Join us on Saturday, October 2, from 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. for a discussion with Nigerian filmmaker Arie Esiri. Esiri will discuss his journey from script to screen with his international indie co-production, EYIMOFE (THIS IS MY DESIRE).
Location: Outdoors on the Schwartz Center Terrace (Rain location: Conference Room 220)
Free and open to the public. Seats are limited and on a first-come, first-served basis.
Screenings of EYIMOFE (THIS IS MY DESIRE) will be at Cornell Cinema on Oct. 1 & Oct. 2; Erie will host a Q&A following the October 1 screening. For more information visit cinema.cornell.edu/eyimofe-my-desire.
Finding photography in Paris, Arie Esiri honed his craft before returning to England where he worked in the camera departments of a number of projects ranging from Audi to Vivienne Westwood and the BBC. In the work of Vittorio De Sica, Arie found a form of storytelling that could give voice to the long neglected tales of the average Nigerian.
He received his Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University in New York. While there he continued to collaborate with his brother Chuko, co-directing their short Goose, which played at the 2017 LA Film Festival and producing Besida, an official selection at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival. He also produced Chika Anadu’s AMAA and AFI Fest award winning feature B for Boy.
His work as a director has been featured on Vogue and Essence.com. He is an IFP Narrative Lab Fellow who currently divides his time between Lagos and New York. Eyimofe is his first feature film.
About EYIMOFE (THIS IS MY DESIRE):
A triumph at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival, the revelatory debut feature from co-directors (and twin brothers) Arie and Chuko Esiri is a heartrending and hopeful portrait of everyday human endurance in Lagos, Nigeria.
Shot on richly textured 16mm film and infused with the spirit of neorealism, Eyimofe traces the journeys of two distantly connected strangers—Mofe (Jude Akuwudike), an electrician dealing with the fallout of a family tragedy, and Rosa (Temi Ami-Williams), a hairdresser supporting her pregnant teenage sister—as they each pursue their dream of starting a new life in Europe while bumping up against the harsh economic realities of a world in which every interaction is a transaction. From these intimate stories emerges a vivid snapshot of life in contemporary Lagos, whose social fabric is captured in all its vibrancy and complexity.
"Touching, beautiful, and complex. A Nigerian story, an African story, a migrant story, a human story." (Film Threat)
Website: janusfilms.com/films/2034
