Lagos to export Nigerian films to Toronto festival

Nigeria is again this year exporting its tourism potential to the outside world, as eight locally produced films will feature in the 2016 City to City Toronto Festival, in Canada, backed by the government of Lagos State.

The Toronto film festival ranks among the largest festivals in the world and attracts over 500,000 fans of Nigerian films every year.
Officials of Lagos State government say the films to be showcased would necessarily not be about Lagos, but films produced by directors based in the state.

According to Steve Ayorinde, the state commissioner for information and his tourism counterpart, Folorunsho Folarin-Coker, who briefed journalists on Monday, alongside Cameron Bailey, the artistic director of Toronto Film Festival, the idea is to project the tourism potential of Nigeria and Lagos in particular to the international audience.

“What this government policy implies is that the government will promote any initiative that will project Lagos as the home of film making, not only in Nigeria but before the entire world,” they said.

In doing this, “what is important is that the films that will be selected will be films by film makers that are Lagos based. It won’t matter what subject matter you are dealing with, it is about the creativity, the talent you are exhibiting as a Lagos-based film maker that Toronto is interested in,” said Ayorinde.

On his part, Folarin-Coker explained the involvement of the state government in the project. According to him, this falls in line with the government’s policy to use entertainment to drive consumption, create employment and shore up its revenues.

“This project is in line with Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s mantra of THESE, which stands for Tourism, Hospitality, Entertainment, and Sports for Excellence,” Coker said.

Speaking also, Cameron said “the idea is to seize the opportunity of this year’s festival to begin a new dawn for Nigerian films. We have had films like Tunde Kelani’s Abeni feature at the festival as well as Half of a Yellow Sun, which is a collaboration between Nigeria and the UK, but I think this is an opportunity to do more and to go bigger. So what we are doing this year is a spotlight on the filmmakers who live and work here in Laos. We have been so impressed with the ingenuity and creativity of individual film makers who have made the Nigeria film industry one of the largest in the planet.”