OPENING ADDRESS AT THE 6TH IREPRESENTED INTERNATIONAL

DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/CO-FOUNDER

FEMI ODUGBEMI ON 24TH MARCH 2016 AT FREEDOM PARK LAGOS.

On behalf of the IREP Directors, I am really excited to welcome you to the 6th
edition of the IREP documentary film festival.
Thank you for coming.
We want to give a special Lagos welcome to our very special guests Keynote
Speaker Jane Mote, Prof Manthia Diawara, Prof. Niyi Coker, Andy Jones, Peter Heller,
Prof. Awam Amkpa, Paul Reith, Julian Riech, Steven markovitz, Barbel Mauch, Viola
Shafik and Barbara Off.

I also thank our wonderful friends and partners, Freedom Park, Goethe Institute, the
Africa World Documentary Film Festival, Afrinolly Space, British Council, Multichoice,
Africa Magic, German films, AGdok, Dok.Fest, AV EDGE, Ford Foundation and a host
of individual supporters who help to make IREP happen. On behalf of all of us, we
Thank to you.

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This year we continue with the framework that has powered the conversations at
IREP since its inception- "Africa in self-conversation."
An important strand of that conversation forms the theme of this year's festival #CHANGE - Documentary as agent provocateur.

Simply put, #CHANGE is about connecting our emerging vibrant cinema and
creative industries to the realities of our communities. It is about impact filmmaking.
It is about embracing the power and promise of documentary to do more than
archive history, but to facilitate history. We are delighted to present close to 50 films
in 3 venues that show in different ways the essence of this theme.

Today Africa's journey to political maturity is best expressed by the fact that
democracy is beginning to find has its feet across the continent. There is now a
clear rejection of coups and military tyranny, despots and People power, the
essence of democracy's promise, has also been demonstrated in a more vibrant
contest of ideologies and political activism.

Clearly, the people of Africa are keen for democracy to mean something more than
an opportunity to choose political leaders or political ideologies. They want a
democracy that translates to development, improvements in their quality of lives,
better education, better healthcare, better economy, constitutional guarantees of
their liberty and freedom in their pursuit of purpose and prosperity.
This year's IREP festival comes at a time when it is most important to take the
African storytelling experience to a new level of reckoning and celebration.

The post-colonial issues of identity and inequitable sharing of economic resources

have created constant tensions and armed conflicts in many of Africa's nations, with
devastating impact on politics, governance and development. The landscape in
countries where bitter civil war and armed struggle raged for decades is littered
with experiences needing articulation especially as regards its impact on young
people. In countries like Nigeria the absence of armed conflict has not always meant
peace, given the violence and corruption of our politics and its adverse effects
development.

The dimensions of documentary as a tool for deepening experiences and mediating

history makes it a powerful tool to unpack what we need to grow our nascent
democracies.

The proliferation of digital equipment and the ease of use of modern camera
equipment has created immense activity in the fiction-film genre amongst the
young and restless across the continent. Nollywood in Nigeria is now a globally
acknowledged phenom that has engaged the attention of audiences, scholars and
filmmakers across the world with guerrilla filmmaking styles and street theatre
content. Because it is articulating the socio-cultural and political experiences of
Nigeria, some have argued makes them as well, in some form, documentary.

In reality however, a fiction film has a different contract with the viewer than a
documentary. Fiction promises entertainment first and reflection second. In fiction
you invite the viewer to suspend disbelief. It is an invitation to go into an
imaginative world. Documentaries offer reflections first and foremost.
It invites debate.

Perhaps therefore the foundational value of the process of engaging in this

discourse is to project the question of WHICH CINEMA FOR AFRICA? Clearly Africa
needs cinema that does more than entertain. We need cinema that deepens
democracy, strengthens Governance structures, advocates responsibility, elevates
accountability, fights diseases poverty and illiteracy.

The critiques of corruption, poor governance, ethnic divisions, economic paralysis

can find a stronger footing if filmmakers turn their cameras on the issues of
realities. These are issues of depression for the viewers.

But there also issues of INSPIRATION:

We need to interrogate the evolution of cultural identities fostered by globalization.
What are the Influences of new technologies?
We need to reflect on Issues of Civil societies and the emerging economies of
Africa? What is our development ideology? Development is a conscious agenda that
requires mass mobilization. Documentaries is and must be at the centre of that
conversation.

The complication of documentary of course is the intersection between art and

activism. The perspectives of the filmmaker is formed by his background, heritage
and experiences. Objectivity is remote. The answers offered are a function of the
questions asked. It is possible to distort the answer by the question. The narrative of
reality and "truth" does not allow for simple answers. But because its content is
about shared experiences, its capacity for emotional connections cannot be
contrived. That is why the people of our countries have for so long found the
existing models of propaganda documentary structures offensive. We have to
engender a new consciousness that reframes documentary's image as a tool for the
documentation of personal experiences and an important platform for deepening
our democracy, development and empowering human rights.

We must craft intervention strategies that forge audience engagement and

exposure of the audience to various genres of documentaries that explore
experiences and subjects that align and respects with the hopes, aspirations,
history and cultures of the people of Africa. It is important that the interventions
that emerge are able to create a robust awareness for the power of the
documentary as an important tool in this new century.

The audience have to see documentary as a voice for the people to create the
change they want; to foster "self-conversations" about the state of their
communities and their unique experiences as Africans.

There is a need to find an outlet to document the "truths" of our experiences for
historical purposes and hopefully, the negative chapters of that history, when
documented in powerful narratives, will be slow to repeat itself.

Also as many African communities transform from autocratic regimes to fullform

democracies, there are many gaps of understanding especially in complex issues of
governance, development, accountability and freedom of information. The very
survival of these fragile democracies begs for public engagement tools that
advance understanding and values of transparency, integrity and institutional
development. Documentary today must be about engineering open and more
vibrant democracies.

Thank you.

Femi Odugbemi
24th March 2016.

Femi Odugbemi.
Filmmaker/CEO
DVWorx Studios & Zuri24 Media Lagos.
Co-Founder/Director, I-Rep Documentary Forum.
+234.8034251963
www.dvworxstudios.com
www.irepfilmfestival.com