As preparations for the 2024 edition of the annual iREPRESENT International Documentary Film Festival (iREP) scheduled to be held from March 21 – 24 on-site at the Freedom Park Lagos Island, and Alliance Francaise, Mike Adenuga Centre Ikoyi, and virtually, reaches a crescendo, the organisers have released a list of films that would headline the festival.
The Programme Directorate in the run-up to the festival listed 10 new, and relatively new films that would be headlining the festival, mostly drawn from Nigeria, and other African countries contributing to the festival.
Most of the films selected were produced between 2023 and 2024. They include MADU, recently signed on by Disney; LOOT and the Lost Kingdoms; The Fuji Documentary; KI’MON: The Eastern Nigeria Afro-funk Revolution 1970-1980, among others.
According to the Directorate, the released programme schedule is, however, for the main section of the festival. It promised to release adjunct schedules for the satellite venues around four major suburbs of Lagos.
The satellite screening centres fall under the purview of the ‘Inner City Screening’ project, a community extension service which the iREP Secretariat launched in the 2023 edition. The aim is to “spread the influence of documentary films to the underserved communities.’
In 2023 the pilot scheme screened films and held conversations at partner centres in Ikorodu, Bariga, Ajegunle and Ejigbo.
Dubbed the ‘Soyinka Edition’, with the theme ‘Righting The Future’, this year’s iREP was designated 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, who 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.
The Soyinka section will cover two days of the festival and will be staged at the Alliance Francaise, Mike Adenuga Centre. The day one keynote on Righting The Future: Soyinka & His Engagements will be delivered by the writer, filmmaker, cultural theorist, scholar, art historian, and Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Film at New York University, Prof Manthia Diawara. He is the writer and director of Negritude: A Dialogue between Wole Soyinka and Leopold Senghor.
The second-day keynote on the humanistic ideals of Soyinka as reflected in his works will be delivered by the Dean of Arts and Humanities, Vice Provost at the New York University, NYUAD, and Global Network Professor of Drama, Social and Cultural Analysis, NYU New York, Professor Awam Amkpa.
Each keynote will be followed by a panel discussion and screenings of films related to Soyinka’s career. The 2024 edition’s theme, Righting The Future, is deliberately chosen to instigate conversation between the present and the future of the continent and 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. \
iREP International Documentary Film Festival serves as an educational and cultural platform, harnessing the influence of film and related industries to encourage public engagement in the developments of their socio-cultural and political environments.
The overarching objective of the iREP aims to raise awareness about the documentary format’s potential to deepen and share social and cultural education, while also fostering participatory democracy in our societies.
