Korede Azeez is one of Nigeria’s most prolific breakout filmmakers. Her journey sheds light on the broader landscape of women in Nigeria’s expanding film industry.

Korede Azeez. Courtesy: Korayday

In 2022, 32-year-old writer and director, Korede Azeez was one of six winners of the Netflix-UNESCO African Folktales Reimagined competition, a groundbreaking initiative that aimed to find some of the continent’s breakout filmmakers. She was the only West African Muslim woman to achieve this feat among six other finalists. She received $75,000 to create short films through a local production company and under the guidance of Netflix-appointed supervising producers and industry mentors from across the continent.

Her short film entry, Adieu, Salut, is a sci-fi story about a young girl who fights for control over her fate. Set in the not-so-distant future where everyone but the people of a small Fulani village have uploaded themselves into a virtual world, the plot unfolds in a familiar but different world. Her second film, Halima’s Choice, tells the story of how a young Muslim woman solicits help from a virtual world to escape an arranged marriage. It was based on a folk tale from southern Nigeria; she revived it to tell a contemporary northern Nigeria story. Her latest film, With Difficulty Comes Ease, is a full-length feature and the second she has directed – no mean feat for a young director. Released in August 2024, it examines the complexities of a recently widowed Igbo-Hausa woman who grapples with cultural expectations, personal struggle, and grief.

Despite this kaleidoscope of work that incorporates different themes, Korede says that she has a specific love for Afro-futurism across film, animation and literature. According to the definition given by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Afro-futurism ‘expresses notions of Black identity, agency and freedom through art, creative works and activism that envision liberated futures for Black life.’

To trace Korede’s love for the sub-genre, we have to hark back to her humble beginnings.

Adama Munu: So tell me about where you grew up. What was that like?

[Born in Lagos, Korede was two years old when she moved to Enugu state in southeastern Nigeria, where she also attended school and university. She describes herself as a “weirdo’”or “odd one”, which had a lot to do with the fact that she was the only Yoruba Muslim in her classes – “even until university”, she tells me. Most people in Enugu state are predominantly of ethnic Igbo extraction.]

Korede Azeez: In my early childhood, I read many story books that had an element of fantasy, and Enid Blyton books, which are where the interest came about. Love for story books transitioned to a love for movies, due to Hallmark films and Nigerian video clubs, which started with cassettes.’

When I started writing short stories, they were also fantasy-based and sci-fi. At the time, I thought I was going to be something other than a filmmaker. [Thinking] about it as a career option only became a thing after my Youth Service. At university, I had a keen interest in creating stories for radio, and so while I worked on the campus radio station, I was exposed to a BBC radio drama called ‘Story Story’. It was the first time I listened to a Nigerian story, which piqued my interest and made me think, ‘I can do something like this’.

[That was the start of her career in broadcast and radio, after which she flirted with copyrighting work, and worked as a sound recordist at BBC Media Action where she learned how to shoot video.]

KA: I was always thinking about the ‘next thing’ which is how I looked into film and filmmaking. I had a colleague who went to film school through whom I made my first film ‘Tip off the edge’.

Korede Azeez with actors on the set of Halima’s Choice, her second short in her Netflix series. Courtesy: Korayday. 

AM: Now your specific role is directing. What does that entail?

KA: As a director, you are the captain of the ship. You are the chief storyteller. It’s your vision that makes it to the screen. So, through the pre-production, production, and post-production processes, you are the one that the crew is looking to for direction, which is why you need to have a solid vision. You don’t want to make a film that anyone else could have made, which is how I feel about my films. That’s what having a vision is about.

AM: What are the misconceptions you think people associate with being a director? There’s the ‘glam’ element, but….?

KA: Directors do not make the most money in the industry. People think it is glamorous. Apart from the red carpet, it is not glamorous, it is hard work, it takes a lot of mental and physical energy and a lot of time. A cinematographer will shoot the project, come and go, but the director is there from the beginning until the end.

AM: How did you overcome your nerves in completing your first short film?

KA: I was very eager to shoot my first short film, but it was different from my feature film because someone was betting their money on me and I don’t think I overcame that, not until I made my Netflix short film. The mistakes I made with my short film, I corrected with my Netflix feature. One of my biggest regrets with my first feature was not speaking to all my actors before filming on set, but I changed that with the Netflix film: We had readings, I listened to their thoughts and perspectives, there were lengthy conversations and we had rehearsals. That makes a big difference.

AM: You’ve done some short films since that time, and, incredibly, two features, Blooms in June and With Difficulty Comes Ease. What made you know you were ready to start your first feature film? I ask this because it takes some years before filmmakers embark on a massive project.

I didn’t know I was ready to make my first feature film. I just took an opportunity through a competition hosted by the production company ‘Native Team Works’. They wanted to mentor ten filmmakers who wanted to make their first feature film. I applied and I got in. I guess it worked out, lol. The film, which I shot in 2021, is about the relationship between a father and his daughter and him letting her ‘grow up.’

AM: Are there particular themes or issues related to Nigeria and your Muslim faith that you are passionate about exploring in your films?

KA: There are so many things to talk about: I want to make a film about outer space, vampires, werewolves and superheroes.  It sounds crazy but what I know is that I want to always produce a film from a unique perspective, one that you don’t typically see, and one from a non-traditional Nigerian Muslim woman. My background and experiences give me a unique lens on a lot of things. It’s not as much about themes and issues as it is about my perspective.

AM: Do you think focusing on these attributes limits or pigeonholes your creativity?

KA: What drives me and what keeps me wanting to make films is that art has the power to change people’s minds and shape views. I always believed that people don’t understand Muslims because of what they have been fed by the media and what they see on screen. I hope non-Muslims can see that we are all just people, with aspirations, dreams and failures.

[With such an open way of looking at her work, I was curious to find out what inspires her. I was surprised to find out that one of her icons is legendary Japanese filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu who is best known for films like A Story of Floating Weeds’ (1934) and Late Autumn (1960), starring Setsuko Hara and Yoko Tsukasa as mother and daughter. What excites her about Yasujirō Ozu is how he stepped away from using Hollywood as the main stylistic reference for his work, which allowed him to curate a distinctive cinematographic style.]

KA: [Yasujirō Ozu] pulls away from regular cinema conventions of his time, in the way he places his shots and the way he edits. His films feel like art, they seem to have a serenity and calmness to them. He hardly ever moves his camera except when necessary and there is something about that, that feels right, lol. I’ve become that director, I’d say ‘Don’t move the camera’ unless you really need to. Just about keeping things simple, and focusing on the actors, Korede says.

AM: What advice would you give to aspiring filmmakers?

KA: So just do it. Find a way to make it. It’s easier than ever to make a film today. You have your phone. You can start with that. You have YouTube. Look for opportunities. Start small and nimble. Maybe you have an aunt and uncle that can lend you money. There’s no time to waste.

Habiba Ummi Mohammed in Halima’s Choice. Courtesy: Korayday.