Organisers of the iREPRESENT International Documentary Film Festival, a global documentary fiesta that serves as an educational and cultural platform, with focus to harnessing the influence of film and related industries to encourage public engagement in the developments of their socio-cultural and political environments has announced the film festival will hold from March 21 to 24 at its primary home, Lagos.
According to the Executive Director, iREP, Femi Odugbemi, iREP 2024, which is the 14th edition of the yearly ritual, will feature conversations, screenings, workshops, networking sessions, and other related activities.
He added that prime project of the Foundation for Promotion of Documentary Film Festival in Africa (FPDFA), a leading platform for documentary film promotion in Nigeria and West Africa, will also be hosted in virtual format.
Odugbemi stated that over 45 films are expected to be screened at the two venues hosting the festival this year vis: Freedom Park Lagos Island, and Alliance Francaise, Mike Adenuga Centre, Ikoyi.
“The films – short and long features — have been drawn from largely Nigerian filmmakers and their counterparts from 25 countries in four continents, who submitted their entries via Filmfreeway. However, there are also some specially curated films selected for the festival, some of which have made the round of international festival circuits and have won awards around the world,” he said.
On the theme, Odugbemi added: “The 2024 edition’s theme, ‘Righting The Future’, is deliberately chosen to instigate conversation between the present and the future of the continent, as well as encourage deeper dialogue between the young people and their elders. The provocative theme is set in the context of happenings in this season of political anomalies and leadership failures in many countries of the continent.”
Commenting on why this year’s festival is designated as ‘The Soyinka Edition’, the iREP Executive Director said “it is to commemorate the 90th birthday anniversary of the distinguished global cultural icon, poet, playwright, essayist, polemicist and Africa’s first Nobel laureate for literature, Professor Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka.
“He embodies the virtues of the quintessential ‘citizen activist’ with the clarity of vision and passion for the betterment of our collective humanity needed to hold power accountable to the people.”
“Over the past six decades and more, he has consistently deployed his intellectual acumen and personal resources to defend human values and the fundamentality of the freedom of the individual to resist oppression.
“He is renowned for having also displayed a high degree of patriotic zeal to clamour for good governance and participatory democracy by citizens of the country, even at grave risks to his personal comfort and career,” Odugbemi added.
He continued, “For his tenacious hold to his convictions, he has sometimes run into problems with consecutive state authorities and certain sections of the society. But he remains steadfast in his self-imposed battles to always right the wrongs he perceives in his social, cultural and political environments.
He explained that the Soyinka section will cover two days of the festival and will be staged at the Alliance Francaise, Mike Adenuga Centre. The day one keynote on ‘Righting The Future: Soyinka & His Engagements’ will be delivered by Prof Manthia Diawara, writer, filmmaker, cultural theorist, scholar, art historian, and distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Film at the New York University. He is the writer and director of “Negritude: A Dialogue between Wole Soyinka and Leopold Senghor.”
The second day keynote on the Humanistic Ideals of Soyinka as Reflected in His Works will be delivered by Professor Awam Amkpa, Dean of Arts and Humanities, and Vice Provost at the New York University, NYUAD, and Global Network Professor of Drama, Social and Cultural Analysis, NYU New York. Each keynote will be followed by a panel discussion and screenings of films related to Soyinka’s career.
