Femi Odugbemi: Righting the Future and Wole Soyinka’s Legacy 

Can the parameters of conversations about the past be about shaping the future, instead of relitigating? This provocative question forms the core of the upcoming 14th edition of the i-Represent International Documentary Film Festival (iREP). Co-founder and executive director, Femi Odugbemi, sheds light on the need to steer these talks toward future prospects, and the festival’s decision to honour Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka’s enduring legacy, Vanessa Obioha writes   

During the 2023 general election, a plethora of political conversations ensued, most of them vitriolic in nature. Arguments about ethnic divides, generational gaps in governance and leadership, and the pervasive spread of corruption, among other contentious topics dominated public discourse. These discussions continue to reverberate today as the nation contends with the harsh realities of economic hardship.

Despite delving into the mistakes of the past, these chatters often lacked a forward-thinking, progressive nature, as expressed by co-founder and executive director of i-Represent International Documentary Film Festival (iREP), Femi Odugbemi during a recent interview at his office in Lekki. According to him, these discussions tend to echo sentiments of self-victimisation and a tendency to allocate blame without providing clear direction on how to navigate towards a better future.

“History is only important to the extent that it guides the future,” he said. “Right now, there are many merchants of doom and gloom who find it their pastime to simply keep talking about why we will never make it and it’s important to note that you cannot prosper from a space that you detest. There is something about the national energy and national vibe that we need to somehow develop, and it has to be grown among the intellectual capital and the young people of our country. The young people of our country have to understand that every generation actually has a responsibility.”

It is against this backdrop that Odugbemi, a prominent filmmaker and film scholar alongside his partners, Makin Soyinka and Jahman Anikulapo are focusing the theme of the upcoming 14th edition of iREP on ‘Righting the Future,’ a clever play on words that highlight the importance of both writing and making the course of the future right.

“The past is done. We can’t do much about the past, but we can take vital information from the past to reshape the future. Everything we’ve done wrong in the past, we can right them going forward. And that’s really why it’s so critical for us to have a conversation that says, can the parameters of conversations about our past be about shaping the future, not about relitigating the past?”

In his view, constantly revisiting the past in a regressive manner will only result in a sense of despair and pessimism, and further show the lack of imagination engineering. He illustrated this point by contrasting Nigeria’s economic trajectory with that of Singapore. Despite Nigeria’s abundant resources and similar economic indicators to Singapore in the 1960s, Odugbemi pointed out that the nation struggled to overcome its economic challenges due to a lack of visionary leadership.

“The resources were merely used to placate the past. We were used to redistributing wealth to create an advantage for a particular section, using the resources to fight for positions and the whole country did not quite create a vision and a Nigerian narrative that we could all buy into. Absence of imagination engineering brought us to a place where when resources are no longer available in the quantity that we used to have, we discover that we are absent of ideas.”

Therefore, he considered ‘Righting the Future’ as a conscious approach to problem solving.

“It is prioritising the future and a Nigerian story. It is imagination engineering about how to bring all of us into a space where we are all stakeholders, where we agree on how we write the future by ameliorating the pains of the past.”

iREP serves as fertile ground for these crucial conversations to take root and flourish. Over the years, the documentary film festival has earned an enviable reputation as a distinguished forum for intellectual discourse on arts and socio-political issues. Here, intellect reigns supreme as the realms of arts and academia converge to deliberate and champion a brighter future for the African continent. iREP stands as the most prominent documentary film festival in West Africa, showcasing films from across the continent and beyond. Additionally, it facilitates engaging discussions among scholars and offers training programmes for young creatives.

The vaunted status of iREP is a testament to the dedication and hard work of Odugbemi, Soyinka, and Anikulapo. Their shared passion for the arts, coupled with their appreciation for fine wine (and whiskey), has transformed the festival into an intellectual hub, attracting film producers, directors, actors, artists, and scholars alike, all seeking meaningful avenues through which the arts can make a tangible impact on society.

For the upcoming edition scheduled from March 21 to 24, iREP will present a diverse selection of over 45 films in both long and short formats. These screenings will take place at two venues: Freedom Park, in Lagos Island, and Alliance Française, Mike Adenuga Centre in Ikoyi. The films have been meticulously curated from 25 countries, including Brazil, Afghanistan, and Nigeria, and include the opening film ‘Loot and the Lost Kingdom’ by Gbemi Shasore, as well as the Nigerian premiere of ‘Madu,’ Disney’s first Nigerian original documentary co-directed by Nigerian filmmaker Joel Benson.

These films, according to Odugbemi, were thoughtfully selected to reflect the theme.

“There are fascinating films that surround innovation, education, investment in the creative economies, and how we harness the  talents of our young people as pathways to righting the future.” There are also films depicting historical events, as noted by Odugbemi, which demonstrate how our diversity can serve as a source of strength. However, he expressed a particular passion for documentaries that advocate for production and imagination engineering as a pathway to the future.

Odugbemi, a cerebral filmmaker boasting multiple awards and membership in prestigious international film and TV academies such as the Academy Awards (the Oscars), perceives documentary filmmaking as a powerful instrumentality of truth.

“Truth is about healing, about bringing everyone together, taking all our capacities and marshalling them in a place where we are all headed in the same direction. Truth is not about politics. Politics is important as a place of ideas but righting the future is more than politics. It is about a national energy that aggregates towards a vision.”

Beyond this, Odugbemi underscored the potential of documentaries to spark debates and discussions, likening them to the original social media space. However, he stressed that within this space, there are rules of engagement.

“The first thing to understand about documentaries is that history is important, opinion is free, but facts are sacred. Whatever your point of view in an argument, superior logic and commitment should supersede things like personal opinion, uncouth language, and tribal sentiments. All these things have crawled into our public discourse through social media, and they are making our capacity to write our future an impossible task.”

iREP 2024 holds significant importance as it commemorates the legacy of the revered literary icon and activist, Prof. Wole Soyinka, as he enters the nonagenarian cycle.

“We think he is a symbol that the young people need to emulate. The capacity to question authority must come pari passu with a personal commitment to the future of that entity called Nigeria,” said Odugbemi.

“Prof. Soyinka is accomplished in his own right. He is the first Nobel Prize winner of literature in Nigeria and he has been a lecturer and professor across the world. If he never uttered a word about Nigeria, he would have lived a fulfilled life. He has prospered in his individual capacity, he is celebrated across the world. He could live in any country that he wishes and he will be adored wherever he goes, but he understands something about his responsibility to the land of his birth.”

He continued: “He understands the office of Citizen and I feel there are many things to learn from him. He has taken to arms before to force change. He has contributed as the founding director of the Road Safety Corps. He has been an interventionist in politics, he has confronted dictatorships like the late Gen. Sani Abacha but one of the things I find constantly fascinating about him is that he has understood that there is a personal price to pay. He spent three years in solitary confinement, pushing, confronting the government of the day, questioning, trying to open the space for democracy, for fundamental rights to be a part of the body politics of Nigeria. And to imagine that the democracy that allows us today for our voices to be heard, whether it’s on social media, or whatever, was fought for.

“Some people died because of it. They were not hiding behind the keyboards. They were not just people who had English to speak.  They were sent into exile. They were pursued. People paid a price and for me, how we engage our public discourse, how we converse, how we talk about the future, has to be in a dialogue, a language, a tone and in a perspective that recognises the sacrifices that have been previously made. So whether you’re right or wrong, whether your opinions are strong or soft, there has to be respect. Part of that is addressing the toxicity of our public discourse.”

Two days have been set aside to honour Soyinka at Alliance Française with screenings and conversations celebrating his lasting legacy.

By bringing up these conversations at iREP, Odugbemi believes that the Nigerian narrative can be written with the right vision for the future.