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 screening of Iara Lee’s multiple awards winning socio-political documentary film Cultures of Resistance.
Mr. Opara announced that Eko International Film Festival will henceforth be held every November and condemned the counterfeiting and trademark piracy of the film festival by Mr. Paul Obazele of Royal Pictures and his faction of the Association of Movie Producers (AMP).
Among the guests were the famous Nigerian filmmaker Dr. Ola Balogun who featured in the documentary, David Adejo, Aderinsola Ajao, Yacoub Adeleke, Meg Masha the hostess of the Ember Creek’s weekly Salsa Dance Night, fast rising actor and hip-hop rap artiste Aloysius Onyejegbu, aka 2MS, John Sessau and others.
Dr. Ola Balogun spoke on the bravery of Iara Lee in daring to go to the dangerous locations of political conflicts in the Middle East, Amazon Jungle, Niger Delta, Liberia, Rwanda and other battlegrounds of war and socio-political resistance to record her thrilling documentary which she is using as an instrument of justice and peace in her global human rights activities.
One of the tensed scenes of Cultures of Resistance
He said Cultures of Resistance is the genre of transformational documentaries that Nigerian TV stations should broadcast to the millions of people in the most populous country in Africa, because of the outstanding positive impact it would make on the cultural and political enlightenment of the people in view of the recurrent ethno religious and political violence in the northern regions of Nigeria. Then he dismissed the mediocrity of the popular Nigerian hip hop artistes and the abuse of the best practices of the film industry by the unprofessional opportunists in Nollywood.