By Eva Irewole
The 2024 edition of the iREPRESENT International Documentary Film Festival will hold from March 21st to 24th at its primary home, Lagos. The prime project of the Foundation for Promotion of Documentary Film Festival in Africa (FPDFA), the leading platform for documentary films promotion in Nigeria and West Africa, will also be hosted in virtual format, according to the organisers.
Founded in 2010, the iREP Festival has the founding generic theme ‘Africa in Self-Conversation’, which encourages cross exchanges of ideas and developmental aspirations among the diverse peoples of Africa and the global black family.
iREP 2024, the 14th edition of the annual ritual, will feature conversations, screenings, workshops, networking sessions, and other related activities. Over 45 films are expected to be screened at the two venues hosting the festival this year.
They are it’s traditional venue, the Freedom Park, on Broad Street and Alliance Francaise, (Mike Adenuga Centre) Ikoyi. The films – short and long features — have been drawn from largely Nigerian filmmakers and their counterparts from 25 countries in four continents, who submitted their entries via Filmfreeway. However, there are also some specially curated films selected for the festival, some of which have made the round of international festival circuits and have won awards around the world.
THE THEME:
The 2024 edition’s theme, RIGHTING THE FUTURE, according to the organisers, was deliberately chosen “to instigate conversation between the present and the future of the continent, as well as encourage deeper dialogue between the young people and their elders. The provocative theme is set in the context of happenings in this season of political anomalies and leadership failures in many countries of the continent”.
The SOYINKA Edition:
This edition of the festival is also designated as “The SOYIKA edition” to commemorate the 90th birthday anniversary of the distinguished global cultural icon, poet, playwright, essayist, polemicist and Africa’s first Nobel laureate for literature, Professor Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka, whose birthday is in July.
“He embodies the virtues of the quintessential ‘citizen activist’ with the clarity of vision and passion for the betterment of our collective humanity needed to hold power accountable to the people.
“Over the past six decades and more, he has consistently deployed his intellectual acumen and personal resources to defend human values and the fundamentality of the freedom of the individual to resist oppression. “These are the values and virtues, iREP hopes to spotlight and celebrate at the 2024 festival.”
