Nigerian Times

Bruno Chatelin Bruno Chatelin co-founder of filmfestivals.com and the European media partner of Eko International Film Festival has been elected a member of the prestigious board of the European Film Academy (EFA). The announcement of the new board was made by the 2,500 members at the 24th European Film Awards in Berlin on December 3, 2011, where Yves Marmion was reelected as the Chairman of the board. Bruno Chatelin recognized as a leading authority in the motion pictures industry is the former Managing Director of UGC Twentieth Century Fox France, previously with Columbia TriStar Films, France. In 1995, he initiated and managed the joint venture between French major UGC and FOX and led it to the leading position in the French market. Mr. Chatelin brings experience in promotional strategies for interactive media. He has created two commercial websites for small-business entrepreneurs (individuals working from home, or companies with fewer than 10 people). He holds an MBA from HEC ...

Cultures of Resistance: The Official Trailer from Cultures of Resistance on Vimeo . Top Nigerian journalists from both the print and electronic news media were at the first press conference and screening of Iara Lee’s Cultures of Resistance Wednesday evening November 9, 2011, at the Goethe Institut in the City Hall on the Lagos Island. Iara Lee In attendance were Michael Nwandibie and his crew from the Silverbird TV, Collins Talker and Gboyega Obarafo from Galaxy TV, Shaibu Husseini of The Guardian, Nkiru Ifeajuna of the News Agency of Nigeria, Flora Onwudiwe of the Daily Champion, Wale Idowu-Shadrach, the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Movietainment magazine and other members of the news media. Mr. Hope Obioma Opara, President of Eko International Film Festival and Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, Founder of Eko International Film Festival and Publisher/Editor of Nigerians Report commended Marc-André Schmachtel, Director of the Goethe Institut for supporting the press conference and scr...

The Eko International Film Festival and the Goethe-Institut Lagos will host the press conference and screening of Iara Lee's Cultures of Resistance on Wednesday November 9, 2011, at the Goethe-Institut Lagos, Nigeria, at 3 pm. Goethe-Institut Nigeria Location Lagos Lagos City Hall, Catholic Mission Street opposite Holy Cross Cathedral Lagos Island Cultures of Resistance features the recollections of the socio-political resistance of the legendary Afrobeat king Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the Niger Delta Militants of contemporary political struggle in Nigeria and other forces of resistance in other parts of the world. Iara Lee is a Korean Brazilian film producer and director based in New York City. She is better known as the director of the documentaries Synthetic Pleasures and Modulations, as well as for her involvement with the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla", in which at least nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed by Israeli naval forces. She is the founder of the Caipirinha Fo...

The much awaited Nigerian film at the cinemas Changing Faces will open to the public at the Silverbird Cinemas and other cinemas in Nigeria and Ghana from December 23, 2011. It is the Silverbird Cinemas Nigerian Movie for the Christmas and New Year holidays. It is the first Nigerian movie on the supernatural experience of the transference of evil spirits through sex. Changing Faces is the first major Nigerian movie to be dubbed in French for commercial distribution in France and francophone countries. The gripping romantic thriller has an international cast of Nigerian and British stars led by Marc Baylis, Keppy Ekpenyong-Bassey, Alex Lopez, Rachael Young, Ayo Mogaji and Adebowale Adesanya. Marc Baylis Keppy Ekpenyong The young filmmaker Faruk Lasaki is an international award winning director and one of the best graduates of the famous New York Film Academy (NYFA) where his short film Six Feet Below won the best short film prize for graduating students. See "Not a normal Nigeria...

Due to the heavy rainfall and flooded roads on Victoria Island on Sunday, the African premiere of Emmanuel Itier's multiple award winning spiritual documentary "The Invocation" will now formally take place on the closing day of the 2nd Eko International Film Festival on Thursday July 14, 2011, at 10 am at the Silverbird Galleria, Victoria Island, Lagos. There is no gate fee throughout the film festival. So, it is open to the public gratis. Emmanuel Itier has sent the following message: Dear Friends, Brothers and Sisters: I'm sorry I cannot be with you during the Festival and the screening of our film THE INVOCATION due to the filming of our new documentary: "FEMME: Women healing the World". But I'm with you in spirit and love. And more than anything we need Love, Spirit to forget and forgive about Hate, War and Death. I wish the Festival the Best of Luck and great Success. I know this amazing and daring Film Festival will be around for a long long time...

The 2nd Eko International Film Festival (EKOIFF) opened Saturday morning in Lagos with the Nigerian premiere of Faruk Lasaki 's romantic thriller Changing Faces at the Silverbird Galleria on Victoria Island. The feature of 92 minutes is on the psychological trauma of an illicit affair caused by the transference of spirits through sex. Many people came for the opening day graced by top Nigerian entertainment journalists including Shaibu Husseini of The Guardian who was later joined by his boss Jahman Anikulapo, the Editor of The Guardian on Sunday, Victor Akande of The Nation , Wale Idowu Shadrach, the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Movietainment , the leading magazine on Nollywood and other sectors of the Nigerian entertainment industry; and notable stakeholders present were Femi Odugbemi, the multiple award winning Nigerian filmmaker and head of DVWORX, who is also the Founder/Festival director the iRepresent International Documentary Film Festival , Mrs. Duro Oni representing ...

Faruk Lasaki’s Nigerian premiere of Changing Faces at 2011 EKOIFF The Nigerian premiere of Faruk Lasaki ’s spiritual thriller "Changing Faces" will definitely thrill the audience at the second Eko International Film Festival at the Silverbird Galleria from July 9-14, 2011. Faruk Lasaki is one of the ambitious filmmakers who are making Nigeria proud in the international arena by making movies that are quite different from the common Nollywood flicks. He is also an accomplished producer of award winning commercials and documentaries who got his first break with his 15 minutes short documentary "Scars" (CICATRIZES) that won him $20,000 at the É Tudo Verdade - Festival Internacional de Documentários in Brazil in 1998. "Changing Faces" is a 92 minutes metaphysical romantic thriller on the transference of spirits through sex as ‘Two unlikely bedfellows share a night of passion’ and their lives were never the same again. The film parades an international cast o...

Ubaka Joseph Ugochukwu The Nigerian Nouvelle Vague Cinema is the Cinema of the moment …says Ubaka Joseph Ugochukwu, whose award winning feature Lilies of the Ghetto is one of the notable Nigerian films expected to draw crowds at the second Eko International Film Festival (EKOIFF) opening on Saturday July 9, at the prestigious Silverbird Galleria on Victoria Island, Lagos. Scenes from "Lilies of the Ghetto" Lilies of the Ghetto represents a new tendency among the Nigerian film industry and film directors who apart from Nollywood begun to develop a high quality cinema, accessible to a worldwide audience.. Now film professionals are gradually producing quality movies, despite the the financial challenges that are obstacle to certain projects and its bringing about the long expected change from what has been termed low quality movies to a cinema that will acceptance in the global film market. The synopsis Ijaloko and Johnnie from "Lilies of the Ghetto" IJALOKO an ex-...

Korean-Brazilian filmmaker Iara Lee [Photo: Michael (Yeong-ung) Yang, The Korea Central Daily News] International award winning Korean Brazilian film producer and director Lara Lee is among the leading filmmakers who have already submitted films for the 2nd Eko International Film Festival coming up from Saturday July 9 to Thursday July 14, at the Silverbird Galleria in Lagos, Nigeria. The popular filmmaker who is based in New York City celebrated as the director of the documentaries Synthetic Pleasures and Modulations, as well as for her involvement with the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla", in which at least nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed by Israeli naval forces. She is the founder of the Caipirinha Foundation and a member of the Council of Advisors to the National Geographic Society. Lee was the producer of the São Paulo International Film Festival. "Synthetic Pleasures", which deals with the impact of high technology on mass culture was nominated for the Gr...

Viva Riva, Beyond the Nollywood Fever and Palaver This weekend as the Congolese gangster thriller Viva Riva opens in theatres in Los Angeles, U.S.A, it should be a wakeup call to Nollywood that what matters most is not the quantity of your movies, but the quality in Art and craft of filmmaking beyond the get-rich-quick syndrome of churning out cheap home videos of Nigerian comedies and tragedies from Idumota to Onitsha. When Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s "Viva Riva" beat the best Nollywood movies at the 2011 African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), many of the Nigerian filmmakers were humbled. But how many of them learnt the real lessons of the event? They preferred to rush back to their business as usual in Nollywood and having premieres of their amateurish flicks at the Silverbird Cinemas where their posing and posturing on the local red carpet is the best they have been able to achieve so far, while the man from the war torn Democratic Republic of the Congo has gone ahead of them to...