Monday, March 12, 2012

I-REPRESENT INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL HOLDS MARCH 22-25, 2012 AT TERRA KULTURE & FREEDOM PARK LAGOS


 The highly acclaimed I-Represent International Documentary Film Festival which debuted last year holds its second edition from Thursday 22nd to Sunday 25th of March, 2012, at Terra-Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos, and Freedom Park, Broad Street, Lagos, Nigeria.

The festival is holding this year in partnership with Goethe Institut and AG  DokumentarFilm (German Association of independent producers), which jointly are facilitating the participation of a host of international Filmmakers who would be presenting films as well as conducting Training Workshops.

iREP 2012 will feature screenings and discussions at Terra Kulture each day from 10am-5pm Thursday-Saturday; and screenings from 7pm-11pm Thursday-Saturday and from 10am-10pm on Sunday at Freedom Park’s outdoor theatre.

KEYNOTE/CONFERENCE
The festival is conceptualized on the framework: AFRICA IN SELF CONVERSATION, and it would explore the theme: DEMOCRACY AND CULTURE - THE DOCUMENTARY FILM INTERVENTION.

As would be deduced from the unprecedented and sporadic people's mass action that attended the January 1, 2012 removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government, a new sense of participation in governance is evolving on the African continent. It is thus increasingly becoming important to explore opportunities open to African filmmakers to bring better understanding and approaches to participatory democracy as a part of African political culture through the medium of documentary films.

The scope of the Festival would cover such areas as Democracy and Demonstrations, New media technology and participatory democracy, and the potentials of the Nigerian films to explore and exploit the documentary format in its production values.

A key subtheme in the 2012 iREP Documentary Film Festival is: IS NOLLYWOOD DOCUMENTARY? This will feature a conversation among filmmakers and their publics on the potentials of Nollywood films to embrace the Documentary ethics in its operation and outputs. A key area of discourse would be the need to explore the production and distribution potentials and schemes of Nollywood towards achieving documentary objectives.

We have the pleasure of Professor Jean-Paul Colleyn (a world renowned filmmaker, film scholar and anthropologist) to deliver the Keynote at the Festival opening ceremony on Thursday March 22 at 10am.  Jean Paul-Colleyn is an Anthropologist, Filmmaker and Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Center of African Studies at EHESS (school for high studies in social sciences) in Paris, France. He has conducted extensive fieldwork research in West Africa; and currently engaged in a research project in Mali. He was a producer at Arte TV channel (1988-98); visiting professor at New York University (1998-2001); Commissioned Editor of the series 'The Art of the Myth' (Arte, 2009-2010); Director of over 30 Documentary films and author of over 14 books and many scholarly essays on documentary films, Art and African Studies and Culture.

Also speaking at the Festival are luminaries with vast knowledge and relevant experience in filmmaking and the media. They include famous broadcaster, award-winning journalist and Chairman of CHANNELS Television Mr. John Momoh; Director-General of the National Film and Video Censors Board and a renowned authority on New Media channels for content management and distribution, Mr. Emeka Mba.

TRAINING/WORKSHOP
The Training Workshop of the festival which last year was attended by over 100 young Nigerian Filmmakers will be holding once again at the Freedom Park Venue on Friday and Saturday and it will feature Facilitators such as versatile producer of African films, Barbel Mauch from Germany; veteran documentarist and TV manager, Alhaji Adegboyega Arulogun; TV documentarist, Cyril Okonkwo;  ffilmmaker, diplomat Amb. Yussuf Mamman; film and photo documentarist, Tam Fiofori; and Festival Executive Director Femi Odugbemi.

GUESTS
Notable amongst international professionals participating are Nigerian/German Filmmaker Branwen Okpako who will be screening her acclaimed film “The Re-education of Aowa Obama;" German Director Jens Wenkel, who has worked extensively on Nigerian/African themes; Kathrin Springer (Producer, South Africa); Ulla Wessler (DokFEst Munich) and Bärbel Mauch (producer, Berlin).

The festival will be screening over 20 films at both Terra Kulture during the day and from 7pm-11pm at Freedom Park each night. Notable films on the schedule include “LAGOS: Notes of a City” by Jens Wenkel, “Linking Africa” by Michael Grotenhoff, “RedHot Nigeria” by Sandra Obiago, “Espoir Voyage” by Michel Zongo, “And the Chain was Not” by Femi Odugbemi, “An African Election” by Jarreth Merz, “Duniya Juyi juyi” by Abdullahi Yahaya Sa’ad and “The Guantanamo Trap” by Thomas Wallner.


MEETINGS/NETWORKING
An important feature of this festival is a PRODUCERS’ ROUNDTABLE CONFERENCE featuring conversation on Strategies For International Co-Production to be attended by Documentary filmmakers from Cameroon, Germany, Ghana and Nigeria. Ms. Katarina Hedren, a key promoter of the Documentary Network Africa (DNA) initiative will moderate it. Ms. Hendren is the former chair of the Swedish based film festival, CinemAfrica, and she works as a translator/interpreter, as well as discussion and workshop moderator/facilitator/designer, film programmer, film critic, and writer with South African producers and directors as well as organisations such as Tri-Continental Film Festival, People to People Conference, Encounters International Documentary Festival, The Goethe-Institut and FESPACO. She is the coordinator of the Mokolo project — an initiative that aims to create a virtual platform for web content relating to African audiovisual industries, thus improving the accessibility and visibility of African audiovisual content and professionals.

AWARD
The festival award ceremony will also be staged during which a few well-appointed veteran professionals would be inducted into the iREP/West Africa Documentary Film Forum's Hall of Fame in recognotion of the selfless service they have rendered to the vocation in their individual career journey.

ABOUT iREP FESTIVAL

i-Represent International Documentary Film Festival is an annual festival dedicated to promoting awareness about the power of documentary films to serve as a means of deepening and sharing social and cultural education as well as encouraging participatory democracy in our societies. The maiden edition held in January 2011, in Lagos, brought together a pool of veteran filmmakers, film scholars, critics, Arts enthusiasts, and students from different parts of the world.

We believe strongly that the 2012 Festival would provide completely invaluable opportunities for all participants to discuss cogent issues that are germane to the future of filmmaking in Africa, and indeed, the World. Activities at the conference have been carefully designed to cover a wide spectrum of knowledge areas and interest, and would include Paper presentations, Training and Workshops, Interactive panel discussions, film screenings, and Networking.

We look forward to the pleasure of having your presence at the festival
Thank you.

More details at www.irepfilmfestival.com


2
Femi Odugbemi
Executive Director
For IREP FILM FORUM
9TH MARCH 2012.



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

No comments:

Post a Comment