Documentary as an ideological mode of narrative

By Bunmi Ajiboye

(234next January 29, 2011)


Was it a coincidence that the panel on the 3rd day of the iRep Documentary Film Festival comprised academics? Little wonder then that the discussion at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos, went in the direction of an academic discourse of sorts with useful examples which still bordered on the theoretical.

An instance was Onookome Okome's theory that Nollywood is popular art. Okome, a lecturer at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, is also a specialist in Nollywood films and is currently on sabbatical at the Pan African University.

Sola Olorunyomi, a lecturer at the University of Ibadan; Awam Amkpa, professor and director of African Studies at New York University; and Tunde Babawale, director general of the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC), were also on the panel. They discussed ‘Motifs of Black Consciousness in African Documentary films'.

Documenting Africa on screen

BY BUNMI AJIBOYE

Culled 234NEXT January 29, 2011)



The iRep Documentary Film Festival which began on Thursday, January 20, continued the following day with workshops and film screenings at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos.The event not only brought together documentary filmmakers from the African continent, it was also an eye opener as it highlighted the potentials of the genre while also paying attention to obstacles documentary filmmakers often contend with.Culture activist, Toyin Akinosho; filmmakers, Deji Adesanya and Mahmood Alli Balogun; and president, Independent Television Producers Association of Nigeria (ITPAN), Busola Holloway, were on a panel moderated by Tunde Adegbola.

They discussed ‘Africa in Self Conversation: Documentary and Democracy', while Sandra Obiago, executive director, Communicating For Change (CFC), also presented a paper titled ‘Films for Development: Engineering Change in African Politics'.

Africa’s battered image… pains for documentary filmmakers

(Culled from The Guardian Thursday, 27 January
By Chuks Nwanne


Over the years, there has been a general outcry from different quarters of the continent on how the international media has done great harm to Africa in its coverage by casting Africa in negative light. African governments and scholars have viewed this kind of reportage as a deliberate project of alienating Africa and framing it as a hopeless continent. The issue was at the front burner during the just concludeda iRepresent International Documentary Film Festival in Lagos, where filmmakers from different parts of the world brainstormed on the possible use of documentary films to redeem the already battered image of Africa.

RESEARCH has shown that international media has low budgets for Africa as it believes that no good news can come out of the black continent. It has suddenly become a popular opinion that all news from Africa is bad news. Critical observation has shown that few international correspondents are usually sent to cover Africa on a long-term basis. Those who are sent to the continent are usually assigned only in moments and areas of crisis and for a very short period.

iREP: Making a case for documentary films

As appeared in the BusinessLIFE section of the BusinessDay, Friday, 28 January 2011


By Kemi Ajumobi

The general notion about Africa, as transmitted through various local and international media, revolves around death, corruption, drought, disease and war. But the question that Nigerian filmmakers, critics and literary activists were preoccupied with answering at the just-concluded iREP film festival was: ‘who is telling our stories and from what point of view?’

The event, which held at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island and the Freedom Park on Broad Street, Lagos, served as a platform for filmmakers to exchange ideas on the future of documentaries in Africa and how the platform can be used to tell true stories of Africa by Africans. Thankfully, participants came away with a sense of optimism, as their conclusion was that documentaries can indeed be used (if the guidelines are followed) to accurately report occurrences on the continent.

With the theme ‘Africa in Self-Conversation, the Documentary Film Intervention’ the festival emphasised on training and skill development for the benefit of young filmmakers, while celebrating documentary filmmakers who have used their works to impact the world positively.

iREP treats documentary film experts to Lagos art passion

Nigerian Compass WEDNESDAY, 26 JANUARY 2011 00:00 TONY OKUYEME

By Tony Okuyeme
A FOUR-DAY celebration of documentary films, tagged iREPRESENT (iREP), ended last Sunday in Lagos. The international touring documentary film festival, an impressive outing, was held under the theme: Can Documentary Change the World?
It ended on a hopeful note with new media scholars, film makers and film enthusiasts across Africa who participated describing it as stimulating and exciting. The festival was staged in two venues in Lagos- Terra Kulture and Freedom Park, both on Victoria Island.

Through the festival’s objective, promoting independent documentary features, it brought together scores of youths and professional filmmakers, screenwriters, production company executives, feature documentary development executives, distributors, commissioning editors, cinematographers, among others to the venues. Significantly, it brought together documentary film professionals from several parts of Africa. But beyond the interaction it was an event enriched by its intellectual menu and creative engagements as organisers used it to show the capacity of documentary films as significant media for telling the African stories.

What is irep

(Being the opening remarks by Femi Odugbemi, Executive Director, iREP, at the opening of the festival on January 20 at the Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, lagos)


iREP is about promoting documentary films from Africa, by Africans and about the African experience. Beyond propaganda, irep is about providing a platform for the promotion archiving and distribution of documentaries about our culture, our peoples and our development.

Enough of the colonial narrative of Africa being only about wars and diseases and pain. Yes these stories exist sadly but it needs perspective. And what is usually missing in these narratives is that the facts don't always reveal the truth. The challenge is for African filmmakers to do more than entertain and to begin to educate and inform and protect brand Africa in narratives that are more true, more rounded and yes more to our economic and development advantage in the global information order.

Documenting Africa on screen

By Aderinsola Ajao
(As published in NEXT newspaperJanuary 23, 2011 12:20AM


Nothing better captures human history than a collection of information that is indelible and images that are everlasting. For many film enthusiasts, the moving picture medium does this best. However, within the medium, the differentiation between the purposes of the feature and the documentary film can not be overemphasised.

The essence of the documentary film and the documentary film maker takes the front stage at the iRepresent International Documentary Film Festival which ends today at Freedom Park.

iREP Film Festival in Media

Tribute to Pioneer Filmmakers at iREP

BY KABIR ALABI GARBA
(As published in The Guardian, January 23)

APART from the rich intellectual menu offered by the African Film and Comparative Literature scholar at New York University, United States, Prof. Manthia Diawara, the organisers of the on-going iRepresent International Documentary Film Festival, laid a solid foundation for the project last Thursday in Lagos with the celebration of four pioneer documentary filmmakers. They are Brendan Shehu; Alhaji Adegboyega Arulogun; Tam Fiofori; and Chief Olu Holloway, who was honoured posthumously.
Their robust citations read during the awards presentation ceremony, which was part of the highlights of the opening ceremony of the film festival on Thursday affirmed that the organisers really made the right choice, with merit as basic criterion.

BRENDAN S. SHEHU (OON):

Filmmaker and TV producer, Brendan Shehu, was born in Minna on November 23, 1940. He had his primary education at St. James Anglican School – Gimi Dabosa near Zaria, from 1950 to 1953. Between 1954 and 1956, he was at St. Theresa’ s Catholic School Guni – Minna. He was also at St. John’s College, Kaduna between 1957–1961.

From 1964 to 1966, he studied film production, script writing, directing and editing at Overseas Film & Television Training Centre in London. At the same school, between 1977 and 1978, he obtained an Advanced Diploma in Film Production, specializing in film directing.
Brenda began his distinguished career in 1962 with the Broadcasting Company of Northern Nigeria (BCNN) Kaduna, where he started to learn the ropes as a Studio Assistant. Through a dint of hard work, commitment and the love to serve, he rose to become the Acting Head Documentary Productive Unit (RKTV), a time during which he produced television documentaries on topical issues covering social, cultural, political and economic. Some of those productions include; Looking Around, Tit Bits, Know your State, Events of the year in focus, etc

In 1976, the Kaduna State Government invited him to set up a Film unit in the State and subsequently employed him as a Principal, Film Division. From 1976 to 1985, he produced and directed several educational and public enlightenment documentary films numbering over 30 titles namely: Kaduna State at a glance, Our Culture, Drug Addiction, Better safe than sorry, Festac Durbar, The Making of an Officer, The struggle for new social order and Kaduna State International Trade Fair series, etc – these films were exhibited on mobile cinema vans to the public throughout the Northern States. Cultural and publicity films produced by him were also shown abroad in the missions and local TV Stations.

In 1985, his rose to the pinnacle of the film industry bureaucracy when he was appointed General Manager/Chief Executive, Nigerian Film Corporation, a position that was later upgraded to Managing Director in 1992.
During his tenure, the Nigerian Film Industry witnessed rapid development namely:
• The setting up of the State of the Art facilities for colour Film Processing Laboratory/Sound Dubbing Studio in Jos – first of its kind in the West African Sub-Region;

• Setting up National Film Archive which constitutes the visual record of the country;
• In 1995, the National Film Institute was established (affiliated to the University of Ibadan and served as Chairman, Academic Board);

• Organised the first National Film Festival in Nigeria;
• Participated actively in the formulation of several policy documents as it relates to film such as the National Mass Communication Policy, National Cultural Policy and National Film Policy;
• Participated and presented several papers and speeches in local and international Film Festivals;
• He also authored and supported the publications of some books and magazines on film e.g, NO……NOT Hollywood (a collection of speeches and papers) towards a film policy for Nigeria, film and vide magazines, etc;
• In 1993, he produced and directed his first feature film in Hausa titled “Kulba Na Barna” (Blaming the Innocent) which won an International Award at the 3rd Milan African Film Festival in Italy;
• His Documentary film titled Drug Addiction won an award at the First National Film Festival in Lagos.
In addition, Brenda Shehu had also performed other national and state assignments including facilitator/committee member of Vision 2010; member of Presidential monitoring team 1999 January Elections; as well as member of Kaduna State Leaders of thought during the religious crisis in the year 2000.
In recognition of his service to his community of Nassarawan Doya in Makarfi Local Government of Kaduna State, he was conferred with a traditional title Dan Masani; and in 2005, he was conferred with a National Honour of the Order of the office of the Niger (OON).
On retirement in 1999, he established a consultancy outfit – Pan Afrique Motion Picture Production – sharing his experiences with young film makers and producing documentary films for Government establishments and NGOs.

ADEGBOYEGA ARULOGUN:

Born on October 1, 1934 in Ibadan, Adegboyega Arulogun is a Film and Television Producer with wide ranging experience in the industry in Nigeria. He is highly respected both locally and internationally. He is well connected with TV stations in Nigeria.

Educated at Baptist Boy’s High School, Oyo (1952 – 57), School of Agriculture, Moor Plantation, Ibadan (1958 – 59), Overseas Film and TV Center, London, (1968), Sender Freis Berlin (West Germany) 1976, and the University of Lagos (1976 – 77) session, Alhaji Arulogun acquired adequate professional and management training that has stood him in good stead in his public and professional career.

He attended the Management Appreciation Course of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) in 1978, Industrial Relations Course for Collective Bargaining (1971) at the University of Ibadan, the Advanced Management Course by the Royal Institute of Public Administrators (RIPA), London, in situ for NTA at Abeokuta in 1982 and the Advanced Management Course for Public Enterprise by the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) Badagry, in 1983. He also attended a Special Management Course on Civil Service Reforms for Commissioners, Directors General in 1990; it was organized by the Federal Government and held at Gateway Hotel, Ota.

In his Television career, he managed the Production Services of the Nigerian Television Authority between 1977 and 1987 till he was appointed the General Manager of NTA Channels 5 and 10 in Lagos in 1987. Later that year, he moved to NTA Ikeja, Channel 7.

In 1988, (May 20), he was appointed Commissioner for Information and Culture of Oyo State. He Served there till January 1992, having headed the Ministries of Information, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Works and Transport. While in Oyo State as Commissioner, he was Chairman of the State Merit Award Committee for two years, Chairman of the Public Enlightenment Committee on the Transition to Civil Rule, the 1991 Population Census, The Infrastructural Appeal Fund and the Publicity and Speech Writing Committee of the Presidential and Vice President’s visits to Oyo State in 1991, 1990 respectively.

He returned to NTA, after his service with Oyo State, as an Assistant Director in the Marketing Department of the largest TV Network in Africa. He was the Chairman of the Advertising Award Committee of NTA for 1992 and 1993 and represented NTA on the APCON (Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria) Advertising Standards Panel between 1992 and 1994.

Professionally, as a Film and TV Producer, Alhaji Arulogun who grew up in the industry as a Film Editor, worked on many local and international productions, lectures and documentaries. Some of them won him awards.
His leadership qualities showed from school. He was a Prefect in the Boarding House of the Baptist Boys’ High School, Oyo and the School’s Librarian. He represented the school in athletics and football.
He was President of the Lagos Branch of the Nigeria Guild of TV Producers (1979-1981); member of the First Board of the Nigerian Film Corporation, National Secretary of the Nigerian Guild of TV Producer/Director and official of other social cultural organizations.

Alhaji Arulogun has contributed Film and TV articles and papers to many seminars, symposia and workshops. He has given many lectures on Film, TV and Current Affairs, He served on the Editorial Board of NTA’s TV Guide.
Alhaji Arulogun is widely traveled having visited Republic of Benin, Ghana, Egypt, Britain, Germany, United States of America, Sweden, Finland, Korea, Israel and Saudi Arabia, mostly in the course of his professional pursuits, Film and Television.
He is happily married with children, all sons. He retired from NTA in October 1994.

Awards

• First Prize at the Geneva International Prize for Television Award to Nigerian. Prize Awarded to him in his capacity as co. producer of, Nigeria: A Squandering of Riches, with Richard Taylor of the BBC;
• FAME Award for contributions to the Film Industry; and
• Veteran’s Award at the 2nd National Film Festival held in December 2003.
His works: Documentary
• The Open Door: Co-produced with Mains Television, Helsinki, Finland in 1975, it won a mention in the 1976 West Berlin Film Festival.

• Nigeria: A Squandering of Riches: Co Produced with Richard Taylon for the BBC Television won the First Place in documentary section of the 1985 Geneva Television Festival.
• He was the Production Co-ordinator on the BBC-WETA-NTA Production of Ali Mazrui’s The Africans and Basil Davidson’s Africa for Mitchel Beazley Television. He was co-editor on two feature Films: Wole Soyinka’s Kongi’s Harvest (1970) and Chinua Achebe’s Thing’s Fall Apart (1971) produced by Calpenny Nigeria Films Ltd.
Television: He has many successful productions on the Network of the NTA. Some of them are:
• Ogunde: Man of the Theatre with BBC TV
• 5 Days In Badagry: With German TV
• Dance for Harvest: A tourism and economic development documentary on Plateau State, Produced and Directed byArulogun.

• Festac 77: as Associate Producer on a UNESCO-NTA.
• Born to Live: Co Produced with MTV Finland, a documentary on primary healthcare programme of Prof. Olikoye Ransome – Kuti at Oguntolu Street, Somolu and Finland’s Primary Healthcare Programme by Nurses from Finland at Malumfashi.
• A Life of Service: Directed for LATOLA Films Ltd. A documentary on Prof. Ambrose Alli, Governor of Bendel State, 1980.
• Nation-Wide: Our Town, a TV Serial on Towns in Nigeria – to show that Lagos, as a cosmopolitan city houses people from all cities, nooks and crannies of Nigeria.




TAM FIOFORI

Filmmaker, Photographer, Writer, Media Consultant, Tam Fiofori is from Okrika, Rivers State.
A jazz music aficionado, Tam was the international manager of SUNRa, the American band, which he brought on a tour of Nigeria in the 70s.
He was Film Consultant to Rivers State Council for Arts and Culture and Director, Rivers State Culture Documentary Series. Odum and Water Masquerades, (1974) which were exhibited at FESTAC ’77 Tampere Film Festival, 10th FESPACO, Quagadougou, 1987.
Consultant/Scriptwriter, Nigerian Television Authority-NTA Network on Documentaries.
He wrote and directed Pope John Paul 11 Prays For Nigeria 1998. Foundation Executive, Photographers’ Association of Nigeria-PAN.

He was Participant/Exhibitor at the African Reprography Seminar/Workshop 1995;
the PAN National Creative Day Exhibition, Lagos, 1996, 1997,
Nigerian Art Exhibition, United Nations World Intellectual Property Organisation- WIPO Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland, 1996.
Ekasa Coronation Dance Parade 1979 on permanent display at WIPO headquarters, Switzerland.
And at the 4th African Photography Festival, Bamako, Mali, 2001. Been a photographer for four decades.
He was a National/Nigerian delegate, Constituent Congress, OAU-Pan African Writers’ Association-PAWA, Accra,1989.

Awards: PAWA Literary Award Winner,
Handball Association of Nigeria-HAN National Award Winner.

Publication: He is Co-Author Nigeria and the all Africa games (From Lagos ’73 to Abuja ’03)
Co-Editor Ijo Footprints. Text and Photograhps A Benin Coronation: Oba Erediauwa.
Tam is extensively travelled and published in Africa, U.S.A, Fance, Scandinavia, Japan, Germany.

Other services: He was Media Consultant, Nigerian Newsprint Manufacturing Company-NNMC.
Foundation Board Member, Reproduction Rights Society of Nigeria-REPRONIG, Member ijaw History Project Committee, Coordinating Director Sun Arts: BEP.
Tam has since moved into full time Photography. His recent exhibitions include:
• ‘1979’ at the Oba’s Palace, Benin City;
• ‘1979’ at the Hexagon, Benin City, 2009;
• ‘1979’ at the DIDI Museum, Lagos;
• Recent works at Aresuva Abuja, Alliance Francaise @ 50, National Museum, Lagos;
• A perspective on Contemporary Nigerian Photography at Omenka Gallery, Ikoyi, Lagos among others.






www.irepfilmfestival.com
3 Oguntona Crescent, Gbagada Phase 1, Lagos Nigeria.
P.O. Box 36 Surulere.
T: +234 803 425 1963, +234 802 201 6495, +234 803 403 0646
E: info@irepfilmfestival.com

Documenting Africa on screen

By Aderinsola Ajao
(As published in 234NEXT) January 23, 2011


Nothing better captures human history than a collection of information that is indelible and images that are everlasting. For many film enthusiasts, the moving picture medium does this best. However, within the medium, the differentiation between the purposes of the feature and the documentary film can not be overemphasised.

The essence of the documentary film and the documentary film maker takes the front stage at the iRepresent International Documentary Film Festival which ends today at Freedom Park.

On the bill at the opening ceremony, held last Thursday, was Manthia Diawara’s keynote address ‘Can Documentary Change the World?’ Also showing was the film professor’s documentary, ‘Who’s Afraid of Ngugi?’

Spread the word

Linking African literature with the continent’s film culture, Diawara stressed the need for more public intellectuals like Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and Nelson Mandela, who are renowned for their self-expression in spaces with global influence. In his words, these people had the genius of “having a place for their public intellectuals to express him or herself and to have that expression change the world.”

Heralding what would be a major pattern all through the day’s event, Diawara said maintaining and updating national and historical archives was a very important part of re-enforcing the African existence and was useful in presenting images and stories to the world that were true and positive of the continent. For him, the audience is home-based before it is global. “Films (should) have their legitimacy first in Africa,” he said. The problem with filmmaking in Africa, he said, is that, “We make films by addressing the West...in doing this, we betray a whole point of view...this is irrelevant in changing people’s lives here.”

He advised that filmmakers should learn to own Africa by first owning her myriad resources.

Presenting Diawara’s new publication, ‘African Film: New Forms and Aesthetics,’ managing director of the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC), Afolabi Adesanya, supported the clamour for positive representations of Africa. The history of colonisation in Africa, he said, would not allow a European filmmaker make a movie that would be against his own. Adesanya asked the industry “to take ownership of their images” and stop making “films that put European audiences at their ease.” A trailer of the DVD accompanying the book was then shown.

Tribute

Three ‘film heroes past’ were honoured in a tribute. Veteran TV producer, diplomat and arts patron, Segun Olusola, was at hand to present plaques to Brendan Shehu, Tam Fiofori and Adegboyega Arulogun - all elder broadcasters who had contributed immensely to the progress of TV and documentary films in Nigeria.

Shehu, a former director of the NFC, was grateful for the award that he said showed efforts of his colleagues had not been in vain. For Arulogun, whom Olusola described as a teacher of documentary filmmaking, the honour was proof to upcoming filmmakers that “Nollywood was not created in a vacuum.” International collaborations were vital for Nollywood to grow, Arulogun said.

A painful experience

The audience’s joyous mood turned sober with the screening of Diawara’s documentary on the homecoming of Kenyan writer-activist, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, after 22 years in exile. Scenes in the movie took the audience through Ngugi’s early life to the Mau Mau struggle and its influence on current Kenyan politics. There were a lot of soul-thumping scenes, but none more moving than the sequence of shots that covered the attack on Ngugi’s family and the rape of his wife during his return to Kenya. Diawara himself admitted that it “was a painful film to make.”

Kiragu, co-ordinator of the couple’s trip to Kenya, was arrested alongside four others for the assault. The 84-minute film showed that there were mixed feelings for Ngugi and his activism in the East African country. There were a number of indispensable nuggets in the film such as Ngugi’s comment that, “identifying with another person’s language above your own is actually despising one’s self.”

For Ngugi, the film and its contents contributed “yet another way of liberating Africa,” according to Diawara, the film’s narrator, writer and director.

The programme returned from recess to expound on issues of identity, consciousness and logistics in documentary film making in a workshop session titled ‘Redeeming the African Image: A case for African Documentary Films.’

Moderator of the session was Emeka Mba, director-general of the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board with the panel boasting Senegalese, Lydie Diakhate; Joke Silva, Mahmoud Ali-Balogun and Jaiye Ojo.

Improving the art

During the workshop, Diakhate, a film producer and festival organiser, said, it was “crucial to have a platform to be able to show new images of Africa.” She accentuated the presence of positive stories that can be told about the continent and hailed festivals as medium for encouraging co-operation, sharing experiences and improving production quality amongst filmmakers.

On his part, Ali-Balogun posed the question of what exactly a filmmaker sets out to achieve with a documentary. Speaking personally, he said most of his documentaries are advocacy tools meant for improving Nigeria. As a patriotic movie maker, he would not peddle negative images of his country for any reason. This, he said, was mostly impossible for those who sourced their funds from abroad and had to ‘dance to the tune’ of their sponsor.

In light of the challenges facing those already established in the genre, the lot fell on Ojo to allay the fears of aspiring filmmakers. Speaking in a deservingly upbeat tone, he said there are avenues for surviving in the trend despite a seemingly high frustration rate.

Joke Silva also said that more skill acquisition centres were crucial to honing the talent of the industry’s up and coming producers.

There was a slight argument over how easy it was to shoot a documentary, but it was agreed that the industry’s green horns should not see their task as daunting but something that has to be done if the passion was there.

The moderator, Mba summed it up by saying that the overall duty for filmmakers is to “tell our stories in a more socially-responsible way.”

Doing this effectively were the two other films on the event’s bill. Olu Holloway’s ‘Slum Sweeper’ was an exposé on the construction of the Second Mainland Bridge, widely known as the Eko Bridge.

The festival film, Jihan El-Tahri’s ‘Behind the Rainbow,’ a documentary on South African politics, closed the evening’s schedule at Terra Kulture.









www.irepfilmfestival.com
3 Oguntona Crescent, Gbagada Phase 1, Lagos Nigeria.
P.O. Box 36 Surulere.
T: +234 803 425 1963, +234 802 201 6495, +234 803 403 0646
E: info@irepfilmfestival.com