Beverly Naya’s film, Skin, which explores the meaning of beauty through identity in all the different shades of black, will open the ninth edition of the iREPRESENT International Documentary Film Festival (iREP), the organisers have said. The festival holds under the theme of Storylines from March 21 to 24 at Freedom Park, Lagos.
The 80-minute Skin shot in 2018 will screen on Wednesday, March 20 at 7.30pm after the Cocktail that welcomes all the guests participating in the festival. There is to be a question and answer session with the director immediately after the screening.
The programme released by the organisers indicates that the Cocktail, which starts at 6pm will feature remarks by the Executive Director of iREP, Femi Odugbemi as well as by Chair of the iREP Advisory Board, Awam Amkpa and a Special Guest’s goodwill by Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism and Culture, Steve Ayorinde.
On the same day, culture icon, Bolanle Austen-Peters will be honoured by the festival.
The festival proper begins the next day at 9am with screenings, a welcome address by Odugbemi and the keynote by Jonathan Haynes with the theme: ’Storylines, Nigerian filmmaking and the liberal arts’.
A statement by the organisers said one of highlights of this year’s event is the Special features: ‘Going GLO-CAL’.
“Over 50 films will be screened in the course of the festival; carefully curated from over 100 submissions by local and international filmmakers. Films came in from nearly all parts of Africa and the Diaspora. Remarkably, more films were submitted this year by Nigerian (Nigeria-based) producers than ever recorded in past nine years. This is a signification that the culture of documentary filmmaking is indeed growing in the home-front; one of the cardinal objectives of the iREP,” said the statement.
Tam Fiofori, the septuagenarian photographer and filmmaker, who has been very consistent in past few years in the festival list is among the Nigerian filmmakers showcasing in iREP this year. His film is titled, Ogbu-Oja Eze, and reflects on the career of an Igbo flutist.
Tunde Kelani, also another consistent contributor and supporter of the festival, is screening his latest work, Yoruba Beyond Borders, which he directed and produced with long-time sideman and collaborator, Bola Bello.
Afolabi Adesanya, filmmaker and former Director General of the Nigeria Film Corporation (NFC), is also presenting his bio-pic Gbenga Sonuga: Artist, Activist, Administrator, former director of Lagos State Council for Arts and Culture, and now traditional ruler, Fadeseewa of Simawa Autonomous kingdom, near Sagamu.
The other Nigerian filmmakers whose films are on display are of course Nollywood actress, Beverly Naya, James Amuta, Aderonke Adeola, Adeola Osunkojo, Tolulope Itegboje, Ronke Macaulay, Toyin Ibrahim Adekeye, and Gbenga Salu.
There are of course, films from all over the world including Jahaji Music: India in the Caribbean (112mins;(Indian/Caribbean) by Surabhi Sharma, which will close the festival on Sunday, March 24.