The iREPRESENT Documentary Film Forum, organisers of the iREP  International Documentary Film Festival, has been appointed as the flagship of the newly formed Documentary Network Africa (DNA), which is aimed at uniting all African documentary filmmakers on the continent.

The decision was made in Johannesburg last week where Executive director of iREP, Mr Femi Odugbemi represented Nigeria at the People-2-People Documentary Conference that featured documentary filmmakers from about 20 countries on the continent.

The iREP is also a key promoter and co-coordinator of the West African Documentary Film Forum, which was inspired by the biennial Real Life Documentary Film Festival in Ghana.

At the conference, more than 150 documentary filmmakers from across Africa had converged at the People-2-People Documentary Conference, and decided it was “time for African filmmakers to do things for themselves”.

A statement from organisers and initiators of the DNA stated: “A joint resolution that emerged after the historic three-day Johannesburg conference created the  new organisation, Documentary Network Africa (DNA), where the participating filmmakers agreed “to work together to create a network and process to empower both our own storytelling and each other.

“This will be by Africans, for Africans, and with Africans.”

The vision is “to promote the importance of African documentary in the genre, and to use this to promote a more positive view of Africa.”