IN July 1990, Maroko a bustling slum settlement in the heart of Lagos faced a mass eviction by the government. Over 300,000 people were rendered homeless at dawn by roaring bulldozers. With nowhere to go a family must find desperate means for their survival.
This is stark story of state-backed elite greed, avarice, and oppression of the masses by the rich and powerful, is the focus of reflection today at the Realtime International Film Festival (RTF), the 8-day film festival, which began Saturday, August 20.
Released in 2006, Maroko will be screened at 7pm today at the Freedom Park, by Broad Street, Lagos Island, in the ‘Nollywood Classics’ segment of the 7th edition of the annual Realtime International Film Festival.
Beautifully told with in expressive cinematography and great performances by the sterling cast, including Ayo Lijadu, Bukky Wright, among others, Maroko, (produced through support of Nigeria’s Oil & Gas Publications), is a multiple award-winning film by Femi Odugbemi, the renowned Storyteller and Content Creator, who, due to his usually socially-conscious photographic and film works, is regarded as a well-motivated conscientious content creator, with strong intellectual base. Known mostly as an adherent documentary filmmaker, whose other feature works include, Abobaku, Gidi Blues, Eve and others, Odugbemi, founder of Zuri24 Medi, will be present at the screening to field questions from the audience.
THE week-long screenings of “Nollywood Classics” continues tomorrow, Wednesday, August 24, will feature Campus Queen and Thunderbolt – both by the ace cinematographer, Tunde Kelani, who is also expected to be present to have conversation with the filmmakers.
The ‘Nollywood Classics’ segment, “has been designed to act as a “connector between generations of filmmakers”, and as well as “bridge the gaps often seen within several film traditions and ethnicities,” according to the founder/director of the festival, Stanlee Ohikhuare.
The classic films will be showcased mostly at Freedom Park, the old historical colonial prison, which has become the most important centre for cultural production and expression in the city of Lagos. This is a deliberate move by the organisers to properly locate the films in the glorious past of then Nigerian films.
Launched yesterday, Monday, August 23, with ‘Vigilante’ (1988) and Ose Sango (1991) produced by the filmic Adesanya brothers – Adedeji and Afolabi, the former Managing Diretcor of Nigerian Film Corporation, NFC, who after the screening, had a riveting engagement with the audience, comprising fellow Nigerian filmmakers and a few of the international participants in the festival.
Other “classics” films in the segment, which is running throughout the duration of the festival, are: Hostages (1 hr. 56 mins; 1997), directed by Tade Ogidan for OGD Pictures; The Kingmaker (2002), directed by Fred Amata, produced by Olu and Joke Jacobs, for Lufodo Productions; and Heritage (89mins; 2003), written, directed, and produced by Ladi Ladebo for Ladi Ladebo Productions.
Festival founder and Director of RTF, Stanlee Ohikhuare, said the films showing in the segment
“have been specially selected to show the various tendencies of the basis of what is today known as the Nollywood film production aesthetics.”
Added the multi-skilled filmmaker and festival director, “Importantly, the selected films will serve as educational and mentoring tools for the pool of young filmmakers who may never have encountered them or their makers, and who form the bulk of the festival’s participants and patrons.
Continued Ohikhuare: “The plan is to use the edition to pay tribute to the “labour of the heroes past” by showcasing high points of the glorious moments in the chequered journeys of the Nigerian cinema. “This will be done through the showcasing of some of the films that made a huge and impactful impression in the 1990s through the 2000s before the now famous ‘Nollywood’ came to formally acquire its name and current character.”
Further details on the full programming content of the festival can be seen at www.realtimefilmfestival.com.
