‘The Man Died’ goes to Lincoln Center New York for 32nd African Film Festival
By Editor
TUESDAY, May 13, The Man Died, the 105-mins feature film inspired by the ‘Prison Notes’ of the Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, will be screened at the Lincoln Center New York, as part of the 32nd African Film Festival New York, holding from May 7 through May 29. A statement from the Director/Co-Founder of iREP and Assoiate Producer of The Man Died, Mr. Jahman O. Anikulapo, said. The Man Died will be screened at 6.00pm, and is expected to attract a diverse cadre of audiences beyond the festival guests and patrons. There has been an expected large turnout of audiences from the Nigerian and African communities, as well as from New York University (NYU), the home-base of the director, Awam Amkpa, a professor of Cultural Aesthetics.
Co-presented with Film at Lincoln Center (FLC – May 7 – 13), the festival events will also hold at Maysles Cinema (May 15 – 18), and Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM – May 23 – May 29), the AFFNY, sometimes also called New York African Film Festival (NYAFF), founded by the renowned film worker and activist, Mahen Bonneti, is reputed as one of the most important outlets for exposition of stories from Africa in North America.
In an invitation letter extended to the producer of the film, Femi Odugbemi, Bonetti, who doubles as Executive Director of the AFFFNY, stated: “This year, the flagship festival is presented under the banner, Fluid Horizons: A Hopeful Lens of a Shifting World, honoring the resilience of African youth and the forbearers that paved the way. Since 1993, NYAFF and its collaborators have presented this festival, using cinema as a tool to bring African culture, history, and politics to thousands of viewers in the United States.”
Bonetti added: “For this 32nd edition of NYAFF, we have curated a grand selection of screenings, talks, exhibitions and panels, as well as African music, celebrating veteran and emerging filmmakers/artists from Africa and the diaspora. Hence, it will be a great honour if you can join us at this year’s festival and partake in the festival screenings and special events taking place during the festival’s run at Film at Lincoln Center.”
The invitation also extends to the director of the festival, Prof. Amkpa, to give a masterclass on “the art of adaptation, exploring how iconic literary works are reimagined for the screen.” His session will see him using The Man Died – one of the very few of its kind from Nigeria, to “examine the creative choices, challenges, and cultural resonances involved in translating text to film. From personal insight to process, this dialogue celebrates the enduring relationship between literature and cinema, and the new worlds that emerge when they meet.”
Also to feature are Angèle Diabang and her film So Long a Letter, adaptation of Mariama Bâ’s feminist classic that explores a woman’s defiance in the face of betrayal.
Written by a notable Nigerian script/screenwriter, Bode Asiyanbi, who is based in the United Kingdom, The Man Died, which aside the 105-minute version is also available as a 124-minutes (for academic exposition), stars a coterie of renowned names on the Nigerian screen, including Wale Ojo as Wole, Sam Dede as Yisa, Norbert Young (Prison Superintendent), Francis Onwochei (Prison Controller) and Edmond Enaibe as Commissioner, as well as international actors, London-UK-based Christiana Oshunniyi (Laide Soyinka) and Los Angeles, US-based Abraham Awam-Amkpa (Johnson), among others.
Produced by Zuri 24 Media, The Man Died, according to the synopsis on its website — www.themandiedmovie.com — is the story of Wole Soyinka’s 27-month incarceration by the Nigerian government in 1967 at the cusp of the civil war. He was famously seeking a truce between Biafra and the Federal Government to allow time for a negotiated settlement of the conflict. It is fundamentally a personal account. Essentially, the subject found refuge from the brutality inflicted upon him by retreating into and living within his own mind. At times, he drifted on the frontiers of madness, hanging on to himself by a thread. At other times, he pondered, listened, and watched, like only the truly otherwise unoccupied can. Importantly, he managed to scrounge paper and a pencil from time to time and record his journey of ‘motionlessness.”
Since release in July 2024 to mark the 90th birthday anniversary of the poet, dramatist, essayist, memoirist, polemicist and ‘global humanist’, the film has been doing well in global film circuits, as well as at educational circuits. It has been chosen as a star attraction at the upcoming African Theatre Association, AfTA annual conference holding in Stuttgart, Germany in July. It is also being considered for special screenings at educational institutions in Florence, Italy, Abu Dhabi in the UAE, at New York University, Harvard University, and at Ithaca College, all in the USA, at Oxford University, in the United Kingdom; as well as at the House of World Culture in Berlin, Germany, among others. This is as it is also being reviewed by at least three major global streaming platforms, and international distribution channels.
The Man died… the journey so far: Though yet to be officially released to the market, The Man Died, since its “special-premiere” in July in Lagos to mark Soyinka’s 90th birthday, began its global tour in London in July as part of the Wole Soyinka at 90 celebration jointly organized and hosted by the Africa Centre and the Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange (WSICE). It returned to same London in October as part of the African Film Festival, and also had an educational screening at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. It was screened on October 11 on the ‘Accra Streamfest’ bill of the “Labone Dialogues”, hosted by New York University (NYU), Accra, Ghana.
It has had a series of home runs including on October 5 at Quramo Festival of Words (QFest) 2024, Lagos and Lagos Book & Art Festival (LABAF) on November 14. It had earlier featured at the African Film Festival (AFRIFF), in November 5-9, where it clinched the Best Scriptwriting Award and at Eastern Nigeria International Film Festival, Enugu (ENIFF), November 27-29, 2024 where it was voted Best Audience Choice Award. It also picked the Best Film That Tackles an Important African Issue’ at the Luxor Int’l Film Festival, January 9 – 14, 2025. It has been variously nominated at various other tines, including Best Feature Narrative Award, Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) from February 4 to 17, 2025 and Best African Film, Best Editing, Best Film – Jo’Burg Film Festival, March 11-16, 2025
With over 18 tours, The Man Died is scheduled for more tours till the end of the year. These include from April 23 to May 18 at the African and African Diaspora Film Festival – FeCADA-), Costa Rica, May 7 to 13 at the 32nd New York African Film Festival. (NYAFF32), New York, June 13 to 15 at the African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF), Chicago, US, June 14 to 20 at the 13th edition of Dakhla International Film Festival, Morocco, July 9 to 12 at the African Theatre Association Conference 2025, Stuttgart, Germany (July 11) and in August at the African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF), Washington, DC.
Awards have also trailed The Man Died in these multiple global tours and screenings that include Best Scriptwriting Award (AFRIFF), November 5 to 9, 2024, Best Audience Choice Award (ENIFF), November 27 to 29, 2024, Best Film That Tackles an Important African Issue’ — Luxor Int’l Film Festival, January 9 to 14, 2024, nominated for Best Feature Narrative Award at the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) held from February 4 to 17, 20247and nominated Best African Film, Best Editing, Best Film at the Jo’Burg Film Festival in March 11 to 16, 2025.
The director of the film, an actor, playwright, director of stage plays, films and curator of visual arts, Prof. Amkpa is a Nigerian-American professor of drama, film, and social and cultural analysis at the New York University in New York and Abu Dhabi. Author of Theatre and Postcolonial Desires (Routledge, 2003), Awam is director of film documentaries and curator of photographic exhibitions and film festivals. He has also written several articles on representations in Africa and its diasporas, representations, and modernisms in theater, postcolonial theater, and Black Atlantic films. Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoeiYA8vjrk&t=885s.
The producer, an accomplished storyteller, content producer, filmmaker, and media scholar, Femi Odugbemi is the Founder/CEO of Zuri24 Media Lagos, producers of the film. His screen credits over 25 years in the creative industries span feature films, multiple drama TV series and documentaries. He was one of the founding producers of the daily soap opera Tinsel as well as Executive Producer of several popular TV soap operas, including Battleground, Brethren, Movement JAPA and Covenant, among others. Also, producer of several award-winning documentaries and feature films, Odugbemi is Co-Founder/Executive Director of the IREPRESENT International Documentary Film Festival Lagos and a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSqp6Z0XsuE
