iREPRESENT International Documentary Film Festival 2020 is Postponed.
Over the past weeks, the world has been facing an unprecedented challenge. As a responsible organization that takes safety seriously, we want to do all we can to help keep our country and our participants safe and healthy.
In view of the Novel Corona Virus pandemic, the Foundation for the Promotion of Documentary Film in Africa, organizers of the popular iREPRESENT INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL has taken the hard decision to postpone the year 2020 festival indefinitely.
We clearly understand the preparation that may have gone into the decision to attend the
festival. We commend the loyalty of our long standing partners and international collaborators, but to see that a lot of our resource persons and guests outside of Nigeria would not be able to make it to the festival is quite unfortunate, and moving the festival to a later date when we might all be able to celebrate the 10th anniversary of iREP Film Festival together, is a good course of
action.
We have constantly followed global developments on COVID-19 and have been monitoring appropriate sources for accurate and up-to-date information, and we believe our decision is the responsible thing to do, more so as we are expecting guests from Europe and America.
Going forward, we would continuously monitor the situation and evaluate the risk actively. A new date would be communicated to the public very soon. We recognize that this is a challenging period globally, much as we are committed to the Arts, we are equally committed to the safety
of our guests, staff and our country.
We sincerely hope that you would find the time to join us when a new date is announced.
Please take care of yourself and stay safe.
Thank you.
Femi Odugbemi
Co-Founder/Executive Director
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Denies Claims Of Plagiarism of Anne Giwa-Amu’s Book
A few days ago, a woman identified as Anne Giwa-Amu who lives in London shared a video on YouTube claiming that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie plagiarized her book to write “Half of A Yellow Sun“.
Anne Giwa-Amu said Chimamanda’s “Half of a Yellow Sun” was plagiarised from a portion from her book, “Sade: United We Stand.”
In the video, she accused the late author of “Things Fall Apart” Chinua Achebe of giving her work “Sade: United We Stand” to Chimamanda who then rewrote it as “Half of a Yellow Sun”.
She discovered Chimamanda had plagiarized her book in 2013 when she saw a poster in London advertising the film “Half of a Yellow Sun”.
Giwa Amu goes on to explain how she published her work with Chinua Achebe, got her book reviewed by Heinemann’s African Writers Series while the late Achebe was the Editorial Adviser and so on. She also shared documents to prove her claims.
She said, “I challenge Chimamanda, to prove that she wrote HAYS by, publishing her email correspondence with Chinua Achebe, publishing the original manuscript she sent to the editors and by publishing the editors’ reviews”.
Watch her make her claims in the video:
The Wylie Agency, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s literary agents, who Anne Giwa-Amu mentioned in the video, have put out a statement and confirmed that this woman is actually owing Chimamanda and her lawyer’s damages in money as ordered by the UK courts.
Read the statement below:
STATEMENT REGARDING FALSE CLAIMS FROM ANNE GIWA-AMU
We, the Wylie Agency, are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s literary agents.
In 2016, Anne Giwa-Amu brought a legal claim against Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her publishers. Giwa-Amu alleged that Adichie’s novel HALF OF A YELLOW SUN had plagiarized her own novel. A professional independent reader was appointed to read both novels. The reader concluded that there was absolutely no basis for Giwa-Amu’s claim and advised that the claim should not be pursued. Giwa-Amu nevertheless continued with the claim.
On 15 February 2019, Anne Giwa-Amu’s claim brought against Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her publishers was struck out by the court. The court determined that her claim was ‘an abuse of the court’s process.’ The court ordered Giwa-Amu to pay Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her publishers the sum of £14,250, which Giwa-Amu failed to pay. The court also ordered Giwa-Amu to pay the legal costs Adichie incurred in defending her baseless claim. To date, Giwa-Amu has not paid the money.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her publishers had never heard of Giwa-Amu’s novel until she brought her delusional claim. Her present allegations are false, libellous and constitute a harassment to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Further legal actions are being taken.
Signed: The Wylie Agency
Text courtesy Bellanaija
Hilda Dokubo Takes a Stand Against the new Patron of the Actors Guild of Nigeria – Elisha Abbo
Nine months ago, Elisha Abbo, a senator representing Adamawa was caught on camera physically assaulting a nursing mother at a sex toy shop.
Recently, the same senator was appointed the patron of Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), and veteran actress Hilda Dokubo has spoken out against the appointment.
Taking to her Instagram, the actress noted that he isn’t the right person to be given this position, as she recalls how he assaulted a lady in a sex toy shop at Abuja.
In her words:
Cut the crap
An abuser of women as Patron of Actors Guild of Nigeria is an unpardonable abuse of the rights of all the females in the creative space especially #actors. We must stop every attempt at rubbishing our values as a people with such appointments in whatever guise. Consequently, Senator Abbo #sextoysenator must be delisted from our list of Patrons now.
Kemi Adetiba Introduces “King Of Boys 2” Teaser Snippet
There’s a heightened suspense in the sound of whistling wind, as the silhouette of a lone figure makes its way towards us.
The figure looks strangely like Makanaki. Wait, didn’t Makanaki die in part 1 or did he?
Director Kemi Adetiba shared on her Twitter a snippet of the forthcoming sequel and we can’t wait to watch all the action unfold.
She captioned it:
KOB Army… It’s time for us to ACTIVATE!!! It’s official OUR season again!!! LET’S GOOOOOO!!!!!!! @kingofboysmovieSequel!
We are already excited.
