The much awaited and highly anticipated iREPRESENT, the biggest documentary film festival on the West African Coast with the theme #Change- Documentary Films as Agent Provocateur kicked off on Thursday 24th March 2016 in grand style.
The festival which is being held at the Freedom Park, Lagos was a host to notable international guests such as Prof Manthia Diawara, Prof Niyi Coker, Steve Markovitz, Jean Mote, Camilla Nielsson amongst others
In his welcome speech, Director of iRep, Mr Femi Odugbemi said that when people hear the word change, they immediately think about the Nigerian politics. He emphasized that change should not just come from the government, but also from the people.
Over 30 carefully selected international films will be screened at the festival and one of the films showcased at the opening of the festival was a 62 minutes documentary titled: Kenya: A Guidebook to Impunity by Maina Kiai. Following was Documentary as Agent Provocateur by Jane Mote which showed the ability of documentaries to effect change in the society. Another documentary that was screened during the opening of the Festival was H.I.D. Awolowo; The Legend, The Legacy by Dare Akpata which was a film on the life of the late H.I.D Awolowo, the wife of the also late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Premier of the then Western Nigeria. Also Negritude: A Dialogue between Senghor and Wole Soyinka by Prof Manthia Diawara and another notable documentary that was screened was The Democrats by Camilla Nielsson. It is a film that shows the process the Zimbabwean government went through before creating and passing into bill their national constitution.
During the event, Prof Wole Soyinka who was a guest at the festival and also featured in one of the documentaries was presented with a gift by the members of iRep.
The Festival continues till Sunday 27th of March.
See Pictures Below
