The fifth edition of iRepresent International Documentary Film Festival will begin today, March 19 and hold till the 22nd, at Freedom Park, Lagos. It will be held under the theme: ‘Reinventing Documentary Filmmaking in a Digital Space’.
Conceived and organised by the iRepresent Documentary Film Forum, an affiliate of the West African Documentary Film Forum (WDFF), and the Documentary Network Africa (DNA), several international guests are expected from countries like Germany, United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Cameroon, Gabon, South Africa and Kenya, the organisers say.
About 50 films, including the documentary titled, Badagry: A Journey Back in Time, will be screened during the four-day festival, which also offers training sessions, workshops, seminars as well as Master Classes for young, aspiring and already practising filmmakers.
The festival’s Executive Director, Femi Odugbemi said that documentary filmmaking is coming to terms with these new realities and continuously finding hybrid strategies to navigate the ever changing temperament of the digital world that is hip, fun-seeking, chaotic, multi-tasking, and attention sapping.
“For documentary filmmaking, digital technology presents a challenge and an opportunity that would either remarkably transform and redefine what passes as a documentary film or bury the art in its past,” he said.
Badagry: A Journey Back in Time is directed by photographer and broadcaster, Wome Uyeye, and follows a busload of Nigerian tourists on a daylong excursion to Badagry, the historic town situated on the western tip of Lagos.
The documentary is scheduled to screen at the Freedom Park museum (March 19 at 1:09 pm) and at the Goethe Institut, City Hall (March 20 at 9:02 pm).