Ex-Lagos State Commissioner for Justice, Supo Shasore’s compelling Nigerian history, ‘Journey to An African Colony’, based on stories from his books, ‘A Platter of Gold’, ‘The King & The Colony’, and ‘Possessed’, would be screened at the pre-festival cocktail of this year’s IREP International Documentary Film Festival (IREP).
The 120-minutes long documentary, previously serialised on Channels TV, would be the first among over 50 films to be screened at the 10th edition of the festival happening at Freedom Park, Lagos Island. While the pre-festival cocktail holds on the evening of March 18, the main programme will run from March 19 to 22.
Executive Director of IREP, Femi Odugbemi, would welcome guests at the pre-festival cocktail. Scholar and IREP Board Chair, Professor Awam Amkpa, would give the opening remarks. There would also be goodwill messages from selected guests to be followed by the awards ceremony.
Shasore’s well-received ‘Journey to an African Colony’ would round off the evening’s event. It would open the door for other interesting documentaries like Hannes Verhoustraete’s ‘Country More Beautiful than Before’, Kemi Gbadamosi’s ‘Omolara’, ‘Prince of Paris’ by Veera Lehto-Michaud and ‘Uncovered’ by Suve Sandra Osunwa.
Other films that would be screened on festival’s first day are, ‘What About the Boy Child’ by Titi Alpha, Ronke Macaulay’s ‘Badagry: The Joy of Return’; Charlie Luckock’s ‘Nigeria’s lost generation’, Makiyango Melisa’s ‘Kampala Minutes’, ‘Confra’ by Ayo Adewunmi and ‘Bakoso: Afrobeats of Cuba’ by Eli Jacos-Fantauzzi.
However, it would not be all screenings on the first day. There will be a keynote titled ‘Documentary and Democratic Governance in Africa’, panel discussion and interaction with the audience.
The following day, South-Africa based Nigerian filmmaker, Akin Omotoso would be in conversation with a yet-to-be-announced host while there would also be a panel session ‘People and Development: Reinventing Documentary Films in the Digital Age’.
The screening of majority of the films shot in 2019 continues same day with ‘Khartoum Offside’, ‘Sankofa’, ‘High Young and Addicted’, ‘Phoenix Girl’, ‘100 Days in Rwanda’, ‘Ofala’, ‘Eko-An Ode to Lagos’, ‘Sunset in Makoko’, ‘Congo Calling’ and ‘Colonial Institut’.
Some of the other films that would be screened before IREP 2020 ends with a CORA Stampede themed ‘Democracy and Memories’ on March 22 are ‘Finding Sally’, ‘Life is not Immobile’, ‘Protest Camp’, ‘Somewhere in Nigeria’, ‘Ranti’, ‘The Talking Drum’,’Lebollo’ and ‘Meant to Suffer’.
Ed Keazor’s ‘January 15, 1970: Untold Memories of the Nigerian Civil War’ would be screened at the Stampede with Toyin Akinosho engaging the filmmaker and a representative of Centre Memories in a conversation.
Documentary movie buffs are assured of a good time at the festival where they would also have the opportunity of interacting with their favourite filmmakers during the question sessions.