Lagos: Dr Ali Nuhu, Managing Director of the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC), has announced the return of the heritage film festival ‘Decasia’ to Lagos for its 2025 edition, which is set to take place from July 27 to July 30. This announcement was made through NFC’s Director of Public Affairs, Brian Etuk, on Thursday in Abuja.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the return of ‘Decasia’ to Lagos is a collaborative initiative involving the Nigerian Film Corporation, the Lagos Film Society, and several partners from Germany, including the Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Arts from Berlin. The collaboration also features the Deutsche Filminstitut and Filmmuseum in Frankfurt, Goethe University-Frankfurt, DAAD, and Goethe Institut.
Dr Nuhu emphasized that the heritage film festival aims to be a gathering point for filmmakers, archivists, historians, scholars, and culture enthusiasts. The focus will be on rediscovering, preserving, and creatively re-imagining Africa’s cinematic heritage. He also assured attendees of engaging experiences that include screenings of rare archival films and panel discussions on strategies for archiving, preservation challenges, and national development to support the draft National Film Archive Policy.
The event will feature networking sessions to highlight the role of cultural memory in shaping Nigeria’s creative future. One of the festival’s objectives is to maintain global conversations about the impact of digital technologies and the relationship between archives and film festivals. ‘Decasia’ provides a platform to explore creative opportunities within archival materials for sustainable human development.
Dr Nuhu also highlighted the public platform that ‘Decasia’ offers. It supports connections between the National Film Video and Sound Archive as a national audio-visual repository and promotes a Master Degree Programme in Film Culture and Archiving Studies at the National Film Institute and the University of Jos. The festival serves as a platform for audio-visual content creators and the general public.
The underlying aim of the festival is to raise awareness among government bodies, private sectors, and content creators about the importance of using, protecting, preserving, and archiving audio-visual materials. The NFC’s efforts to encourage constructive engagement through collaborative partnerships underscore the significance of ‘Decasia’ 2025.
The festival is planned as a four-day event at the Lagos office of NFC in Ikoyi and is also designed to be hosted in Berlin, Germany. The inaugural edition took place in October 2019 in Lagos with the title ‘1st Berlin-Lagos Archival Film Festival’, while the 2020 edition was held in Berlin, themed ‘Reclaiming History, Unveiling Memory’.
