March 30, 2026
An Interview with The Screen in Transit (TSIT)
AmaraChika: How did Screen in Transit begin? Was there a specific moment that sparked the idea?
Ifeoluwa Olutayo:
It began in 2024, after a period of moving around Lagos and spending a lot of time in art and film spaces. Amanda and I had attended a screening at Treehouse by Monangambee — a Sudanese cinema programme that was part of a larger engagement with national cinemas. That experience stayed with us. It shaped not only how Screen in Transit began but also even how I started thinking and writing about cinema.
After the screening, a few of us were downstairs trying to figure out how to get home, and the conversation shifted to how spaces like these were disappearing. We started talking about how powerful it would be to create something of our own—a platform for showing films and building conversations around them, even though we didn’t yet know exactly what form it would take.
Later that year, I travelled to Abuja and mentioned the idea while speaking with a friend at The Living Room. The owner overheard, liked what we were trying to do, and offered us the space for free if we wanted to start programming there too. That was a major turning point. I reached out to Zainab and Rete, and from there it became a collaborative effort across Lagos and Abuja.
That was really the beginning: four of us coming together around a shared desire to build a mobile, collective film culture. The idea of being a nomadic microcinema collective came from that — not expansion in a capitalist sense, but mobility in the sense of being able to move across cities, programme films, and engage with cultural production outside conventional centres.
Amanda Madumere:
Yes, that’s pretty much it. It started with the idea and then quickly became something we could carry into Abuja as well. That movement across cities became part of the identity very early.
AmaraChika: I love that term, nomadic microcinema. What does that actually mean for you?
Amanda Madumere:
Practically, it meant starting very small and being able to move. In Lagos, our earliest screenings were in my sitting room. We’d set up a projector against the wall, people would sit on couches and carpets, and we’d buy popcorn and water ourselves. That was the first model.
So when we say “nomadic” and "micro", it means we can carry the essential parts of the experience with us. As long as we have a roof, a projector, and people willing to gather, we can make cinema happen. What really moves with us is the vision.
Ifeoluwa Olutayo:
There’s also a political dimension to that mobility. In Nigeria, moving cinema has a history — colonial cinema vans, for instance, were used as tools of propaganda. Later, there were also mobile screening traditions used in different ways, including for public education.
So for me, the idea of a moving cinema is also about reclaiming that mobility. If cinema once travelled in the service of control, what does it mean to make it travel now in the service of access, dialogue, and collective freedom? That’s one of the things that interests me most about the form.
Zainab Umar:
For me, it comes back to access. A lot of the films we screen are films people would not ordinarily encounter on their own — films from Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Cameroon, and other places that may never show up in conventional cinema spaces here. Mobility allows us to put people in contact with those works and those cultures.
AmaraChika: One phrase I keep seeing around your work is #DemocratisingCinema. What does that mean in practical terms?
Ifeoluwa Olutayo:
For us, it began with the recognition that cinema-going had become increasingly elitist. The cost of going to the cinema — tickets, transport, everything around the experience — can make it inaccessible to a lot of people.
And if cinema is going to be a tool for shaping consciousness, building a critical audience, and encouraging people to think differently about their world, then people first need to be able to access it consistently.
So democratising cinema means making film-viewing more regular, more accessible, and more open to public engagement. It also means understanding that cinema is not only about the screen itself but also about how people relate to what they watch. The conversation is part of the experience.
Rete Poki:
I also think it comes from the fact that so much of film culture is learned collectively. You learn by watching films, interrogating them, and having conversations with people who care.
For me, that was empowering, but there weren’t enough platforms where that kind of engagement was possible — especially not ones that were regular, accessible, or centred on Afrikan cinema.
As a filmmaker, that gap matters. If there are no spaces for your work to be seen, discussed, or taken seriously, then how do you grow? Part of democratising cinema is creating those spaces — not just for audiences, but for filmmakers too, especially emerging ones who may not have access to established systems.
Amanda Madumere:
For us, it’s really an all-round ethos. It shapes the films we show, the way we curate, the way we host screenings, and even the kinds of conversations we allow.
Our screenings are free — people just RSVP and come. At the beginning, we were funding that ourselves, and now we’ve had some support from partners, but the idea remains the same: people should be able to come as they are.
It also means the conversations are open. We’re not interested in only safe or surface-level takes. At Screen in Transit, discussion is one of the highlights because people can properly air their views, interrogate ideas, and get into the politics and histories around the films. That openness is central to what democratising cinema means for us.
AmaraChika: How does your curation process work? What determines the films that make it into a Screen in Transit programme?
Rete Poki:
It’s very collaborative. At the start of each month, we send each other film recommendations that could fit a theme we’re working around. Everyone watches the selections, and then we discuss what kind of conversation each film might open up.
We also try to build range into the programme. If one film is slower or heavier, maybe another is shorter, lighter, or more immediately accessible. So we’re thinking about tone, diversity, technical strength, and how the films sit together as an experience.
Ifeoluwa Olutayo:
Yes, the key thing is that we don’t just select films individually and put them together. We’re building a conversation. Themes help us stay focused, because without that, discussions can become too loose and scattered.
For example, if a month’s programming is built around gender, identity, and representation, those become clear entry points for thinking through the films and for guiding audience discussion.
The collaborative process also helps reveal blind spots. Someone else may see something in a film that you missed or point out a different way of framing it for an audience. That makes the curation stronger, and honestly, it enriches our own individual practices too.
AmaraChika: What excites you most about contemporary Nigerian and Afrikan cinema right now?
Ifeoluwa Olutayo:
What excites me most is visibility and expansion. More Afrikan filmmakers are getting opportunities, appearing on larger stages, and finding new distribution routes.
There are still plenty of structural problems—funding, training, infrastructure—but it’s encouraging to see that there’s no longer just a small handful of filmmakers representing the continent. There’s a broader range of people making work and getting it seen.
I’m also excited by access. There are more restorations, more platforms, and more ways to encounter Afrikan films than there were even a few years ago.
Amanda Madumere:
For me, it’s the growing local interest. More people here are interested in films made by us, and more spaces here are willing to screen and support them.
When we first started, people would come out of curiosity, but many would leave before the full programme ended. Now people stay. They engage. They talk.
And honestly, that matters to me more than anything else. International visibility is good, but we are first our own audience. Seeing local interest deepen is what really excites me.
Zainab Umar:
What excites me is also local discovery. Through Screen in Transit I’ve been exposed more deeply to Nigerian films I hadn’t seen before.
I’m excited by the fact that more people are watching our locally made films and actually talking about them. That kind of attention and conversation can really shift how we value our own cinema.
Rete Poki:
I’m most excited by access—both for watching films and for learning how to make them.
It feels like film is becoming more accessible from both the consumption side and the making side. I’m especially hopeful about seeing more local investment grow alongside the international attention and about younger filmmakers getting the support they need to build sustainable practices.
AmaraChika: Finally, what’s next for Screen in Transit?
Rete Poki:
More films, more screenings, better experiences, more conversations.
Amanda Madumere:
And maybe more cities. Watch this space.