The partnership with the U.S. embassy in Nigeria was announced by Kunle Afolayan at the launch of a four-day intensive workshop on directing and cinematography on Tuesday, November 12.
In attendance was the Consular General of the United States Embassy in Nigeria, Will Stevens as well as other film practitioners including Sola Sobowale, Tunde Kelani, Steve Sodiya and Ope Ajayi amongst others.
According to Afolayan, during his opening speech at the event, the partnership with the U.S embassy was responsible for the invitation extended to two top Hollywood experts in directing and cinematography.
The two experts, director Angel Kristi Williams and cinematographer, Erin G. Wesley will be taking the young talents at KAP academy on Directing and Cinematography for four days – between November 12 and November 16.
This partnership, according to Afolayan, brings forth an exciting new program – an intensive Directing and Cinematography Workshop, which aims at developing the next generation of Nigerian filmmakers and creators by providing direct, hands-on experience with top U.S. industry professionals.
While Angel Kristi Williams is an award-winning writer and director from West Baltimore, Erin G. Wesley is a Los Angeles-born visual artist and cinematographer with extensive experience working with top brands like Target and Adidas.
Speaking at the event, Consul General, Will Stevens said, “As an american diplomat, I feel deeply, the power of our culture and how the united states has benefitted for many decades, on the power of culture and that has helped how people perceive the united states for better and for worse but it also led to increased interest in visiting and doing business in the United States. Kunle and some of his colleagues are churning out content that is being watched across the globe in partnership with the United States via platforms like Amazon, Netflix, and they are investing because they know people want to hear these stories. I believe that we are at the very beginning of what I call the second half of the 21st which is the African century. By 2050, Nigeria will be the third largest country in the world and second largest democracy city in the world and Africa will have over a billion people. We have to get ready and you are doing that by shaping how people perceive your culture, country and content and I am just really glad that as the U.S. mission, we can really support that and we can create this partnership with the American storytellers and film industry to tap into the next generation of people that are going to be here.”
On his part, Afolayan expressed gratitude to the United States embassy in Nigeria for partnering, supporting and facilitating the experts, who will be handling the workshop.
“We have a partnership which stemmed from my recent trip to the United States where I attended a creative programme supported by the United States embassy consulate in Nigeria. We went to L.A, DC, Virginia and Atlanta to meet with stakeholders and rub minds on film. For this programme, we are focusing on directing and cinematography and we are also lucky that the U.S embassy decided to bring two experts in directing, Angel Williams and cinematography, Erin Wesley.”
