TIFF 2016 Exclusive: Director Kemi Adetiba Talks ‘The Wedding Party’Posted by Wilson Morales
September 21, 2016
Making its World Premiere at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and opening up the City to City Programme, was the the Nigerian romcom film ‘The Wedding Party,’ which is directed by Kemi Adetiba and stars Banky Wellington, Adesua Etomi, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Iretiola Doyle, Atunyota Akpobome, Sola Sobowale, Somkele Iyamah-Idhalama, and Olusola Abiodun Sobowale.
Art gallery owner Dunni (Adesua Etomi) is the cherished daughter of Bamidele Coker (Atunyota Akpobome, popularly known as Ali Baba) and his wife, Tunuade (Sola Sobowale). When Dunni and her fiancé Dozie (Banky Wellington) elect to marry, the Cokers decide to throw the wedding of the century. Success in Nigeria’s oil industry has given them new wealth, so why not splash out for their only daughter? Besides, their reputation is at stake. While Dozie’s parents, Felix (Richard Mofe-Damijo) and Obianuju Onwuka (Ireti Doyle), believe their son is marrying beneath him, for the sake of tradition they’re willing to leave the big day to the bride’s parents. Barely.
For Nigerian native and Brooklyn based Adetiba, having worked as a music-video director, filmmaker, and television director, she’s been exposed to many facets of the entertainment business that helped guide her with this feature debut. Although, she’s done short films and music videos, a feature film is challenging just as well and with The Wedding Party, she’s proven she can step up a level higher and succeed.
In speaking with Blackfilm.com, Adetiba talked about her experience on making The Wedding Party.
You’ve done a lot over your career. So how did A Wedding Party come about for you to co-write it and direct it?
Kemi Adetiba: Funny enough, I just got a call from Mo Abudu, who is one of the executive producers on the film, and she’s like “There’s this project I want you to work on. I think you’d be great for it. I had to get your number from someone.” She was telling me about it and she said The Wedding Party. I’m like “Oh my God!” Everyone that knows a Nigerian wedding knows that it’s going to be absolutely crazy. She didn’t tell me too much of the concept, but she just said that it’s called The Wedding Party and it revolves around what happens during a Nigerian wedding. And in my brain I was already cutting, editing, shooting the project. I was like oh this sounds amazing. Then we went through the process of building up the script and then pre-production. Yeah, and then we’re here right now.
Part of any romcom film is making sure that the comedy aspect works. How do you know as a writer what angle of the story is going to work well from both the drama and comedy side?
Kemi Adetiba: I think for this film, we knew that we wanted it to be a romcom. The priority was having it be really funny and it went through loads of drafts. One of the things was we are already very funny people. We have very big personalities. How can we exaggerate this enough where that it’s funny? And I think one of the most important things as well was that when it came to a wedding party there’s so many little things that happen during a regular Nigerian wedding party that we already find funny.
If you put a thousand Africans especially a thousand Nigerians in one place and you allow them to run free all kinds of crazy stuff is going to be happening. We actually tried to keep true to what would happen in a Nigerian wedding and we just took all those little incidents out. Things that already, as regular human beings, we find funny or find strange I would just pull them out and put them into a movie. I think one of the things that people found very funny was that. I know when that happens. “Oh my God, my auntie does that. Oh my God, my mom is like that.” So even for the characters a lot of people could relate to them because “oh my God, that is so like my auntie. Oh my God, that is so like my mom.” My mom, personally, is like a perfect balance of the two moms on both sides, so yeah.
So did you have a checklist of traditions of what you wanted in the film and did all of it get put in?
Kemi Adetiba: Yes. First of all, we have close to almost 300 different ethnic groups. We’re using two of the most, well two out of three of the most predominant. It was the Ibo culture and the Yoruba culture. We definitely needed to fact check some places. At the part of the movie where both mothers have to dance in and I remember when we’re having one of our workshops that session. I was like “how about they fight over who dances in first” and I remember someone was like no, but you know in proper tradition the bride’s family dances in first. But that’s why the fight is there. They find a way that they’re both fighting about who dances into the wedding reception first. So we definitely had to fact check tradition, but then we didn’t allow that to weigh us down if you understand what I mean. We used that to our advantage to have more comedy moments.
Let’s talk about the cast. You have some well-known talent in the film. You also have some fresh faces to some people who have not seen them before. How did you go about casting them?
Kemi Adetiba: It was an open call. Everybody had to audition. I do know because we had a lot of big names on the project, but everyone had to come in, stand on this little podium and audition for it. It was based strictly off who was the best actor for whatever role it was in and we’re just so grateful that we’re able to put together this amazing collection of phenomenal actors. It’s truly a blessing and it’s an amazing cast so it’s almost like a tag team because it’s really not about one tag in the movie. It’s almost like they tag themselves in. It’s time for your funny scene, go in and then tag the next person it’s time for your funny scene, go in. So it’s such a great experience.
Was this singer Banky W’s first film?
Kemi Adetiba: Yes.Banky it’s actually his first film. He also auditioned. Banky had one or two. I remember when we were talking about we needed someone that represented that role. Banky’s role was supposed to be a playboy and he comes from a music family. It’s not just about having money, but he’s like really exposed and we were looking for people that could do that. You’re not going to have a lot of people that can act rich or… I mean, you can act rich but you can’t act exposed.
We had a few names that came up on our list and we threw Banky on there. A few people who were a bit worried about that being that Banky is a very, very, very accomplished and successful artist in Africa and especially Nigeria. People were just worried that he’s probably one-dimensional and he’s not going to be able to pull it off. I’ve worked with Banky on a few projects, actually a lot of projects and music videos and they’ve done very well. And one thing I’ve always noticed because a lot of my music videos are story. There’s a lot of story content to that and Banky has always been able to pull it off. So I wasn’t as worried as they were. Banky just came in and knocked it out of the park. No one had to say anything, it was just like yep. It’s Banky. And of course it did not hurt that Banky was who he was so automatically he’s pulling in a massive following into the movie.
What does this do for you knowing that your film was the first of the Nigerian films that was selected for the Toronto Film Festival to open up the City to City Programme?
Kemi Adetiba: I think it was after the premiere that it dawned on me the significance of being the first film. At first we didn’t even know, we just knew that we had been taken and that was big enough as it was. And then we found out that we were going to be the first film to open up the City to City Programme of the festival. Then it was going to be opening night. It was just like wait, wait, wait, wait you know? And the Elgin Theatre sits like over 1400 people and it was just like wow, but I don’t think it sunk in until after and people kept on talking about it or talking to me about it and talking about how amazing it was. And I’m like “oh my God this is amazing!”
I already knew it was amazing to be at TIFF, but then I didn’t understand the gravity of being the first film to premiere. I was telling someone the other day I had gone just for lunch during the weekend that we were there. I was sitting, dining at this restaurant and this gentleman sits down to the left of me and this elderly couple sits down to the right of me. And a good question to open up a topic of discussion is oh, are you here for the festival? And I wasn’t even trying to show off or anything. To me it hadn’t dawned yet.
“Oh yeah, We just screened the movie at the Elgin so that’s why I’m here,” and he literally freaked out. He was like “Wait, wait, wait. A movie?” And I’m like “Yeah”. “So what were you doing for the movie?.” and I was like “I was the director.” He absolutely freaked out. The couple to the right of me freaked out and he was like, “Can you sign my magazine? Could I buy you dessert?” And I’m like “I’m not having dessert, I’m just drinking my wine.” He goes “Please let me buy you a drink please, please, please. I’m going to tell my wife.” He’s shaking my hand. It was like he was starstruck and he never even saw the movie.
I think it’s little incidents like that. I understand how privileged we were but little incidents like that just hammered it in. That kind of this is absolutely amazing. I want you to have your second or your third screening. You’re having people standing in line and wanting to shake your hand and ask about the movie or you bump into people and they’re like “I’m going for the third screening. I’ve heard so much about this.” I mean that’s absolutely amazing. That’s absolutely amazing.
What’s the next step for the film? Is the film going to be released in the United States?
Kemi Adetiba: I think everybody is focused on the screening in December. So we’re going to do that. We’re definitely going to have screenings in the States in major cities. Especially cities that have a lot of Africans as well. I do know that we’re tossing the idea of maybe doing a sequel to it because after marriage comes… So we are like playing around with it, but definitely we’re going to push it in the States as well definitely. Because there’s a lot of interest. There’s interest from Asia and places like that. So we’re just trying to enjoy the moment and soak in. You’ve got to understand when you’re shooting a movie, you’re hoping people enjoy it. You don’t understand the gravity. I mean we wanted this to happen, but for it to just come so soon and it’s just amazing. It’s just an amazing feeling to be here to be very honest. We just are grateful for it.
