iREP Director Femi Odugbemi

iREP docufest is March 21 in Lagos

The 2013 edition of iREPRESENT (iREP) International documentary film festival will hold from March 21^st to March 24th 2012 at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island and Freedom Park, Broad Street, Lagos, Nigeria. The annual festival according to the iREP Executive Director and co-founder Femi Odugbemi will feature over 30 screenings of films addressing different aspects of the festival core theme from filmmakers from across the Diaspora.  Odugbemi disclosed that the 2013 edition would also feature panel discussions, a session on Project Pitching and a Producers Round-table. The theme of the festival as Odugbemi informed is conceptualized on the framework of Africa in Self Conversation’ and it is expected to explore the theme of ‘Reconnection’ which was inspired by the famous quote by the late Ghanaian leader and statesman Kwame Nkrumah “I am not African because I was born in Africa, but because Africa was born in me’. However the scope of the iREP Festival as Odugbemi said, would cover such areas “as the need for rediscovery – spiritually, morally, socially, politically and economically – a reconnection with our true identity and values, and the potential of this resulting awareness to be used as a tool for reshaping the African nation”. The former President of the Independent Producers Association of Nigeria (ITPAN) who hinted that the Dean of African Studies of the New York University Professor Awam Amkpa would deliver the keynote speech maintained that the discourse of the African identity begs for more than mere rhetoric of race and space. He described Africa as a world that is alive in every African, at the most misunderstood and abandoned, yet, it is undeniably present. Information on festival can be sourced at www.irepfilmfestival.com. I-Represent International Documentary Film Festival is an annual festival dedicated to promoting awareness about the power of documentary films to serve as a means of deepening and sharing social and cultural education as well as encouraging participatory democracy in our societies.