Calabar comes alive as AFRIFF begins

By BENJAMIN NJOKU

The ancient city of Calabar, the Cross River State capital will come alive again this Sunday as African movie stars and stakeholders converge there for this year’s edition of the prestigious Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), holding at Tinapa Business and Leisure Resort, Calabar.

Already,the organisers have relocated to Calabar ahead of tomorrow’s opening of the festival. A series of topical issues, according to insiders, have been chosen for the industry sessions in this year’s edition.

The festival, which holds from November 9 through 16, will run for five week days. Actors, filmmakers, film marketers, distribution houses and various professional guilds in the entertainment industry will gather at different venues to chart a new course for African cinema.

Meanwhile, festival Manager, AFRIFF, Ikenna Ezenyirioha, revealed that the industry sessions are an integral part of the festival that cannot be ignored, adding that professionals in different fields will be on hand to host different classes.

According to him, the sessions are the artistic and business sides of showbiz, which are essential to the development of the creative non-oil sector of the economy. He noted that this will bring about the right skills and attitude as well as open up business deals, networking and possible collaborations among the filmmakers that will be attending the festival.

Some of the great subjects to be explored by the festival include, Acting laboratory – Acting with integrity, to be hosted by notable producer/director, Mildred Okwo and Adapting African literature for screen- A cinematic goldmine, to be handled by an army of industry bests such as Jude Idada, a screenwriter, playwright and novelist; Tunde Kelani, foremost cinematographer; Yemi Akintokun, a movie director; Jane Maduegbena, a lawyer and mobile application expert and Jeremy Weate of Cassava Republic publishing outfit.

Other sessions will include Art of Film Criticism, a conversation about the work and art of a film critique to be handled by Don Omope, Editor of African Screens Magazine and Shaibu Husseini of Nigeria’s Guardian newspaper; Demystifying Distribution in Nigeria, to be hosted by Gab Okoye (Gabosky), Chichi Nworah, Uwem Jacobs and Kene Mkparu of FilmHouse among others.

The week-long event will also treat topics like Going International…, a window to major festival circuit; Nollywood Alert, information platform for film industry on health and development; The Restless Pitch, a training workshop to be followed by an open, creative live pitching session and Relativity Nollywood Summits on digital distribution and piracy.

- Culled from: http://www.vanguardngr.com