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'.


Oral society

Adegbola defined documentary as a creative treatment of factuality. "It is a fact that Nigerian newspapers break even by other things, not the amount of papers sold daily. This indicates that we are still fundamentally an oral society," Adegbola said. The executive director of African Languages Technology Initiative added that, "if we are to focus on the written alone, we will be leaving a lot of people behind." Holloway, whose late father, Olu, a self taught veteran filmmaker was given a posthumous award the previous day for his contribution to the genre, also had something to say. "A documentary is something you put down for future generations to see.

Newspapers are documentaries in print. My experience with documentary and democracy is ‘who pays the piper dictates the tune," he said. He added that steering the workshop in a direction is easily overlooked."Documentaries are for propaganda purposes in democracy. If you are a non partisan filmmaker, you may step on toes," he continued.

Holloway referred to ‘Nigeria, A Squandering of Riches' by Onyeka Onwenu produced in 1982, to buttress his point. He noted that all what Onwenu had predicted about the nation at the time is already happening. The documentary has also become a way of looking back and gauging how much things have changed in the nation since then. This, for him, was the power of documentary.Akinosho echoed Adegbola's sentiments that the Nigerian society was an oral one. "We don't read. We prefer to talk," he told the audience.

Economics of truth

"What I see is that if we do more documentaries and see more of them here than on CNN, it helps. One channel that has done well on documentaries is NN24. I've seen documentaries on Suya. More stations should do this," Akinosho said.Adesanya, like Akinosho, called for more opportunities for people to watch documentary films. "This generation just wants to make Nollywood films. There is more to filmmaking than Nollywood films. There are many stories out there that need to be told. We need funding," he added."As filmmakers, we should be looking at how to use our works to address the issues that democracy is foisting on us," was Balogun's contribution. "What is your purpose as a documentary filmmaker? You can either document the status quo or engender change," he added.

On the challenges documentary filmmakers face, the filmmaker told a story of how he once did a documentary for the Olusegun Obasanjo administration and interviewed people who were not forthcoming in their responses. "So, as a filmmaker what do you do? We need to strike a balance," he said. Akinosho tagged this dilemma the economics of truth.Holloway encouraged young and aspiring documentary filmmakers in the audience saying, "You can start making your documentary and let's see what they will transfer into later. If you do a documentary and have a problem showing it on Nigerian television break it into 10 minutes and put it on YouTube. The whole world will see it," Adegbola said in conclusion.

Power to change

Obiago's presentation was a detailed, practical and passionate treatise on the importance of documentary films and how it impacts the society.She revealed how her campaign against negative widowhood practices through a documentary on widows led to the first widowhood law being passed in Enugu State. Obiago disclosed that the documentary was taken around to ensure that a number of Nigerians saw it.On the power of the art, Obiago told the story of how a chief female circumciser from Edo State, who was invited to watch a play on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), broke down in tears after seeing the play and swore never to touch another baby. Consequently, in 1999, the FGM law was passed in Benin.

The audience was then shown a gory three-minute video of how a baby was being circumcised. "When people leave your film, what have they internalised?" Obiago asked."Let's take these creative works and put them in the right hands," she added. To the filmmakers, she admonished, "Do not underestimate the power of those working with you. Invest in young talent."

Screenings

The screening, which was one of the high points of the event, was done at various intervals in the programme. South Africa-based Akin Omotoso's ‘Child of the Forest' on Wole Soyinka easily stole the show, with its neat cinematography and the subject, of course.Writers, including Helon Habila, Molara Wood, Teju Cole, Odia Ofeimun, Nadine Gordimer, Kole Omotoso and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, amongst others, spoke about Soyinka from perspectives that were unique to them.The 52-minute documentary looked at Soyinka's literary and political exploits, not the least his gun-wielding feat at Radio Nigeria in the mid-1960s during the electoral crisis in the Western Region.

Another impactful documentary was ‘Uncommon Service' by Deji Adesanya. The film focused on the exploits of a medical doctor in Eruwa, Oyo State, who runs a self sufficient health centre through unique inventions using local materials.Femi Odugbemi's ‘Oriki', was an enlightening and impressive documentary on the rites of naming and its importance in the Yoruba culture.

It also generated questions about the conflict between culture and religion in the 21st century. Odugbemi, one of the festival organisers, talked about the challenge of translating the oriki to English language.‘In Search of Hip-Hop', an 11-minute film by female Sudanese filmmaker, Issraa El-Kogali, was also screened. "There is more to us than Darfur and war," said El-Kogali, about the documentary which she produced by herself.




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