In recent years, a number of African movies have been featured at international film festivals. Specifically, Nigeria’s budding film industry or “Nollywood” is reputed to be the third largest in the world! An emerging middle class on the continent coupled with the increasing interest worldwide to hear more authentic stories means that there is a great opportunity for African filmmakers to achieve commercial success. But what does it take? This panel will discuss several aspects of the film industry on the continent, exploring successful strategies, niche markets, and innovative developments.

Panelists:

CEO, 234 Media

DAYO OGUNYEMI

Dayo Ogunyemi is the CEO of 234 Media, a firm that makes principal investments in the media, entertainment and technology sectors in Africa.  He is currently launching Cinemart, a pan-continental digital cinema platform targeted at the base of the pyramid consumers that make up 75% of Africa’s population.

His experience spans finance, intellectual property and transactional matters, with a particular focus on media, entertainment and technology. His career as an entrepreneur, financier, strategy consultant and attorney has been honed by two decades of advisory and operational experience, including employment with Booz Allen & Hamilton, Sony Music Entertainment Inc., Bertelsmann Music Group, and Weil Gotshal and Manges LLP.

He has represented and provided finance, legal and strategic advice to companies, artists, and entrepreneurs in the technology, film, television, music, publishing, and fashion industries in North America, Africa and Europe. He has also advised governments and regional economic communities in Africa on policy and regulatory matters relating to intellectual property and technology.

He founded Naijanet, the first Nigerian online community, in 1991. He was appointed in 2004 by the Executive Secretary of the UN ECA to the Technical Advisory Committee (ATAC IV) for its African Information Society Initiative and was selected in 2009 by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as a film and creative industry expert.

He is a Beta Gamma Sigma graduate of Columbia Business School where he earned an MBA. He also holds a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School and an SB from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is admitted to practice law in New York.

Director of Production & Development, Focus Features

Nollywood Filmmaker

Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen

Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen a.k.a D’Guvnor is an exceptional movie director and weaves block-buster movies with a proverbial magic wand. Born in historic Benin City, Nigeria, he kick-started his career with the Nigerian Television Authority before directing his first movie at age 24. Since then, he has never looked back, churning out such gripping movies as Emotional Crack, Games Women Play, Private Sin (Winner, National Film & Video Censors Board’s Best Director award), Reloaded, Close Enemies (the first Nollywood movie shot in the USA), etc.

Lancelot’s recent incursion into Edo language movies was borne out of love for his people, desire to promote the Edo language using the medium of film, and a reawakened need for the content of Nollywood films to be anchored on a historical/cultural basis.  He shot the highly rated Edo language movie Ebuwa, which recorded the biggest premiere in Benin City with over 25 Nollywood A-list stars in attendance.

In 2008, he was featured in Nollywood Babylon, a Canadian produced documentary exploring Nigeria’s movie industry and is recognized as an expert on the topic, being referenced by international magazines such as the Economist.  Nollywood’s most prolific director has over 150 movies to his credit, gave today’s iconic Nollywood stars their first break, and has won numerous local and international film awards.  He is married to Aimuanwosa Imasuen and they are blessed with two angelic daughters.

Founder and Executive Director, African Film Festival

Mahen Bonetti

Mahen Bonetti is the founder and Executive Director of African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF), a non-profit arts organization founded in 1990.  AFF showcases works of African filmmakers and develops ways to share the vision and culture of African film with American and international audiences.

In her role as film liaison, she contributes to an interdisciplinary mix of panels and programs, including those established by the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ougadougou (FESPACO), the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the New York State Council of the Arts, UNDP, Africa’s US diplomatic offices, Focus Features Africa First Program and the Rolex Arts Initiative Awards. AFF collaborates each year with the Film Society of Lincoln Center and BAMcinématek to produce the annual New York African Film Festival. Additionally, the organization curates a series of other film programs with a host of national and international partners. Ms. Bonetti lives in Manhattan with her husband and their daughter.

Moderator:

Professor of World Cinema, The New School

Michelle Materre

Ms. Materre’s professional background spans more than 25 years experience as film producer, writer, arts administrator, distribution/marketing specialist and college professor. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Media Studies and Film and Assocaite Director of The Bachelor’s Program at The New School where she was recently awarded the University Distinguished Teaching Award; and an independent media consultant, advising filmmakers and organizations on fundraising, distribution, outreach, marketing, and exhibition.

Early in her career, she was a staff writer/producer for Henry Hampton’s Blackside Productions, and an assistant story editor for MGM/UA in the feature film division. As a founding partner of KJM3 Entertainment Group, Inc., a film distribution and marketing company that specialized in multicultural film and television projects, Ms. Materre directly managed the marketing and positioning of 23 films including the successful theatrical release of Daughters of the Dust, the highly acclaimed film by Julie Dash, as well as L’Homme Sur Les Quais (The Man By The Shore) by Raoul Peck.

Selected client list includes: Julie Dash, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, Tracey Heather Strain, Channel Thirteen/WNET, Stanley Nelson, Women Make Movies, Third World Newsreel. Ms. Materre is a former member of the Board of Directors of New York Women in Film and Television, and has been the curator of the critically acclaimed film series, Creatively Speaking, for the past fifteen years.