The British Council has partnered with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) to launch a film making platform for aspiring film makers in Lagos State.
The project which is designed to address issues affecting the film industry in Nigeria, such as challenges around financing, infrastructure and capacity building, to improve the quality of output and revenue is also in collaboration with Biola Alabi Media and Creative England.
The Lagos FilmLAB is open to all aspiring filmmakers in Lagos state with the aim to discover and support emerging talents towards the development and production of market-ready, low-budget, high quality feature films.
This project will discover and support 12 teams of emerging film talent in August/September 2019, through an intensive residential programme facilitated by experienced film executives and professional writers.
Ojoma Ochai, Director Programmes British Council in her statement said “In line with our new Creative Economy development strategy, we are shifting our focus to more robust, longer-term interventions that support potential and emerging entrepreneurs and sector professionals not just with skills but also with access to networks, finance and markets that can really make a difference to the quality of their outputs and their livelihoods. Lagos filmLAB builds on the Nigeria Creative Enterprise Programme (NICE), a business incubation programme for creative entrepreneurs which we launched in Lagos in early 2019 and which we will roll out in Imo, Kano and Abuja in the next 12 months. Through Lagos filmLAB and NICE, we are keen to work with UK and local partners to leverage their existing capacities and to stimulate more UK / Nigeria collaboration as well as more sustainable, institutionally led development in the Nigerian Creative Economy.”
Also commenting Teju Abisoye, Acting Executive Secretary, the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), said, “As a partner for the maiden edition of this Creative Sector initiative, we are convinced this collaboration further defines our commitment to job creation through relevant and appropriate skills that support the Creative Sector in Lagos State and in particular film production. The LSETF Employability Support Project will be working with the Partners to ensure that the Curriculum is updated and relevant for all the current trainings that can directly benefit from this intervention. Finally, we expect that a new tribe of worldclass filmmakers would emerge to further contribute to the depth of quality and growth of the Creative Industry in Lagos State.”
Leading film maker, CEO of Biola Alabi Media and Local delivery partner of Lagos filmLab, Mrs. Biola Alabi, enthused over the partnership, heralding it as a first of its kind that would introduce a new cadre of filmmakers in Nollywood and propel the overall terrain of Nigerian filmmaking towards explosive growth.
Paul Ashton, Head of Film from Creative England said. “Our approach to film development endeavours to foster and facilitate the highest quality work from exciting, distinctive storytellers which has the potential to break out and reach an audience”.
