AFRIFF Diaries: Day 3
Yesterday, I loved having Nigerians at the cinema, today I low key hated them. The duality of man.
No image today because sometimes the shege you’ve seen is enough.
Getting a ride in Lagos is a Herculean task. Wait. Let me invoke another Greek legend. It’s a task akin to the one assigned to Sisyphus: difficult, horrific and almost impossible. All this is inspired by our struggle to get a ride to AFRIFF and back, I’ll just say that Lagos drivers, God sees us all.
The fatigue began to set in today, I woke up with a splitting headache and no will to write anything. Despite that, I sat at the table to summon some words because I had commitments to honour. While I worked, I plotted with my friends over texts and phone calls to surprise Alpha, one of our friends. Our tradition of making sure everyone is involved in birthdays is a whole thing where no matter where you are, you have to join in via video call for the surprise. It’s one of my favourite things because there’s such a consideration of everyone, a care for your involvement in group moments of joy, a sharing of happiness. We even took a group picture where my face filled a phone screen as everyone else smiled around me. Love them so much.
I was supposed to meet up with a friend I hadn’t seen in months and I didn’t want to disappoint so I mustered up some energy and told Tobi to get off his ass and work because he’s been my AFRIFF companion.
We got ready to head out and the hunt for a ride began. Multiple open apps, outrageous prices and a stroke of divine intervention is what you need to get a ride in Lagos. We finally got one and headed to our first film of the day: We Have Bleach.
Directed by Nana-Aisha Salaudeen, the short film tries to capture the formless haziness of depression and the way nobody around you gets it no matter how hard they try. During the screening, the man beside me had absolutely no sympathy for the story, with constant snide comments and laughs, it made me wonder how cinema despite its many questionings of our lives and conditions might not still be powerful enough to make any change in some people’s lives. I hope that man stubs his toe constantly sha because he kept on distracting me.
We trooped out to the food court to wait for Kingsley whose favourite pastime is late coming while I opened Figma, my dreaded enemy, to do some work. I hung out distractedly with Kingsley and Tobi because I was in a meeting. I felt some way about this because I hadn’t seen Kingsley in months and I still couldn’t be fully present. So many friendships stolen by distance and even when the distance is breached, life is alwsys building walls between us. I get to see him again tomorrow so hopefully I’m less distracted then.
Our next film was The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos. Anchored in the realities of displaced communities in Lagos, this film follows Jawu who finds a bag of money and the chaos that ensues. This was one of the most moving films of the week, brutal in its truth—interspersing real footage of demolitions and callous lawmakers—it puts to screen a horrific capitalist reality that we often try to ignore. I’ll be writing a review of the film for What Kept Me Up so watch out for that.
During the film, there were many decisions motivated by poverty, the character had never lived a life outside lack so her decisions were often rash and placed within the limits of capitalist imaginations. This is something the audience didn’t particularly get. They screamed insults at the screen, postulated better decisions they thought they’d make and judged characters harshly. It was such an interesting (derogatory) reaction to poverty. I have some more thoughts that I think I’ll expand into an essay but remember what I said about the power of cinema? Wasn’t feeling so powerful today with that audience.
The film ended and a Q and A session started. The questions were a mixed bag: some people wanted to know about craft, others were curious about the reach of this film to the community it documents, some just wanted to know what their next project was. Watching the collective that worked on the film talk about the real stories that inspired them and the seven year timeline that led them to this moment spoke to the way filmmaking is often just waiting. Bidding time and hoping that one day the images that exist in your mind exist on a screen. Oh, there’s also a lot of real work too so don’t forget that.
Time to get back home but before that I and Tobi geeked out to Uzoamaka about her work in Phoenix Fury from the previous night, she graciously received our chaotic compliments and then we ran off to find a ride home. Another horror film that should show at AFRIFF.
All our apps were open, fingers crossed and ouija boards out because at this point it was a matter of sorcery. After almost an hour, we found one and headed home while planning excitedly for Tobi’s birthday the next day.