

IT was a glorious day for three veteran workers in the film industry who have dedicated years of commitment, industry and adherence to excellence to their profession of storytelling and filmmaking as they were given honours at the opening ceremonies of the just-ended 2022 iREPRESENT International Documentary Film Festival, on Thursday, March 21.
Held at the Terra Kulture Arena Victoria Island, Lagos, the opening ceremony attracted well over 400 guests, drawin from across the various segments of the industry. Two honourees were showcased as the best example of what could come out of dedicated services.
The honourees are Deji Adesanya who was 70 earlier this month, Tam Fiofori who would be 80 on June 18 and Olu Jacobs who will be 80 on July 11. The three men are renowned in their different practice, and are easily identified as emeritus Mentors of younger generations of filmmakers.
The iREP, on its 12th edition, said it decided to honour them not just because they have cone of landmark ages, but because they represent the very best of selfless service to the society, even when material reward is not involved.
While the youngest of the honourees, Adesanya renowned for such films as Vigilante, Ose Sango among others, attended personally with his daughter and other members of his family, the veteran actor, Olu Jacobs, who is reputed to have featured in well over 200 films and loads of stage drama, was represented by his equally famous actress wife, Joke Silva, and their son, Soji Jacobs, a director of the family-owned Lufodo Productions, and now a executive director at Glover Memorial Hall managed by Lufodo. The third honouree, the famous photographer, journalist, art manager and filmmaker, Tam Fiofori could not physically attend, but his award was received by three of his associates – the photographer, Jide Adeniyi-Jones; the French culture diplomat and patron, Pascal Ott, and the French language teacher and art patron, Olivier Alfonsi.
Giving context to the theme of the 2022 edition, earlier in his opening address shortly before the honours were conferred, Executive Director of the Foundation for the Promotion of Documentary Film in Africa (promoters of the iREP Festival), Femi Odugbemi, said: “We have to decolonise African stories, we have to decolonise African screens.”

Odugbemi, an ‘Africanist’ and one of the continent’s eminent storyteller and content creators, added, “We don’t need an Eldorado of Africa’s Stories, but we must come to the point where both sides of the stories are told.”
The Day one of the festival had featured a rich line up of resourceful speakers, led by Moky Makura, Executive Director, Africa No Filter who gave the keynote on the theme; Cheryl Uys-Allie,who spoke on the nature of content that Africans ought to be exploring; and Steven Markovitz, co-founder, Encounter Documentary Festival, and the Africa Direct project, a platform through which he encourages young filmmakers to be committed to the cause of telling the true stories of the peoples of the continent.
About the iREP 2022
About 70 films drawn from 28 countries cutting across four continents are featuring in the festival that has become a leading light of documentary film production and expression in West Africa, and by extension the continent of Africa.

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Profiles of Festival Speakers:
MOKY MAKURA

BORN in Nigeria, educated in England, Moky and has lived in London, Johannesburg and Lagos. She has been a TV presenter, producer, author, publisher and a successful entrepreneur in her own right. She is currently the Executive Director of Africa No Filter, a donor collaborative focused on shifting the African narrative. She started her media career as the African Anchor and field reporter for South Africa’s award-winning news and actuality show – Carte Blanche. She conceptualized, co-produced and presented a lifestyle TV series for the pan African pay TV channel MNet called “Living It”, which focused on the lifestyles of the African continent’s wealthy elite. She also played a lead role in the groundbreaking and popular MNet Pan-African drama series Jacob’s Cross. Her book Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs with a foreword written by Richard Branson, featured on the top 10 best-selling business books in South Africa when it launched. Moky has since compiled and published a number of non-fiction titles under her imprint MME Media. Titles include South Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs, Going Global which tells the stories of South Africa’s most successful global companies and a biography of one of its top entrepreneurs; Herman Mashaba, called Black Like You. Moky started a fiction book series called Nollybooks aimed at getting young Africans to read, and then adapted the series for television co-producing over 21 television movies for the South African TV station etv. The books are available on Worldreader, and Okadabooks.
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STEVEN MARKOVITZ
A SOUTH AFRICAN film and television producer, Steven, who has produced, co-produced and executive-produced features, documentaries and short films for over 20 years. He began his career in 1992 and co-founded the production company Big World Cinema in Cape Town in 1994. In 1999, he produced the short film Husk, which premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival; followed by the award-winning It’s My Life (2001), the intimate portrait of South African AIDS activist Zackie Achmat; The Tap won Best South African Documentary at the Apollo Film Festival 2003[8] and Best Production of the Year at the Stone Awards, South Africa. A member of AMPAS, co-founder of Electric South & Encounters Documentary Festival and the founder of the African Screen Network, his recent productions include aKasha by hajooj kuka (Venice Critics’ Week, TIFF, 2018), Rafiki by Wanuri Kahiu (Cannes – Un Certain Regard, 2018), the documentary Silas by Anjali Nayar, Hawa Essuman (TIFF, IDFA 2017), Beats of the Antonov by hajooj kuka[4] (TIFF Documentary Audience Award, 2014), High Fantasy by Jenna Bass[5] (TIFF, Berlinale 2018), Viva Riva! By Djo Munga (TIFF 2010, Berlinale 2011) and Behind the Rainbow. In 2005 he was the executive producer of the feature film Boy called Twist directed by Tim Greene, which screened at the Cannes Film Festival[13] in 2005. This was followed by the animated short film Beyond Freedom, which screened at the Berlin International Film Festival.
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CHERYL UYS-ALLIE
A DOCUMENTARY filmmaker and Television Executive whose 20 year career has spanned Africa and the Middle East where she worked for Sky News, ABC, Reuters, TV Record (Brazil), Aljazeera and MultiChoice Africa. Over two decades she has produced and directed news stories and documentaries covering civil wars in Angola, Mozambique, the genocide in Rwanda, Tsunami in Sri Lanka, to 9/11 response in the Middle East & Afghanistan. She launched TV channels for M-Net (MultiChoice) in Angola, Zambia and South Africa. In 2018 she joined the founding team as the Africa Director for the MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF), an initiative aimed at training passionate young filmmakers across the continent. She remains committed to building partnerships focused on developing the film industry across Africa.
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…Mentoring young African storytellers
THE iREP edition had begun on Monday, March 10 with a 3-day three programme that was aimed at grooming new generation of filmmakers. the training has always been a highlight of the i/rep Festival, and has trained over 200 filmmakers since the festival began 2010.
Conducted by the wave-making director and producer, Emma Edosio-Deelen, whose debut film, Kansala, remains a reference point in the new direction of Nollywood, the training session had as participants, young, fresh and middle career filmmakers who had responded to an earlier call for indication of interest as issued by the iREP Directorate in January.

Profile of the Workshop Leader:
Emamodeviefe Edosio (shortly known as Ema) is a Nigerian director/ cinematographer whose feature comedy “Kasala!” (2018) – set in the slums of Lagos – traveled the global film festival circuit. Ema started her career in filmmaking as an autodidact by shadowing cinematographers in Nigeria’s Nollywood film industry.
Her stunning visuals and poetic feel for light and atmosphere soon enabled her to make a strong impact in the Nigerian film industry. After several years as a freelance cinematographer, Ema obtained admission to the New York Film Academy (NYFA) and the Motion Pictures Institute of Michigan in the United States, where she majored in Cinematography and Directing.
Since then she has worked, amongst others, as a video broadcast journalist for the BBC Africa and Deutsche Welle Germany covering breaking stories across Nigeria, and also a TV director for Nigerian TV networks like Ebony Life TV and Ndani TV. In November 2014, she was granted the Film and Television Director of the Year award by Ebonylife TV.
Her recent film “Kasala!” which is currently on Netflix, has been screened in thirty international film festivals and has won 9 international awards.
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***Extension services to the industry through partnership


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About IREP

iREP is organised by the Foundation for the Promotion of Documentary Film in Africa, and is in collaboration with the San Diego, US-based African World Documentary Film Festival, AWDFF, with partnership support from German Films, AgDok, Goethe Institut Lagos, among other local and international organisations.
With its conceptual framework remaining faithful to “Africa in Self-Conversation,” the theme for the 2022 edition is UNFILTERED: African Stories. Stories from Africa. The idea is to focus on how Africa is being represented or otherwise by filmmakers and storytellers who engage her issues.
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