lanaire aderemi’s Record Found Here Seeks To Archive History, Tell Untold Stories

LOOKING to amplify as well as archive historical and untold stories through film, filmmaker and writer, lanaire aderemi, recently took her audience through time, with the screening of her debut documentary, Record Found Here, which held at EbonyLife Place in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Inspired by her grandmother’s story about the Egba Women’s revolt in the 1940’s, RFH, produced and directed by lanaire aderemi, explored archival documents, historical sites and first-hand stories from living witnesses and participants, to document the incredibly revolutionary event that took place roughly eighty years ago.

The documentary, which was filmed over two days across Abeokuta and Ibadan, told a moving story of courage and resistance by the women of that time, most of whom have passed on now. The documentary gave first hand account from women and men that experienced the revolt and they recounted how the women went about the revolt, how they succeeded and were able to achieve their aim at the end.

Speaking at a panel session held at the end of the documentary screening, aderemi said while actual filming took just two days, post production and editing was very intense and took several weeks.

READ ALSO: Timeless Memories: Elastic Effects of Wole Soyinka (6th Edition): ‘The Man who didn’t Die in the face of Tyranny’

The second panel had on it, Granville Wilson (cinematographer) and Ekene Amaonwu (producer and editor), who took the audience through the grueling process of production through post production. Ekene said editing was difficult because of the language barrier and he had to start learning Yoruba just a month before shooting began.

The documentary’s researcher, Joseph Ayodokun, revealed that their oldest respondent was 97 years old while the youngest was 85. He said it is important to document history from these people before they pass on.

Reiterating that her grandmother’s story told to her about 10 years ago influenced her decision to document RFH and other such historical stories, Aderemi said, “She told me about the Egba women resisting taxation and celebrating their courage was very important for me. I went on to create an immersive audio-drama and a play on their story and it opened my eyes on the importance and urgency of preserving key moments in history. I was also inspired by the poor documentation we suffer with many of our historical events forgotten and I thought this must be addressed. This is why Record Found Here was created, it was created to capture the courage and resistance of the Abeokuta women. My love for history and the need for present and future generations to remain aware of key history moments also spurred me on.”

Reacting to the fact that many of the historians are aged, she said this is why younger people must capture and document history as quickly as possible, in any form they can, while they are still here. “This is why we used interviews for this project, to hear directly from people that were in the revolt and I am glad we were able to capture and preserve their stories through this artistic mode of expression.”

The Ph.D. student at the University of Warwick in the UK, said she got the needed funds for the documentary from a doctoral fund and her savings. “I believe creatives should take risks and because I believe wholeheartedly in this project, I decided to put my money where my dreams are.”

She said she intends to continue creating films, play and events under her production company, lanaire aderemi productions (LAP), and work with similar-minded creatives on archiving and telling untold stories in a myriad of forms. “I am a multi-disciplinary thinker and story-teller and I love to create stories of different art forms. I want to preserve our history as much as possible. Archiving history is important to me because if we don’t know where we are coming from, how do we plan where we are going to? Nigeria has a long history of women resistance but we don’t talk about it enough and this is a form of violence and deliberate erasure of women,” she said.

The producer said her dream collaborations would be with Wes Anderson, Issa Rae, Mo Abudu, Bolanle Austen-Peters and Solange Knowles. “My favourite genre is theatre and I am a playwright. I love theatre because you engage with people in real life and the audience is allowed to reflect as the story unfolds; it is a very interesting artform. I love mixing different artforms and theatre allows me do this.”