Showing posts with label Nigerian filmmaker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nigerian filmmaker. Show all posts

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Nigerian filmmaker competes for the Golden Stallion of Yennenga at 2011 FESPACO



A scene from “Restless City”. New York based Nigerian filmmaker Andrew Dosunmu’s Restless City is among the 18 films competing for the Golden Stallion of Yennenga, the most coveted prize at the 22nd Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) in the melodramatic Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso from February 26 – March 5, 2011. The golden “Étalon de Yennenga” (Stallion of Yennenga) symbolizes the legendary founder of the 11th century Mossi empire of Burkina Faso and is awarded to the best feature film.

The winner in 2009 was the Ethiopia born director Haile Gerima for his movie “Teza”. Newton I Aduaka of Nigeria won it in 2007 with his “Ezra”, a riveting film on blood diamonds and child soldiers in Sierra Leone.

Other special awards include the Oumarou Ganda Prize, given for the best first film, and the Paul Robeson Prize for the best film by a director of the African diaspora.

“Restless City” is Andrew Dosunmu’s first feature film. It tells the story of an African immigrant surviving on the fringes of New York City where music is his passion, life is a hustle and falling in love is his greatest risk.
Djibril, an aspiring young musician from Senegal, lives in New York. Although he dreams of greatness, imagining the day his own child might be president of the United States, his path is unstructured, and he glories in the chaos of the street. When Djibril meets Trini, a prostitute under the control of Bekay, the local loan shark, his life assumes new purpose and momentum; however, whether Djibril and Trini can outrun Bekay’s nefarious influence is another story.

The other Nigerian filmmakers at the biennial pan-African event are Mak Kusare with “Champions of our time” Kunle Afolayan with “The Figurine” in the 24 entries for the TV and video films category, Didi Cheeka, a founding Director of AlternativCinema with “Bloodstones” and Julius Morno with “The Camera” in the short film category.

Another major news is the premiere of “Ouaga Paradiso,” a 52-minute documentary on African cinema.

There are 111 films in competition – including 18 feature films, 13 short films, 22 documentaries, 37 TV and video productions, 10 films from the African diasporas and 11 student films.



Click here to read the complete report



Monday, June 7, 2010

Nigerian filmmaker wins Best Film Prize at 14th Ecrans Noire Film Festival in Cameroun


Chike Ibekwe

Nigerian filmmaker wins Best Film Prize at 14th Ecrans Noire Film Festival in Cameroun

Chike Ibekwe’s Eternal shared the best film prize at the 14th annual “Ecrans noirs” Film Festival in Yaounde (Cameroon) last Saturday.
Chike Ibekwe’s Eternal was the only Nigerian film in competition with other outstanding features from France, Haiti, and other countries but it came out tops.

Eternal, the 94 minutes film tells the unforgettable story of Dozie and Chima, two faithful Nigerian friends who were soldiers with the ECOMOG mission in West Africa and after returning from the peacekeeping operation in Sierra Leone, they went to a social event. But on the way back, Chima was struck by a car and died on the spot. Dozie was heartbroken as he mourned the loss of his dearest buddy until one day the ghost of his faithful companion Chima inhabited his body to continue their eternal bond.


Chike got funding support from France to shoot Eternal. The film was selected and screened at Film festival d’armiens in France in 2008 and also at ZUMA Film festival in Nigeria in 2008. He is currently working on his second film Letter to the Professor featuring Prof. Wole Soyinka, the first African Nobel laureate in Literature.

Chike Ibekwe is a hardworking filmmaker/producer and writer. He created, produced and directed OFF CAMPUS a TV Sitcom series.