The 2024 edition of the iREP International Documentary Film Festival will hold March 21 to 24. The project, which is being implemented by the Foundation for Promotion of Documentary Film Festival in Africa (FPDFA), will also be hosted in virtual format. Founded in 2010, the iREP Festival has the founding generic theme Africa in Self-Conversation, which encourages cross-exchanges of ideas and developmental aspirations among the diverse peoples of Africa and the global black family. A statement by Femi Odugbemi, Executive Director of iREP informed that the 2024 edition of the festival, will feature conversations, screenings, workshops, networking sessions, and other related activities.
The Explainer learnt that over 45 films are expected to be screened at the two venues hosting the festival this year. The venues are Freedom Park, and Alliance Francaise. The films – short and long features — have been drawn from largely Nigerian filmmakers and their counterparts from 25 countries in four continents, who submitted their entries via Filmfreeway. However, there are also some specially curated films selected for the festival, some of which have made the round of international festival circuits and have won awards around the world.
According to the organizers, the theme of the 2024 edition’s, Righting The Future was deliberately chosen to instigate conversation between the present and the future of the continent. The festival also encourages deeper dialogue between the young people and their elders. The provocative theme is set in the context of happenings in Nigeria’s season of political anomalies, as well as the leadership failures in many countries of the continent.
iREP 2024 has also been designated as “the Soyinka edition” to commemorate the 90th birthday anniversary of Africa’s first Nobel laureate for literature, Professor Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka. The iREP described Soyinka as an embodiment of 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.
“Over the past six decades and more, he has consistently deployed his intellectual acumen and personal resources to defend human values and the fundamentality of the freedom of the individual to resist oppression. He is renowned for having also displayed a high degree of patriotic zeal to clamour for good governance and participatory democracy by citizens of the country, even at grave risks to his personal comfort and career.
“For his tenacious hold to his convictions, he has sometimes run into problems with consecutive state authorities and certain sections of the society. But he remains steadfast in his self-imposed battles to always right the wrongs he perceives in his social, cultural and political environments. These are the values and virtues, iREP hopes to spotlight and celebrate at the 2024 festival with the intention to assure members of the social milieu that they can hold on to their beliefs and convictions without being herded by the mob.”
According to the program for the 2024 iREP, the Soyinka section of the festival will cover two days 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 Prof Manthia Diawara, writer, filmmaker, cultural theorist, scholar, art historian, and distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Film at the New York University. 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 Professor Awam Amkpa, 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. Each keynote will be followed by a panel discussion and screenings of films related to Soyinka’s career.
According to its profile, the iREP International Documentary Film Festival describes itself as a convening that serves as an educational and cultural platform, harnessing the influence of film and related industries to encourage public engagement in the developments of their sociocultural 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.
