By Editor
Film makers, film critics, scholars and journalists were all present to grace the Lekki Film Summit 2023 which was opened on Monday, this week.
The 4-day programme entitled ‘It’s A New Day’, the theme for the opening day conference, sought to secure international cooperations and co-productions among film makers.
The main speaker, Dante Tanikie-Montagnani, a British film maker, who spoke on the topic “A Handshake Across The Atlantic”, stated that cooperation across regions has not only become necessary but imperative.
According to him, there are so many stories connecting societies and regions which are yet untold or are begging to be told.
Film in his view is a vehicle to promoting cultures and healthier international relationships and to do less is for the medium to pall and fail in one of its primary callings.
Tanikie-Montagnani said he had fallen in love with Africa for a very long time, long before he became involved with the film culture.
He said he believed African culture and people have something that is palpable but not easily describable and he was always fascinated and desirous of becoming connected.
After working in Europe and cooperating crew-wise across the European hemisphere, his opportunity came when he had the chance to produce a documentary on the Masai people of Kenya.
The film which was well received proved to be a very costly experience. It took a toll on his health while filming in the jungle more than six hours outside Nairobi and participating in the mundane, the spiritual and everyday life of the people.
He revealed that he was also very glad to adopt a son of Masai origion in the course of his work in the region who incidentally was the same age as his own son born in the Uk. They were also born on the same day.
The speaker assured the audience that film making is very tough business and only the tough can survive in it . He said this sometimes leads to legal strictures and problems.
Participants asked the film maker about the role or consideration of an audience in the making of a film. How he navigates meeting expectations of film financiers and sponsors and on whether it was still possible to practice Art For Art’s Sake in the film art. His response was that those who commission or finance productions already have an idea of the kind of director they are hiring or co-producing with.
They acquaint themselves with their philosophy and worldview so, in the end there would be no big problems. He confessed that he was not big on audience consideration while scripting or filming. He tries to find his own true self in the work and thinks perceptive audiences will always find meaning in a story well told.
A female film maker who also works in the UK was particularly interested in his view about the imperativeness or otherwise of a film maker beginning from a film school. The speaker favoured the foundations offered by film training institutes even though he himself never attended one.
The session was moderated by Dapo Adeniyi, the director of Lekki International Film Festival who is himself a producer and a director, responsble for the adaptation and production of Ake, the childhoid memoir by the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka currently on Amazon Prime.
The Summit continues on Tuesday with Sam Uche Anyamele a well known film and television actor and Augista Okon an entertainment attorney, also formerly of Filmhouse and Filmone, as main speakers.
