The A-Brothers of Nigerian Cinema Are Back Again!

THE A-BROTHERS ARE BACK AGAIN!


Afolabi and Adedeji Adesanya, the Adesanya Brothers (aka A-Brothers), are back again!
From the stable of A-Productions, they gave us such classics as Vigilante (1988) and the capital market financed Ose Sango – Sango’s Wand (1991). They are teaming up, though not for a production but for training and capacity building in the creative arts on the platform of Sagamu Business and Arts Institute (SBAI).

The Adesanya brothers are filmmakers with over sixty (60) years of on-the-job experience between them. Adedeji (aka DJ) is a renowned cinematographer, still photographer, documentary filmmaker, scriptwriter, producer and director, and a trainer. His screen credits include Vigilante (co-writer and director), Ose Sango – Sango’s Wand (producer); and Uncommon Service (winner of maiden Hilda Ogunbanjo Award for story/script, and Africast Award 2010 for BEST Documentary film). Others are television commercials, and television documentaries shot in Egypt, Germany, and Senegal. Festivals attended include New Films, New Directors, New York; and Los Angeles International Film Festival, L.A., California, USA.

Adedeji had been a resource person at National Film Institute, Jos; and he is currently Head of Department (HoD) Film & Television Production (FTP) at PEFTI. He has also written many published articles on the film and television industry.

Afolabi is a well established film auteur, photo-journalist, photo artist, film historian, film critic, author, a technocrat and a trainer. As a television director, he directed the award winning television serial, Family Circle, which won the BEST TELEVISION DRAMA AWARD and BEST CHILD ACTOR AWARD at the 1998 REEL AWARD organised by Encomium magazine. It also won the 1997/98 NIGERIAN MEDIA MERIT AWARD, and the 1999, 8th edition of DAME AWARD (Television Production category). He directed several episodes of Everyday People, Saints & Sinners, and Domino. He worked with Ladi Ladebo on his video productions, Collective Task and Thrift Collector, aka TC (a television series). Afolabi wrote and directed Ose Sango (1991), which won the Hubert Ogunde Foundation Award for the Best Nigeria Film of the year (1992 maiden edition). His other screen credits include television commercials (TVCs) and feature films (including Ladebo’s Pariah, Power and Baba Zak). He was the executive producer of Duty and Zanani (both productions of the Nigerian Film Corporation).

His home video (Nollywood) credits include: Asewo to re Mecca, Colours of Love, Colours of Tomorrow, First Love and Tomori.

His articles; poems; book, film and art reviews had been published in Africa, West Africa, Africa Woman, Ophelia, Entertainer, The Guardian Newspapers (Lagos), Newswatch (of which he was the pioneer Photo Editor) and Media Review. Mr. Adesanya was a contributor to Africa Film & TV (yearbook and magazine). He is the author of The Nigerian Film/TV Index, Nigerian Literary Index, Reel Words, and Reel Views.

He contributed to publications of the Nigerian Film Corporation such as Operating Principles of the Film Industry: Towards a film Policy for Nigeria, Nigerian Video Films (edited by Jonathan Haynes), Cinema and Social Change in West Africa (edited by Jonathan Haynes and Onookome Okome). His other book credits include
World Cinema: Diary of a Day (a British Film Institute, London publication); Africa the Centenary of Cinema (a Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers [FEPACI] publication), and Beyond the Screen Vol. 1 No. 1 (a journal of the National Film Institute).

In 1986 he had a solo photographic exhibition, sponsored by USIS and ILFORD, at USIS, Lagos, Nigeria.

Afolabi was a Resource Person at the National Film Institute, Jos, and ITPAN Training School, Lagos, Nigeria. He has attended and covered such film festivals as San Francisco International Film Festival; FESPACO; Images D'Ailleurs (his film OSE SANGO, was shown), Cannes, Toronto International Film Festival; American Film Market and Conferences, Santa Monica, California; Egypt International Film Festival; Sithengi; Capetown International Film Festival; Durban International Film Festival; Gao International Film Festival, India, Berlinale; et al. He was a member of the 1992 Nigerian National Film Festival Committee; and a member of the Jury that judged entries for the NTA (Nigerian Television Authority) Adverts Awards, 1993.

He was Chairman FESPACO TV/Video Award Jury (2009), and the Organising Committee of ZUMA Film Festival 2005 – 2012).

Afolabi, who has worked extensively in both the private and public sectors as an administrator and technocrat, is the Rector of Sagamu Business and Arts Institute. He was the Managing Director/CEO of Nigerian Film Corporation from 2005 to 2013; before then he was the General Manager/CEO of West African Pictures Company Limited (from 2001 to 2005), a film distribution and exhibition company in the Odu’a Group.

The A-Brothers will be leading an eclectic team of knowledgeable and experienced local and international resource persons drawn from the field and academia of creative arts.


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