Kunle Afolayan, Nollywood 2.0

It is amazing how you can have really good conversations and sometimes, it’s not until much later that certain things happen that crystallize those conversations. A dear friend, another film director, had recommended Irapada to me several years ago and I remember we talked about it as we do so many things, he telling me […]

It is amazing how you can have really good conversations and sometimes, it’s not until much later that certain things happen that crystallize those conversations. A dear friend, another film director, had recommended Irapada to me several years ago and I remember we talked about it as we do so many things, he telling me to watch it, I asking why, he saying because it’s a really well-produced movie, and I either making a mental note to watch it, or saying sure we can watch it together so if I don’t like it I can give him the evil eye then and there. Fast forward to now when I happened on Phone Swap and I am intrigued enough that not only do I want to watch all Kunle Afolayan’s movies, I also want to have a conversation with the man.

Kunle Afolayan is the director of Phone Swap which was recently screened at the Film Africa 2012 Festival in the UK. Film Africa purports to be the UK’s largest annual festival of African cinema and culture featuring 70 African films by leading filmmakers, and African music nights. How I wish I was there. But I will be speaking with the co-director of the festival, Lindiwe Dovey, in the next few weeks and will bring that interview to you here on halftribedotcom.

In addition to Irapada and Phone Swap, Kunle is also the director of The Figurine. Kunle’s father was the renowned Ade Love, also a film director, so he grew up on film sets. Though a trained banker, Kunle decided to switch careers and went on to study digital film making at the New York Film Academy in London. He makes films for the big screen and not for video like most of Nollywood and his goal is to make films that appeal to discerning film lovers around the world.

As we work to schedule our interview with Kunle Afolayan, in the meantime we are pleased to present here, with full permission, an interview he did in 2010 for Framework, the Journal of Cinema and Media. Here is Kunle Afolayan, in his own words, and at the end he hints at Phone Swap.