Now Press Play 2024

Join us for a double screening of Afrobeat excellence.

Music is the Weapon (1 Hour)

Directed in 1982 by Stephane Tchai-Gadjieff and Jean-Jacques Flori, Music is the Weapon is the definitive documentary on FELA. An essential film for all who wish to know more about an artist at the heart of African musical history.

Shot in Lagos, this documentary carries us from the ‘Kalakuta Republic’ to the mythical ‘Shrine’ nightclub. At the height of his popularity in a chaotic Nigeria, Fela wanted to stand for president.

The Army responded by attacking and ransacking his community, raping his wives and throwing his mother from a window, who was later to die from her injuries. Coming from yet another time in prison, more determined than ever and surrounded by his wives, Fela transmits to the camera his thoughts on politics, Pan-Africanism, music and religion.

William Onyeabor: Fantastic Man (30 mins)

“We were looking for a group of individuals that had something otherworldly about them,” says musician and filmmaker Adam Bainbridge aka Kindness on the stars of today’s video for “Fantastic Man” by near-mythical psychedelic funk artist William Onyeabor.

“I then remembered the energy, the sense of camaraderie and above all, the love of music of the Central Park skaters.”

Co-directed with Camilla Wasserman, the joyous short spotlights the cosmic funk of the artist from Enugu, Nigeria, whose backstory is virtually unknown. After a prolific musical output in the 1980s, Onyeabor became a born-again Christian, refusing to talk about his past; one that may or may not have included a period studying film in the Soviet Union and setting up a recording studio, pressing plant and record label when he returned to Africa.

“I found out that Damon Albarn was one of the few guys who was familiar with his music,” says Eric Welles-Nyström from Luaka Bop, the label founded by David Byrne and Yale Evelev that released last year’s critically lauded compilation, Who is William Onyeabor?. “It wasn’t until we spoke with Damon that it hit me how funny Onyeabor’s music can be.

Supported by Film Hub NI, part of the BFI Film Audience Network, awarding funds from National Lottery.