A talented filmmaker, Dotun Bankole has urged African creatives to tell stories their own way.

Bankole who has worked on great movie projects like Kunle Afolayan’s ‘October 1’ said:”Thinking about it, I thank God for blessing me with many skills. Right from my primary school days my sister Kehinde Bankole and I would create stories and draw up comics for storyline scene by scene which ironically was a good foundational knowledge for the storyboarding I do now professionally for film.

So I have always had story telling and theatre act in me from childhood and knew it was going to happen somehow at some point in my life. As for what drives my passion, Nigeria and Africa as a whole is blessed with history and stories rich in life lessons and discipline that forms our culture and who we are. We have to tell our own stories in how own way and keep telling the stories at any instance life presents”.

Going down memory lane, the filmmaker who tells stories with his lens said:”My journey started as a drama department leader back in the days at fellowship I hold dear to my heart called the Youth Aflame Fellowship in the Redeemed Christian Church of God back in year 2000. I was quickly noticed by the bigger theatre troupe of the same church ( The Acts Of The Apostle) and became a key member of the troupe.

In 2002 I joined the Edun troupe of Lagos State University (LASU) occasionally on different outings. I was known for my act, traditional dance and Yoruba chants of different dimensions, Ijala, Ewi, Igbe and so on. I relocated to South Africa in 2007 and continued in my theatre ways leading a theatre troupe in Pretoria called La’ Passione, in the same year I pursued a Diploma in Film making and that began my journey into film.

I shot a number of township documentaries and short films with several film studios in South Africa. My introduction to the Nigerian film industry was first project in with weaverbird studio as Director of Photography for the movie “Apostate” in 2011, and then I filmed “October 1” as the assistant Director in 2013 that went on claiming numerous awards across Africa and then the journey continues”.

Bankole also noted that traces of his passion for theatre and filmmaking started right from his primary school days.

“Thinking about it, I thank God for blessing me with many skills. Right from my primary school days my sister Kehinde Bankole and I would create stories and draw up comics for storyline scene by scene which ironically was a good foundational knowledge for the storyboarding I do now professionally for film. So I have always had story telling and theatre act in me from childhood and knew it was going to happen somehow at some point in my life.

As for what drives my passion, Nigeria and Africa as a whole is blessed with history and stories rich in life lessons and discipline that forms our culture and who we are. We have to tell our own stories in how own way and keep telling the stories at any instance life presents”.

Addressing the challenges he faces as a Nigerian filmmaker , the elder brother of popular actress, Kehinde Bankole said
“Two major road blocks I battle with every time is funding and security in Nigeria.

Funding to take ideas into finished projects in the Nigerian economy of today is a usually a challenge for most film makers. Lack of grounded security across the country is a major challenge for me as my stories gravitate more towards filming in extremely remote locations with reports of high security risk, even if I am willing to go I have tens of cast and crew that would be exposed to potential Danger which is not what I am willing to bear mentally, so theses challenges constantly get in my way”.

Shedding light on the projects he is working on, Bankole said:
“My goal is to join many other film makers who are already doing the good job in telling our indigenous stories as that is the only way to retain our history as Africans. And speaking of retention, the focus should be on the very young ones to be aware of the stories surrounding we originate from as a people, our good cultural values, our heroes and possibly some notable mistakes tribes made that we can pick lessons from because not everything about our tradition is rosy. In line with this I am currently working on a 2D animation project from a tales by Adufe animation studio. I chose animation to recreate some documented details from the 18th century that might be challenging to create in Nigeria today in terms of production budget.

Also to appeal to mostly the young age bracket and those in diaspora too. A five-episode series set in a time Afonja reigned, the foundation of Ilorin and her relationship with Oyo ile now known as Oyo. My team is hoping this can make it to Netflix or Amazon so we can enjoy a wider reach and campaign.

Simultaneously I am also working on a feature film that would be set in Nigeria and Scotland, I would prefer to keep the details of this project for now. But all things being equal this should be revealed officially by January 2024”, he said.

Bankole’s artistic drive is fueled by his core values of good morals, willpower, hope, and his deep appreciation for the African culture. While acknowledging the positive influence of modernization, Bankole recognizes that it has also led to the erosion of cultural values such as love, happiness, brotherhood, faith, respect, and self-confidence. As a custodian of African history, he sees it as his responsibility, and that of fellow filmmakers, to bridge this gap by consistently telling stories that celebrate and preserve these cultural values.