Artistic director talks importance of diversity, selection process

Aduaka had an interesting conversation with Pulse Nigeria about the 2017 AFRIFF, diversity in film selection, the growth of the Nigerian film industry, his favourite AFRIFF moment yet, and the challenges that comes with organizing AFRIFF.

Read interview below.

On the importance of diversity in AFRIFF's selection

I think diversity is important, first of all, because pan-African cinema is as wide as from Lagos to India. It's really about what we tend to see in the political sense as black cinema.

I always felt that for me, Pan-African cinema is the most diverse. It's more diverse than the American cinema, it's more diverse than the European cinema.

It [AFRIFF 2017 selection] was just an attempt to show that range of diversity. But more than that, It was a challenge to find strong films to actually cover that diversity, but that was the mission.

On the selection process

We received over 3000 films (unsolicited). I also solicited for some films. I went through to see what films were out that weren't submitted but are interesting.

We have a pre-selection committee that would watch everything and bring it down to a sizeable amount of films. This is where I come in. At this stage, we had about 400 films and I watched most of it except the ones that I felt were out of the vision that I was trying to put across in terms of themes, subject and genres.

On the growth of the Nigerian cinema

Someone said something very drastic: 'cinema is dead.' But I don't believe that. If I believed that, I might as well dig a hole and bury myself. I went to film school and studied this, and this is my life.

But it (Cinema) is changing, it is transforming, and it is transforming because of a lot of technical possibilities. The equipments are more accessible.

When people say cinema is dying, they are talking about cinema houses because people are watching everything with all kind of devices, but there are still the die-hards.

And I think its funny because there's an inverse thing going on where cinemas are closing in Europe and America, but what's interesting is that across Africa, cinema is getting a resuscitation and there are cinemas being built here and there.

I hope that we can take up that mantle and bring back that shared experience of sitting in a space with 200, 300 people. There's something about that feeling.

Something interesting is also happening on the aesthetic side. There's new aesthetics being developed. Some of them are very crude, but it's okay. It's like vernacular and pidgin English: it fits into the system and it influences and enriches.

New voices are coming in and asserting themselves, new cultures that never had a representation are forcing their way into it [cinema], and they deserve to. Once we didn't have a voice, we were always being talked about, but now we do and that's a powerful thing.

The question now is: what are we talking about ourselves? With Nollywood, the technique is better, but at some point, you ask yourself: what are we really talking about? And that's ultimately what concerns me.

On how AFRIFF has influenced the growth of Nollywood

It has given a major platform. AFRIFF is a major platform and it's miraculous because it's like quantum speed - it's seven years. We have Carthage which is 1966, we have Fespaco which is 1969, we have DIFF, and AFRIFF has caught up in terms of ambition and vision of what it sets itself out to do. It has taken like a leap forward, and it's a good thing.

We need more International festivals. We have a lot of festivals, but festivals have standards - there's A-List, B-List and so on. But AFRIFF is really trying to position itself as an A-List festival, and that's a very difficult thing. It's a process, but what has been achieved so far is incredible and applaudable.

On most memorable AFRIFF moment

Last year, I was the President of the jury. It was really impressive for me to see "76," and also to learn the process of what went into making it.

But for the first time, I saw a film of a calibre that is made by a director with a passion and a filmmaker that understands the subtleties of the language of cinema, and a cinematography that is comparable to anything else you have ever seen, and performances that's on par with anything else.

Also, I was blown away by what I encountered; just the way the whole thing was organized and set up. It's a classy festival, it has aspirations for something classy.

On most challenging thing about running a festival as big as AFRIFF

Funding. It needs support. It's a huge machine. It doesn't look like it when people see what's happening, but there's a huge machine of people working very very hard.

The team is really tight and that's what attracted me when I was offered the position of the artistic director. They are very sharp and professional. It takes money to do stuff like this.

Chioma Ude [AFRIFF founder] is commendable. We hear it all the time, but I just want to add to that chorus. When her mind is set, she goes... Those are all the things that impressed me, but it needs funding.

The 2017 AFRIFF is currently going on, and will end on Saturday, November 4, 2017.