iREP 2025: Femi Odugbemi on In-Conversation and Freedom

The recently concluded iREP International Documentary Film Festival introduced ‘In-Conversation,’ a new segment where filmmakers engage in deeper exchanges about their craft and beliefs. This edition featured Nigerian-Paris-based imagist Andy Okoroafor and Irish filmmaker Ruan Magan, who spoke with iREP Executive Director Femi Odugbemi and Board Chair Dr. Awam Amkpa, respectively. In a chat with Vanessa Obioha, Odugbemi shares the inspiration behind the concept and its link to the festival’s theme.

Can you tell us what In-Conversation is all about?

Documentaries have advanced beyond just the documentation of history or issues or the profiling of people. It is now moving to understanding the filmmaker as an impact factor. In the past, a documentary filmmaker operated like a journalist, investigating beyond the headlines and applying professional competence. But these days, we are trying to create documentary filmmakers who believe they can change the world, who believe in the issue in which they are making a film about, who have what I will call skin in the game, who understand that there are facts, but then there is truth, especially in the political space, where leadership is often about rhetorics and not action. We are hoping to raise conscious filmmakers who are searching for truth, not just facts; filmmakers who want to use their art to make a better country, a better community, and a better world.

To achieve that needs a format that allows the filmmaker to express himself as against interviews per se, where somebody regurgitates answers that might have been rehearsed. Rather, it should be an exchange, an exploration of this person’s belief systems, journey, and artistic tendencies to better understand their films. It’s also an opportunity for two artists to have a conversation, just like Andy and I did.

While we talked about his ‘Relentless’ movie back in the day, he also asked me about my film ‘Maroko,’ which inspired him. I have known Andy for 25 years. He is a big figure in Europe, but he started as a designer and a photographer before he became a filmmaker and is now a publisher. He’s trying to do a lot of work and is a man of strong beliefs and has artistic instincts that are well-protected and preserved.

We also had an In-Conversation between Prof. Awam Amkpa and Ruan Magan, which I found very interesting. They’re both incredibly accomplished performing arts professionals. Ruan has made this Irish dance film that is so metaphorically nuanced and subliminally deep in terms of how Dance is such a soft power in advancing, sustaining, preserving and projecting a culture. It was interesting to see how he used the traditional Irish dance to establish many things, especially trying to sort of draw a line between the English culture and the Irish culture. The fact that the Irish culture is indigenous, it is not the same as the English. Even though they’re small and have been through the same levels of colonialism that we have, it is an expression of the fact that real independence is when you are able to showcase to the world and hold on to everything that makes you you; your history, your worldview, how you dance, how you dress, how you eat, your language, etc. And because Prof. Awam is a performing arts expert who has written a lot about dance and understands our struggles with holding on to our culture in an age and time where the new colonization is through television, it was a very nuanced, beautiful and intelligent exchange between them.

So for us, In-Conversation is about bringing two artists or filmmakers together who are accomplished in different ways and have tackled bigger themes, and exchanging information about how their journey is going. It would also be about them propagating how they see this artistic journey. What are the things that they’re trying to do? What are the things that they have learnt over time? It’s an opportunity for the audience and younger filmmakers to also learn from their mistakes and triumphs and successes. It’s a way to catch up with artists who may not be working at the moment but are maybe in the process of research and development. It’s a way to introduce new projects.

What influences your choice of artists for In-Conversation?

The people we bring for In-Conversation must bring with them a level of accomplishment that shows a body of work that is profound and artistically strong; that they have a body of experiences that if shared, would be valuable to both young and old filmmakers and the audience; that they have a creative philosophy that can be articulated and also sensible enough to embrace the basics of what makes an artist an artist such as the inspiration for their art, the kind of places they go with it, what they are doing now based on the work they’ve done to that point, and that we can also say that they have integrity and have been faithful to their art along the journey.

At iREP we believe that the artists must also believe in the power of their art to do much more than make money: to make meaning. They have to have a body of work that when people look at, they can reflect. We think when we can bring those people and have them have those kinds of conversations, we build our artists and our young people differently. IREP has always been about growing the younger filmmaker, and after 14 years, we are now sort of transiting to a space where we are hoping to inspire their minds to build their artistic philosophy.

Does nationality or gender play a role in your selection of artists?

Not at all. Wherever we can get them in. We will ask as many different kinds. For us, international is the template. It has to be multicultural. Andy lives in Paris, Ruan lives in Ireland. The capacity of the artist to be multicultural and global is a key foundation for In-Conversation because I think it’s very important that these people also are able to speak to what we do not know. Many of us think that the problems of our industry are only in Nigeria, when in fact, many of the same problems are everywhere. Many of the same needs that I think the arts need to be addressed are everywhere. And the difference is never the space, it is always the artist.

What kind of positive feedback has In-Conversation received?

Absolutely positive feedback. The conversation with Andy, for instance, was very positive. We’ve had so much feedback online and offline. A lot of filmmakers, both young and old, thought that Andy was addressing some very interesting thoughts about how to make our films better. He was not speaking in just broad terms, he was talking about design as a critical theme. And for me, what he’s also saying is, you can be a filmmaker, but go and learn design, make your filmmaking better by learning design, learn the mise-en-scène, colours and shades and light. All these things make him who he is globally. The reason why he can succeed internationally is that he’s an imagist, and images are easily translatable.

In talking about the authenticity of our stories, he was saying that if we are more conscious and deliberate about our design, then the African story we’re trying to tell will have more agency and ownership.
For you to design, you have to research, and your research is your pathway to authenticity because, in research, you will also be connecting with people who are of that experience and tradition. And I think he communicated that very wonderfully. He also talked about some of the work he’s doing with some of our great art legends, inspiring us to be more respectful. He discussed being inspired by our local filmmakers, whether it was Tunde Kelani or my film, ‘Maroko.’

How do these artists’ works align with this year’s festival theme, Freedom: Rights and Responsibility?

It’s in the same way and reason we picked some of the films selected for the festival. Freedom is not just about a set of liberties. There is freedom that the state, your community, gives to you, which allows all of us to be more free to be everything that we want to be. But there is freedom you give yourself as well, which means the freedom to be one with nature, the freedom to leave all the stress behind and take off on the run. We see that in the architect features on ‘Limo on the Run.’ He has inspired so many people in Kenya by taking the initiative to leave the stress of the city alone and simply run. And in running, he is able to soak in the utter beauty of the landscapes of Kenya and come to a bigger appreciation of nature. He challenged himself to overcome the odds of a run.

It’s the same thing with dance. It is taking the freedom to explore your identity, to go to the granular and to indulge and embrace, whether it’s your language, your place of birth, your food, your dress, and so on. All of these things are freedoms that you give yourself. I call them freedom from within.

We wanted freedom to be interpreted in different spheres of life so that we don’t locate freedom into something that is always about a fight. Freedom is an interesting thing. It has all your rights, but it also has risks. There are things you are free to do, but I promise you will never do them again. The films we selected were not meant to narrow down what freedom is all about. Many of us are also holding ourselves hostage, and it is not just a physical one. And I say that because when you see ‘Mothers of Chibok,’ you see what the terrorists have done to these women, and you see how the women have chosen not to self-victimize.