Andy Amadi Okoroafor was born in Bauchi, Northern Nigeria on February 8th 1966. He pursued his education and a successful creative career in Paris. He is returning to Nigeria to fulfill his lifelong ambition of making films about contemporary Africa for a world audience. He is an acclaimed Art Director in advertising, fashion and music videos based in Paris. His clients have included Xuly-Bët, Jean Paul Gaultier, Kookaï, Virgin, Galeries La Fayette, to name a few.
Andy is also the founder of Clam Magazine, a quarterly magazine focusing on African creativity - distributed in France, Africa, US, UK, Japan, South Africa and Germany. Source: Igbo People
The following explains Okoroafor's vision for the film, taken from the director's statement on the Clam Films website:
Though set in Freetown Sierra Leone and Lagos Nigeria, the story could easily have been anywhere in Africa; Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Congo, Rwanda; It is an African story, but also a universal tale. An African story in its landscape and particular circumstances, but a universal story in its characters, its heart and theme.
Relentless deals with the consequence of wars on the psyche of the contemporary African. From Rwanda (genocide), the Congo (the African world war), Burundi (ethnic struggle for power) to Cote d'Ivoire and Darfur. Wars with different ramifications, and brutality, Liberia and later Sierra Leone was at the vanguard of these brutal conflicts of the biafran war into which our hero Obi was born is one the first in a long list of conflicts that has distorted Africa.
The film has the ambition of exploring Africa beyond the news headlines, sound bites and statistics. It is about looking at Africa from a contemporary point of view. It's about the little people; the ones nobody reports after the satellite transmission dishes have been folded and moved to another cliché. I want Relentless to also be a mirror for African society to look at itself, criticise itself, and celebrate itself. STAY IN TOUCH Get updates on new photographer interviews plus news on contests, art shows and informed commentary on what's happening with diversity in photography. Subscribe to Dodge & Burn Photography Blog: Diversity in Photography by Email