Foundation Board Members
AWAM AMKPA, (Co-Founder & Chairman)
Associate Professor, New York Univesity.
A dramatist, documentary filmmaker, scholar of theatre and film and a curator of art and cultural practices, Amkpa has a PhD in Drama from Bristol University, UK.
He is a Professor of Drama at the New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and Sciences. He is also a Global Network University Professor and, co-founder and co-curator of the annual Real Life Pan-African Documentary Film Festival in Accra, Ghana, dedicated to African and African Diasporic filmmaking. He is a curator of the photographic exhibition ‘Africa: See You, See Me’ and co-curator of photo exhibition “They Won’t Budge: Africans in Europe”. Amkpa curated annual Highlife Music festivals in Accra, Ghana as well as an online exhibition on the drummer, Kofi Ghanaba. He is the curator of the exhibition ‘ReSignifications’. His documentary films include ‘Very Very Short Story of Nollywood’ ‘Accra Re-Inventions’ and feature film ‘Wazobia!’ Professor Amkpa has performed, written and directed plays and toured around Africa, Europe and North America. He is the author of Theatre and Postcolonial Desires and several articles on the African and Black Diasporic and postcolonial theatre, film, art and photography.
FEMI ODUGBEMI, (Co-Founder& Advisory Board Member)
Filmmaker, Producer, Director and Founder of iREP Film Festival.
An award-winning filmmaker, writer, photographer and a respected voice in the arts and culture circuits of Nigeria and around the continent, Odugbemi's critically acclaimed film Bariga Boy won Best Documentary prize at the 2010 Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). He also received the 2010 Afropop Prize sponsored by the National Black Programming and Consortium in the United States and the Film Excellence award of the Society of the Performing Arts of Nigeria (SPAN) in 2014. Other highlights of his career include Bar Beach Blues (Best Director, Zuma Film Festival 2006); Mama Put (Best Film, Abuja International Film Festival 02009). His other well acclaimed documentary works include "Ibadan: Cradle of Literati" (2008); "Oriki" (2010); "And the Chain was Not" (2011); Rolling Dollar: A Legend Untold (2014) and DO Fagunwa: Language, literature and Literalism (2015). Femi was a founding Producer of Tinsel, MNET Africa's acclaimed soap opera and one of Africa’s longest-running TV shows. He was President of the Independent Television Producers Association of Nigeria (ITPAN 2002-2006). He has been Head of Jury for the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (2012-2015), Juror for the British Council “Shakespeare Lives” project (2016), Juror for the Emmy Awards in New York (2012&2016) and many others. Femi’s most recent works are the feature film “Gidi Blues”, which has been touring festival circuits around the world, and the acclaimed “Makoko” , a documentary on the slum dwellers by the Lagos lagoon.
ILEMAKIN SOYINKA, (Trustee & Director)
Media Consultant.
Makin has worked extensively in the arts and media industty, focusing primarily on television, film and radio productions. He has been a columnist for several magazines, a producer of television, film and radio programmes, a consultant various media organizations in the realm of programming and infrastructure. Soyinka has worked on various independent progrmming documentaries, including several for the BBC, Channel 4 UK, CBC Canada, and The Oprah Winfrey Show (among others). He is a co-founder of the Lagos Film Office (LFO), the pioneer Film Office in Nigeria, and the Lagos Film City Project (LFC). He’s been a Consultant to the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), helping to bring attention ton the Nigerian Cotent in the media and, promoting such at major international for a such as MIPCOM, MIPTV, Cannes to name a few. Making Soyinka is a founding member o Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND), he is also member of the Advisory Board of The Nollywood Foundation (USA); and serves on the boards of other NGOs as a director and trustee.
JAHMAN ANIKULAPO, (Artiste, Culture Communicator & Curator)
Trustee & Director of iREP Film Forum
He studied Theatre Arts with a specialty in Directing, Dramatic Theories and Criticisms at the University of Ibadan. He worked as an Arts and Culture Journalist for 25 years, writing mostly on the Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Film, Literature and Cultural Affairs. He worked with The Guardian in following capacities: Reporter (1987-1990); Asst. Arts Editor (1990-1993); Arts & Media Editor (1993 -1999); Deputy Editor (1999 -2003); and Editor, The Guardian on Sunday, 2003-2013. He has presented and discussed Nigerian films at the Milan African Film Festival (Italy); French African Film Festival (Stuttgart, Germany – where he also served on the international jury); Ecrans Noir (Cameroon); FESPACO (Burkina Faso) among others. He is part of the travelling seminars on African Film on the platform of African Screens, which has held sessions in Portugal, Germany, Belgium and New York. He has been Associate Producer on two documentaries Rolling Dollar: A Legend Unplugged and DO Fagunwa: Literature, Language and Literalism (both directed and produced by Femi Odugbemi). He is the current Programme Chair of CORA; and Executive Programme Director, Culture Advocates Caucus, CAC; and Chairman of the CORA-Arterial Network and West African Representative of the (continental) Arterial Network.
Niyi Coker, (Writer, Theatre & Film director, Scholar; and Professor, University of Missouri)
Advisory Board Member
Niyi Coker, Jr. is the E. Desmond Lee Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Media Studies at the University of Missouri, Saint Louis. He has directed over 50 major stage productions around the world. He is the founding artistic director of the African Arts Ensemble in NYC, and has served as Artistic Director-in-residence for several theatre companies ranging from the National Theater of Nigeria; K3 Theatre in Malmo, Sweden; Black Box Theatre in Hamilton, Bermuda. He received a British Council commission to write and direct, “Endangered Species”, which toured Great Britain in 1995. In 2010 his play “Preemptive” opened at the Shaw Theatre in London, England and was covered by NNC Strand in England. The production went on tour in the Caribbean and West Africa. He recently directed the musical “Mama Africa” on the life and career of the legendary South African singer and activist, Miriam Makeba, which toured Cape Town and parts of the USA.
JANE MOTE, (Advisory Board Member)
Media Consultant.
Jane Mote, a former senior vice president of global channels for BBC Worldwide and director of factual and lifestyle for UKTV, left the multichannel broadcaster to head up factural channel Current TV in 2001. She is currently the Media consultant for TV channels and digital media companies including Turner Broadcasting , Discovery, BBC Worldwide ,London Life, The Africa Channel, whickers World Foundation and One World Media.
SANDRA OBIAGO, (Filmmaker, Art Promoter)
Advisory Board Member
Sandra Mbanefo Obiago is an art curator, photographer, poet and award-winning filmmaker and founder and artistic director of SMO Contemporary Art, curating art exhibitions in non-traditional gallery spaces to promote the best of African art. She started her career in 1988 as a technical director and video editor at the European Business Channel in Zurich, Switzerland. Two years later she joined environmental group, WWF International, and covered environment and development projects in sub-Saharan Africa as a photo-journalist for eight years. In 1998 she founded Communicating for Change (CFC), a media for development social enterprise based in Lagos, which became an important content provider for local and international television stations. Her award-winning films and radio programs focused on human rights, women’s empowerment, HIV and AIDS, environment, democracy and good governance, as well as art for development. She is a Fellow of the Aspen Institute’s African Leadership Initiative for West Africa (ALIWA).
MARC-ANDRE SCHMACHTEL (Culture Administrator and Film Promoter)
Advisory Board Member
He studied Anthology, Spanish Literature and Francophone Studies with advanced degree in Intercultural Communication. He was a programmer at the Kino Achteinhalb (Sep 2000 – Jan 2008), and Programme Assistant at the Goethe Institut Cameroon (Feb. 2008- December 2009) and Language Advisor (January 2010-November 2010). He then served as the Director of Goethe Institut Lagos (November 2010-June 2016), during which he initiated a lot of culture-related programmes, including film-related projects, that have become watershed in the Nigeria culture sector. He is currently Head of TV and Radio section at the Goethe Headquarters Film Department in Munich.
THEO LAWSON, (Architect, Designer, Film Enthusiast)
Advisory Board Member & Director
Theo Lawson, architect, designer and culture aficionado, founded Total Consult Ltd, Lagos in 1991, and since 2001 has been a partner of the Lawson+Odeinde Partnership, Lagos Among his notable projects are the redesigning of the old Broad Street Prison to a theme park, now known as Freedom Park; the redesigning of the residence of the legendary Afrobeat artiste, Fela Anikulapo-kuti into a heritage facility named Kalakuta Museum. An astute patron and support of various artistic projects, he has been the chairman of Felabration Organizing Committee since 2008; and is a member of the board of the prime art advocacy group, Committee for Relevant Art, CORA. He is also a member of the Nigeria Institute of Architects (NIA), Creative Intelligence Agency (CIA), Lagos Chamber of Commerce among others. An astute Felaist (believer in Felaosophy – political contentions of Fela), Theo recently made his debut as a film maker with the production of FREE FELA, which will be premiered at the iREP 2017.
EMEKA N. X. MBA, (Member)
Media Administrator & Consultant.