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U.S Filmmakers Bart
Weiss and Kim Snyder were recently in Nigeria to attend an American
Documentary Showcase organised by the public affairs section of the US
Consulate in Lagos and the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers.

The event, which
took place at the Ozone Cinema, Yaba, Lagos, afforded Nigerian movie
directors an opportunity to exchange ideas with the established
American documentary film experts. The highlight was the screening of
three American documentary films – ‘Come Back to Sudan’ (which
documents the lives of three ‘lost boys’ of Sudan and their adoptive
white American mother)), ‘Street Fight’ (chronicling the bare-knuckled
race for Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, between 32 year old Cory Booker
and Sharpe James, the four term incumbent mayor) and ‘Wiz Kids’ (the
story of three remarkable and passionate scientists who compete in
America’s oldest and most prestigious science competition). After each
screening the facilitators fielded questions from the audience,
consisting of established and emerging Nigerian filmmakers.

A film of truth

In his opening
remarks, Bart Weiss, an award winning independent film producer and
founder of the Dallas Video Festival, introduced the audience to
various techniques of making a documentary, with emphasis on cinéma
vérité. Defining the term as ‘a film of truth’, Weiss said, “It
involves a camera man following his subject in real life rather than
constructing images. The crew follows things as they evolve. It helps
you experience the emotion because everything is not based on the
imagination of the director”.

Citing ‘Street
Fight’ as an example of Cinéma vérité, Weiss added that the intensity
or emotions of any story can never be lost if the technique was adopted
into use.

Looking beyond the challenges

Whilst challenging
young filmmakers to be daring, Kim Synder, who recently co-founded the
BeCause Foundation to produce a series of documentaries designed to
raise awareness about global issues and inspire philanthropy through
the power of film, said: “You do not have to wait until you have
sophisticated equipments before you shoot a short film or documentary.
Go out and shoot with minimal equipments which you have and you can
shoot a state-of-the-art documentary. Start with what you have and
collaborate with friends or professionals.”

The Nigerian question

As the discussions
progressed, the question about how Nigerian filmmakers could benefit
from the expertise of the visiting filmmakers arose. Weiss addressed
the issue, saying, “[Nigerian movie practitioners] can benefit through
exchange programmes as well learning the movie making techniques of
both countries.”

Although the
organisers expressed displeasure at the sparsely filled theatre hall,
despite the large number of invites sent out, the audience present had
more than enough lessons to take away.

As the event wound to a close, Weiss had a last word for upcoming
filmmakers: “If you want the government to partner and work with you,
it won’t readily happen so you have to be persistent and hard on
yourself. Filmmakers have a charge to help and encourage each other to
get things going because if you want to do it all by yourself, it is
going to be hard.”