ÓWÀMBÈ is written and directed by Tobi Kyeremateng and Tania Nwachukwu, it is an intergenerational docu-fiction film on ÓWÀMBÈ in Britain – the life and soul of Nigerian party culture and community. The short film beat thousands of applications to win the Netflix Doc Talent which was created at the end of 2020 to support emerging filmmakers from across the UK and to nurture the most innovative and creative minds of the future.
Only 10 films where Netflix selected, 10 documentary ideas and Netflix fully funded production to be made with the focus of addressing imbalance in the industry.
Alongside funding the filmmakers had industry support as part of the inaugural Fund. ALT caught up with Tobi to chat!!
ALT:
Congratulations. How does it feel to have your film selected?
Tobi:
It was a little bit unbelievable to be honest, I feel that with things like these, you can apply and then you just don’t really expect to be selected, especially as one of 10. I imagine that so many people applied, so yeah, it’s still a little bit surreal to me. I think it won’t really sink in until the film is out and people are watching it.
ALT:
How far do you think schemes like this go in addressing the imbalance in terms of representation, in terms of different cultures? Your film is rich and is something that we don’t really break down in terms of Nigerian culture.
Tobi:
Yeah. I feel like things like this are really important, especially giving people the opportunity to experiment with the making as well. You know, this is the first film that I’ve ever directed and to have it on this kind of platform is almost unheard of, you would never usually make your first film and have it come out via Netflix. So, I feel like it’s been really beautiful just working alongside the other people as well that won the fund and us all having this joint experience of making something, some of us for the first time, and having this amount of resource, this amount of support, and hopefully, how far it will travel in terms of its viewership as well.
ALT:
What were some of the challenges to making a film for the first time and what were some of the joys?
Tobi:
I think probably the main challenge for me was just believing that I could do it and that it would come out alright. I think I had a lot of imposter syndrome about it and a lot of doubts about it and just sort of being like, oh, can I do this? Is it going to be good? Is it going to properly represent my culture as well? You know, I’m talking about a whole community of people that are going to watch this and hopefully they think it’s good.
I think the joys of it as well were just getting to sit down with all the contributors and interview them and have these really long conversations that obviously you can’t see all of it in the film, but there were so in depth. There were things that regardless of age, people all agreed on. There were things that people felt differently about because of the different eras that they grew up in. I learned so much about hall parties that even myself as someone that grew up with them and went to them a lot, I didn’t know about. For me it just reinforced the importance of documenting this, collecting all of the archive. This archive doesn’t exist as a stock archive anywhere. So, we literally had to go to everyone’s houses and scan old videos, and it meant that they were also looking at old photos and videos for the first time in 20 years maybe. That was such a beautiful, wholesome moment.
ALT:
And what does a ÓWÀMBÈ mean to people who don’t know?
Tobi:
So, it has two translations. The literal translation is, it is there, or you are there, he is there, she is there. And then the colloquial term that you’ll probably hear the most is in relation to a party. So, I guess you could kind of say the party is there, but it would usually describe these kinds of parties that would have all of these elements, the music, the food, the clothing. In Nigeria ÓWÀMBÈ would usually be outdoors because you could do them outside, in your compound or on the street. Whereas, I think the hall parties are maybe more specific to when they came to the UK and you couldn’t necessarily do parties outside, but you could rent the hall that was down the road from you and do it there.
ALT:
What made you decide to want to make films?
Tobi:
To be honest, I didn’t necessarily have a passion for directing. It wasn’t a thing that was like, oh I’m secretly a director. It was more like, I really wanted to see a film about this. I wanted to see a film about hall parties because I hadn’t really seen one before. So, I thought ok, I guess I’ll try it. But this is definitely a brick in the like wall of hopefully more films about it.
ALT:
So, it’s 2022. We are not ever going to move on from George Floyd and what happened to George Floyd, but there’s been a lot of responses by organisations who have created schemes like this. Do you think these schemes will have longevity and we’ll still be talking about racism, let’s say in five or ten years’ time and they’ll still be trying to make amends, or do you think that this will just be a watershed moment?
Tobi:
I think that the hope is that they would have longevity. I think even if they don’t necessarily for the organisation, I hope for the people that are involved in things like this, it does. I hope that it’s a stepping stone in their careers to continue to document in different work, document different cultures and different stories. I think a lot has happened over the last year, and a lot of people have been affected by it globally. Even when we look at END SARS and everything that was happening in Nigeria as well, you know? The hope would be that, in the next five years, there is a new batch of talent that are committed to documenting these stories that people haven’t necessarily heard before and on platforms that can really propel them.
ALT:
Where do you call home?
Tobi:
For me personally, South London, I’m so very specific with that. I don’t even know if I can say that I’m British, I’m very specifically a south-Londoner, so yeah, I think South London, for me, it’s where I’ve grown up. It’s where I went to school. It’s where my family have grown up. It’s where a lot of these parties have happened, it is where I went to church. A lot of what we shot in the documentary is shot in south London. And that was by coincidence that wasn’t on purpose, it was just the place for these parties. So, yeah, I think to me my home is in south.
ALT:
Directing your first film, what do you see next, can we see a feature film, dare we dream?
Tobi:
I mean, it depends how this one turns out. It was fun. I did have fun doing it, yeah, I wouldn’t rule out doing it again if I had the opportunity.
