*Announces coming of ‘Barry Wonder Film’
ON occasion of his 74th birthday today, Nigeria’s preeminent filmmaker, storyteller, and culture advocate, Tunde Kelani is honouring the life and career of the Fuji Music legend, Sikiru Ayinde Olonade Balogun, who passed on 12 years ago.
On his facebook page two days ago, Kelani said he would today release BARRYfest 2022, which is his video recording of a social event by same name held February 13 in Ibadan. The ‘Owambe’ event in Ibadan attracted members of a network of over 15 fans club of the Fuji merchant from around the world, who converged in Ibadan in what has become an annual ritual in memory of late Ayinde Barrister, reputed as the creator of the Fuji music.
Kelani states: “12 years later, why Sikiru Ayinde Barrister still lives in our hearts. BARRYFest flags off Barry Wonder Film. The film shall be coded ‘Project S.A.B.”
The proposed Barry Wonder Film — a 3-part series, would be released in installments, according to Kelani, aka TK, renowned for such highly successful works as, Saworo de, Agogo Eewo, Oleku, Ti Oluwa nile, Koseegbe, Campus Queen, Dazzling Mirage, Maami, Sidi Ilujinle, Abeni, Narrow Path, and lately AYINLA, and Cordeliia
For the Barry Wonder Film, TK said he would work with members of the Sikiru Ayinde family, and close associates, many of whom he met and discussed the idea with during the Barry Fest 2022 social event.
Coming after his critically acclaimed AYINLA, which also celebrates the life and career of another music legend of the Apala music stock, Ayinla Omowura, septuagenarian Kelani, founder and Director of Mainframe Productions, may have suggested that his film gaze at this phase in his near five decades career, is in documenting the history and legacies of creative artistes who have made immense contributions to the culture and heritage of Africans, especially those from his Yoruba stock. AYINLA, produced by Jade Osiberu, and released in 2020, was said to have grossed nearly N100m at the Box Office alone.
TRAINED formally as a Photographer, Cinematographer and Filmmaker, Kelani is an avid reader, a keen observer of society and its history as well as a natural storyteller. In his words: “I engage culture as a film producer and director. I employ film as a tool of social, cultural and linguistic anthropological inquiry using the camera to present the cultural realities and social circumstances of individuals and communities I choose to engage as seen through their own eyes. Tunde is known for his great movies such as Dazzling Mirage, Maami, Sidi Ilujinle, Abeni, Narrow Path, Saworo de, Agogo Eewo, Oleku, Ti Oluwa nile, etc. The latest movies include the
