FRESH from its successful run at the 32nd African Film Festival New York, the feature film, “The Man Died,” returns to the American culture circuits, where it will feature as part of the African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF), Chicago, USA, holding June 13-15.
Inspired by the prison notes of Africa’s first Nobel laureate in literature, Wole Soyinka, The Man Died, will be screened on June 15 at the FACETS, 1517 W Fullerton Ave, Chicago at 3.30 pm. It is the 134-min (longer) version of the film 6hat will be screened. Other festivals where the film had featured — across three continents — on its current global tour had screened the shorter (105 mins) version.
https://chicago.eventive.org/schedule/67f41aea20ff8b6eb4662816
AFTER the screening, the director of the film, Awam Amkpa, trained-artist and professor of Art and Media at the New York University, Abu Dhabi and NY, will have conversation with guests to the screening. This is the exact format adopted at the Luxor International film Festival, LAFF, in January, where it won the “Best Film that treats an important African Issue.”
In its invitation to the producer of the film, Femi Odugbemi of Zuri24 Media, the ADIFF directorate, said it was inviting The Man Died to feature at both its Chicago and Washington DC iterations:
Part of the invitation reads: “On behalf of the African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF), I am delighted to formally invite “The Man Died,” directed by Awam Amkpa, to screen at both ADIFF Chicago and ADIFF DC.” The Washington DC screening will hold in August.
Before now, the film has had a great run in the American circuit, having been to the Pan African Film Festival, PAFF, Los Angeles, (February 4-17); Nollywood in Hollywood, California, (February 28-March 1), and African Film Festival Atlanta, (March 13-17 )
A promo on the Chicago festival screening published by the directorate of the ADIFF, Artmattan Productions, captures the film’s synopsis as:
“Based on the gripping true story of Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian literary giant who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. When his principled intervention to halt a burgeoning civil war is twisted into an act of rebellion, he finds himself unjustly incarcerated by the military regime. Inside the confines of his cell, his unwavering ideals are pushed to their breaking point as he fights to maintain his mental fortitude and stay alive… The Man Died is not just a personal story but a universal testament to the enduring power of truth and the necessity of standing up against tyranny. It is a poignant reminder that in the face of oppression, silence is not an option, and the human spirit can never truly be extinguished.”
ESTABLISHED in 1993, the Harlem-based minority-led not-for profit, the ADIFF, “presents, interprets and educates about films that explore the human experience of people of colour all over the world in order to inspire imaginations, disrupt stereotypes and help transform attitudes that perpetuate injustice.”
Other details in the invitation state:
ADIFF Chicago: We are thrilled to offer a screening slot for “The Man Died” at FACETS in Chicago, from June 13th to June 15th, 2024. We believe this powerful film aligns perfectly with ADIFF’s mission to showcase diverse and thought-provoking cinema from Africa and the African diaspora.
ADIFF DC: We are also very pleased to invite “The Man Died” to screen at ADIFF DC, to be held at George Washington University in August… We see a strong potential audience for the film in Washington D.C. and are excited to bring it to this new venue.
Director Attendance (Chicago): We would be particularly honored to explore the possibility of having the director, Awam Amkpa, attend the ADIFF Chicago screening. His presence, and the potential for a Q&A session with the audience, would significantly enhance the event and provide a valuable opportunity for engagement with the film’s themes.
Written by the renowned United Kingdom-based screenwriter, Bode Asiyanbi, the film stars a coterie of popular names on the Nigerian screen, including Wale Ojo as Wole, the protagonist; Sam Dede as Yisa, Wole’s tormentor and antagonist; Norbert Young (Prison Superintendent), Francis Onwochei (Prison Controller) and Edmond Enaibe (Commissioner); as well as international actors, London-UK-based Christiana Oshunniyi (Laide Soyinka), and Los Angeles, USA-based Abraham Awam-Amkpa (Johnson), among others.
After Chicago, the next port of call for the film will be Europe, where it has been elected a “star attraction” at the 2025 African Theatre Association, AfTA annual conference holding in Stuttgart, Germany in July. It is also being considered for special screenings at educational institutions in Florence, Italy; Abu Dhabi in the UAE; at New York University, Harvard University, and at Ithaca College, all in the USA; at Oxford University, in the United Kingdom; as well as at the House of World Culture in Berlin, Germany, among others. This is as it is also being reviewed by at least three major global streaming platforms, and international distribution channels.
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The Man Died… the journey so far
Though yet to be officially released to the market, The Man Died, since its “special-premiere” in July 2024 in Lagos to mark the Nobel laureate dramatist, poet, essayist and human/civil rights activist, Soyinka’s 90th birthday, has had a series of home runs including on October 5 at the Quramo Festival of Words, QFest 2024, Lagos; and the Lagos Book & Art Festival, LABAF on November 14. It has also been screened at the at the African Int’l Film Festival, AFRIFF, Lagos November 5; and Eastern Nigeria International Film Festival, ENIFF, Enugu, November 27, and
It began its global tour in London in July 2024 as part of the Nobel laureate’s 90th celebration jointly organised and hosted by the Africa Centre and the Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange, WSICE. It returned to same London in October as part of the Africa Film Festival at Richmix; and also had an educational screening at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. It was screened on October 11 on the ‘Accra Streamfest’ bill of the “Labone Dialogues”, hosted by New York University, NYU Accra. It was at the Carthage Int’l film Festival, Tunis, December 14-21; and Luxor African Film Festival, Luxor, Egypt, January 7-16. It has won awards at most of the festival, including Best Scriptwriting Award – AFRIFF, Nov. 5-9; Best Audience Choice Award – ENIFF, Nov 27-29; Best Film That Tackles an Important African Issue’ — Luxor Int’l Film Festival, Jan.9-14; Nominated for Best Feature Narrative Award, Pan African Film Festival, PAFF – Feb. 4-17; Nominated Best African Film; Best Editing; Best Film – Jo’Burg Film Festival, March 11-16. It also crowned Awam Amkpa as Best Director at the continent’s most prestigious film and television award project, African Magic Viewers Choice Award AMVCA in May 2025.
Produced by Zuri 24 Media, The Man Died, according to the synopsis on its website — www.themandiedmovie.com — is the story of Wole Soyinka’s 27 months incarceration by the Nigerian government in 1967 at the cusp of the civil war. He was famously seeking a truce between Biafra and the Federal Government to allow time for a negotiated settlement of the conflict. It is fundamentally a personal account. Essentially, the subject found refuge from the brutality inflicted upon him by retreating into and living within his own mind. At times, he drifted about the frontiers of madness, hanging on to himself by a thread. At other times, he pondered, listened, and watched, like only the truly otherwise unoccupied can. Importantly, he managed to scrounge paper and a pencil from time to time and record his journey of ‘motionlessness.”
The director of the film, an actor, playwright, director of stage plays, films and curator of visual arts, Awam Amkpa is a Nigerian-American professor of drama, film, and social and cultural analysis at the New York University in New York and Abu Dhabi. Author of Theatre and Postcolonial Desires (Routledge, 2003), Awam is director of film documentaries and curator of photographic exhibitions and film festivals. He has also written several articles on representations in Africa and its diasporas, representations, and modernisms in theater, postcolonial theater, and Black Atlantic films.
Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoeiYA8vjrk
The Producer, an accomplished storyteller, content producer, filmmaker, and media scholar, Femi Odugbemi is the Founder/CEO of Zuri24 Media Lagos, producers of the film. His screen credits over 25 years in the creative industries span feature films, multiple drama TV series and documentaries. He was one of the founding producers of the daily soap opera Tinsel as well as Executive Producer of several popular TV soap operas, including Battleground; Brethren; Movement JAPA, and Covenant, among others. Also, producer of several award-winning documentaries and feature films, Odugbemi is Co-Founder/Executive Director of the IREPRESENT International Documentary Film Festival Lagos and a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSqp6Z0XsuE