Onyeka Igwe
2K Video - DCP, Stereo + 5.1 surround, 19 mins, 2020
Sound design & Sound Mix by Richy Carey
In Lagos, the former Nigerian Film Unit building was one of the first self-directed outposts of the British visual propaganda engine, the Colonial Film Unit (1932 - 1955). Today it stands empty. Its rooms are full of dust, cobwebs, stopped clocks, and rusty and rotting celluloid film cans. The films found in this building are hard to see, not only because of their condition, but also perhaps because people do not want to see them. They reveal a colonial residue, echoed in walls of the building itself.
a so-called archive imagines the ‘lost’ films from both of these archives, using distinctive soundscapes, choral arrangements and a radio play within the confines of the architecture of these buildings and their schematic representations.
This was the second project I had worked on with Onyeka. I recorded a session of sonic mediations and vocal performances composed by Shenece Oretha and a the script for a radio play written by Onyeka which would feature in the film. I then returned to the studio, to compose the radio play, and collaborate with Onyeka on composing the sound design and mix for the film overall.