WORKSHOP ON STORYTELLING, SCRIPTING & CONTENT MANAGEMENT

iREPRESENT International Documentary Film Forum (iREP) in colaboration with the Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the United Consulates Lagos presents the:
2011 WORKSHOP ON STORY TELLING, SCRIPTING AND CONTENT MANAGEMENT, an industry clinic targeted at professionals within the various disciplines of film making.

The workshop will specifically focus on scripting, storytelling and content management.

About 30 participants, whose vocations have to do with scripting and content management have been drawn from the various guilds and associations to participate in the workshop, which will cover both Fiction and non-Fiction storytelling and scripting. The participants were nominated by their various Guilds.

The Instructor of the workshop is MICHAEL GOZZARD, a multiple-award winning scripter and content manager of international repute fropm the USA, who has traversed the major centres of film production and discourse around the world instructing similar workshops and clinics.

Who is a Culture Minister

Who Is A Culture Minister?


By Segun Ojewuyi

TRUST me, the premise is simple. Artists are fueled by a burning passion to create art — expressive and qualitative art that conveys the ennobling power of deep thought and penetrating insight, balanced with beauty. Artists — Nigerian artists not excempted — also want to make a dignified living, the kind that respects and provides the sanctity necessary for creativity to flourish. Where there is talent, good training and tenacity of purpose, such a combination of critical artistic and commercial success, should not be hard to find. Often the artist just wants to be able to keep the creative work unhindered, maintain a responsible family life and foster good citizenship.

Opulence is not a requirement, but also not anathema. The artistic life is a cause not a curse, it is one of service not servitude, nobility not futility. It is a life that is just as worthy of every breath, every second and minutia of creativity and labour that the artist puts in, as well as every accolade and Naira that the recipient cohesive civic community invests. There are models of such partnerships and success stories in the developed world. Making art is and must be vital to the well-being of society, community and country, just as the sustenance of the artist is and must be embraced as a necessity for societal identity, prosperity and health.

The documentary's last stand

MARK LAWSON - Jun 10 2011

Is this a good time for factual film-
making? It depends on your definitions of fact and film.

There are executives and directors who complain that there are too few documentaries on television these days, despite having large and enthusiastic audiences when they are shown. The problem is that what traditionalists mean by documentary is quite different from the star vehicles and "constructed reality" shows that are now popular.

The past decade has also seen a big increase in the number of documentaries made for cinema. The success of Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine (2002) and Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me (2004) began a phenomenon in which a format (the reporter-director) and subject matter (gun control, fast food) that would once have been restricted to television played in multiplexes. Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop, James Marsh's Man on Wire and Sebastian Junger's Restrepo, which was co-directed by the late Tim Hetherington, have all been Oscar-nominated (Man on Wire won in 2009).

Does this mean documentary is now on an equal footing with mainstream, feature cinema? Or, given its largely indifferent box-office performance, is it simply flourishing in a soon-to-be-closed bolt hole -- a genre for which TV no longer has the time or money?

Efforts to reposition and move the nation’s film industry forward so that it could be attractive to investors and project the country and the African continent to the world better, telling Nigerian stories and for Nollywood to serve as a money-spinning industry after the oil sector may well have started with a recent arts stampede on new trends in the industry

IT was the initiative of Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), which held last Sunday, through its quarterly art stampede that brought together filmmakers, actors, marketers, film critics, art journalists and other stakeholders to share information on how to move the industry forward.

Hinging its position on the fact that the movie industry is the off-shoot of the nation’s TV drama, which started from the conventional stage plays and the moving theatres of the pre-independence era, CORA in its drive chose as topic: The New Trend in Nollywood — a look at the recent works that are redefining Nollywood.

With a panel made up of the nation’s leading movie practitioners, which included Mahmoud Ali-Balogun (producer of Tango With Me); Kunle Afolayan, (The Figurine); Stephanie Okerereke (Through the Glass); Chidi Nwokobia (Champions Of Our Time); Emem Isong (Reloaded); Lilian Amah-Aluko (Jungle Ride); Vivian Ejike (Private Storm); and Kelechi Ikata, who represented Chineze Anyaene (producer of Ije) with Steve Ayorinde, editor of The National Mirror Newspaper moderating, the group critically examined some of the latest movies to have come from the industry.

On eve of Nigerian elections and the opening of 'Fela!' in Lagos, Femi Kuti talks politics, legacy, and music

By Jessica Hundley
Femi Kuti makes something more than music. His dozen or so album releases and hugely popular concerts (“one of the more powerful live shows on Earth,” according to the Onion) are imbued with the weight of family legacy and Kuti’s own individual intents.
It is "music as message" in a way few acts take on these days –- protest and admonishment and hope all embedded in Afrobeat exuberance. In his own words, Kuti’s songs are his primary “weapon” in a lifelong struggle to bring awareness and resolution to the strife in his home country of Nigeria.

The eldest son of the great musician and activist Fela Kuti, Femi began his musical career at age 16 as a member of his father’s band. After Fela’s death in 1997, Kuti continued in his father’s footsteps, embracing outspoken activism, maverick musicianship and a relentless tour schedule. His newest effort, Africa for Africa (released April 12 on Knitting Factory Records), was recorded in the same studio where he first laid down tracks with his father.

A direct return to his roots, the album embraces raw funk and deliberately dirty production -– a mix of joyous dance beats and deeply potent lyricism. With the upcoming presidential elections in Nigeria on April 16 and the opening next week in Lagos of the Broadway hit “Fela!,” Kuti is raising his voice high, still seeking, through music, revolution, renewal and redemption.

Femi Kuti talks politics, legacy, music

Femi Kuti talks politics, legacy, music

On eve of Nigerian elections and the opening of 'Fela!' in Lagos, Femi Kuti talks politics, legacy, and music

By Jessica Hundley
Femi Kuti makes something more than music. His dozen or so album releases and hugely popular concerts (“one of the more powerful live shows on Earth,” according to the Onion) are imbued with the weight of family legacy and Kuti’s own individual intents.
It is "music as message" in a way few acts take on these days –- protest and admonishment and hope all embedded in Afrobeat exuberance. In his own words, Kuti’s songs are his primary “weapon” in a lifelong struggle to bring awareness and resolution to the strife in his home country of Nigeria.

The eldest son of the great musician and activist Fela Kuti, Femi began his musical career at age 16 as a member of his father’s band. After Fela’s death in 1997, Kuti continued in his father’s footsteps, embracing outspoken activism, maverick musicianship and a relentless tour schedule. His newest effort, Africa for Africa (released April 12 on Knitting Factory Records), was recorded in the same studio where he first laid down tracks with his father.

A direct return to his roots, the album embraces raw funk and deliberately dirty production -– a mix of joyous dance beats and deeply potent lyricism. With the upcoming presidential elections in Nigeria on April 16 and the opening next week in Lagos of the Broadway hit “Fela!,” Kuti is raising his voice high, still seeking, through music, revolution, renewal and redemption.

Culled from The Cultural Weapon


Should artists accept “dirty money”?

Mike van Graan

A number of things strike one on entering Bamako, the capital of Mali. The first is the majestic Niger River responsible for much of the green in an otherwise dusty, gravelly, semi-desert city. Another is the industriousness of the people in an obviously poor country, as everyone is trying to generate even a meagre income selling mangoes, chickens and home-made furniture, or Chinese-manufactured T-shirts, electricity adapters and slip slops. Then there are some incongruously tall buildings and hotels, a number of the latter bearing the name “Libya Hotels”. One garish building is named after the Libyan dictator, Gaddafi, who has funded this – still empty - structure to house the Malian cabinet. There are two bridges across the Niger with a third being built by the Chinese.

As one walks through the market, there are hand-made posters in defence of Gaddafi, and in conversation with some of the locals, it is clear that there is much sympathy for the one time, wannabe-head of the United States of Africa.