaissance Capital, the leading emerging markets investment bank, are setting an example. It would be good for someone like RenCap to set up a creative industries research department to help us identify the right way to follow.”
The discussion returns to Afriwood and its planned distribution models. So far, its movie database boasts more than a dozen films from four different countries. These include the likes of Stephanie Okereke’s Through the Glass (Nigeria), A Small Town called Descent (South Africa), The Algiers Murders (South Africa), Lobola (Zimbabwe) and Foreign Demons, which starred South African music diva Yvonne Chaka Chaka.
Nigerian movie ‘Through The Glass’ is one of the films in Afriwood’s distribution network.
Beyond displaying content at the upcoming Ukrainian Content Market, the films under Afriwood will also be available globally via diverse distribution media. “Piracy is quite rampant in Ukraine, they say. Close to the world record. Still, big cities continue to embrace DVDs. Internationally, VOD is probably the way to go,” commented Kozlov.
Targeting interested Nigerian producers and TV channels as well, he promises them a deal their “viewers won’t regret,” regarding the content that Afriwood has to offer. With concrete steps towards distribution, the Afriwood team anticipates the involvement of MNet and AfricaFilms.TV, which already showed interest in Feathered Dreams.
For Kozlov, broadening the intercontinental content map is just one of the things he and Chigorimbo have in common. “I can learn a lot from being around him, observing his modus operandi. Like Stephen, I am a strong believer in the power of media to promote human development. What can be more exciting than seeing other people grow to later empower others?”
Establishing new markets for African audiovisual content and breeding intercontinental collaborations definitely looks like an “exciting” way to go.
*Published in The Daily Sun on Friday, September 21, 2012.
The second edition of The Life House’s ‘Lights Camera Africa’ Film Festival kicks off on Friday, September 28. Themed ‘Shine Your Eye,’ the collaboration with the New York-based African Film Festivals runs till Monday, October 1st 2012. An interesting line-up of screenings, talks and workshops relating to African cinema will take place over the four-day schedule of events shared across three venues on Lagos Island.
These are the British Council, Freedom Park and the Southern Sun Hotel. Most of the events are open to the public.
So, if you require a celluloid high (or you are a mobile couch potato), you don’t want to miss this. More info here for details on the participants and films, or here for the festival schedule.
