Daniel Oriahi on “The Weekend” And Its Trip to the Tribeca Film Festival

Days after announcing the selection of his feature film “The Weekend” for the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival, film director Daniel Oriahi is still in high spirits. The premonition that something profound was going to happen for his film “The Weekend” was not always there.

“We had submitted to several prime film festivals but had not gotten any good response. I did not feel like the film was going to be selected by a festival of such repute at a point in time. However, I felt like the film could be selected into a category that focused on dark stories like thrillers or horror but Uche Okocha, the producer, always believed in the film.

“Weeks leading up to the selection, I had a premonition that something great would happen, but I also decided that whatever would be, would be. On the day it happened, I was doing some work around the house when I got the call from the producer Uche, who read the mail that he had received from Tribeca to me.

“As he read for the first thirty seconds, I was a bit confused. I could not believe that it was Tribeca! Uche was also excited; he reminded me that he always believed in the film. I immediately shared the news with my immediate family and close friends. I was going through a lot at that time so having that news was everything good I needed.”

When asked what his thought process is when making a film, he explained, “I feel like I want to make films that resonate with everybody from any part of the world and my immediate environment is very particular to me. Over the years I have gravitated towards thrillers. This is evident from my first feature film “Misfit” to the others like “Taxi Driver,” “Sylvia” and other works I’ve done for independent producers and television houses. As much as I want them to have recognition internationally, my films should resonate with me and my immediate environment.”

Oriahi went on to explain some unexpected routes he had to take when making “The Weekend.”

“Before this film, I had become very disillusioned as a filmmaker. The environment was not enabling me to be as creative as I felt I could be. Fortunately, I relocated to Ghana where I have been since 2021. Three months into relocation, I was contracted by EbonyLife Creative Academy where I headed the directing department and what that did for me was a total transformation into a realignment of why I liked to make films.

“I was in an environment where I was teaching and being taught as well and, because I had colleagues from different parts of the world who were into screenwriting, cinematography, and the likes, I understood how encompassing filmmaking is. I had spent a year in EbonyLife when the opportunity came to make “The Weekend” and I took everything I had been taught and factored it into filmmaking.”

Speaking further, he said, “There is a way we approach filmmaking in Nigeria; so, while I was there, I found myself trying to readjust my approach to filmmaking in terms of preparation. Usually, the ideal approach is to prepare for two to three months depending on the scale of the production, but you don’t have that privilege in Nigeria even with big budgets.”

There were so many moving parts that led to his involvement in the making of “The Weekend.” Oriahi revealed, “When things did not go as planned with the original director, I came in as a second option. However, there was already a date set for shooting based on actors scheduling and so many other things; so, I had to adjust myself to their timeline. What helped me was that I was teaching.”

His approach was at loggerheads with the concept he inherited. “When Uche showed me the script that was proposed with the previous director, it was a lot and I felt we did not have enough time to execute it, and that was not the way I wanted to approach the story. Fortunately, Uche presented the original draft which was similar to what I wanted; so, in that short time frame we had, we had to equally do a rewrite.”

This praxis was antithetical to what he knows as the best practice. Thus, he said, “These are things you teach against to a large extent, but you find yourself doing them and it was interesting because, at the time in EbonyLife, I was the only Nigerian HoD. I was the balance between what is ideal in the filmmaking world and what you would meet in Nollywood.

“I brought my knowledge of both realities into this project. Running on such short time while having to rewrite was the creative compromise I had to make. Filmmaking is unpredictable. You do not whine; you work through it.”

Oriahi attributed his interest in psychological thrillers to his upbringing. “I have experienced some personal challenges which I cannot elaborate on right now, but I had a very interesting early twenties and I explored juvenile delinquency almost to the point of self-destruction and that was the primary foundation of my filmmaking journey.

Furthermore, he gave an insight into his dreams as a child. “I always wanted to be an artist but I grew up in a time and place where being an artist was not seen as ideal so there was an internal conflict. I did not want to fall into what society expected of me, so I struggled with it, and it had a profound effect on my self-esteem.”

I took a lot of wrong turns in my early twenties that made me realize that I was going on a rough path, and I needed to figure it out. Filmmaking had always been an escape for me. I knew I loved film from a very young age. I remember vividly at age thirteen, I declared I wanted to be a filmmaker. I finally followed my passion and interestingly, it became therapeutic for me. There are some things I love about psychological thrillers and horror: the precision, requirement of real thought processes, and the dexterity. I could see these in the filmmakers I admired like Stanley Kubrick, David Fincher, and Roman Polanski.”

Oriahi also spoke about how “The Weekend” contributes to Tribeca’s diversity without reinforcing stereotypes. “Watching films from different parts of the world influenced the way I tell stories. I want to tell stories in a universally appealing way. However, I am Nigerian, and the idea is to make these stories organic and relatable to the Nigerian experience as well. I want to make a film that Nigerians can identify with but at the same time does not dance to the stereotypical approach of describing Nigerians as extravagant, loud characters. This does not dispute the fact that Nigerians are lively people.”

For his final act, Oriahi gave us a glimpse of what to expect in the future. “I have been working on another dark story and there are co-producers on board. It is an international co-production between Nigeria and France titled “Black Custodian.” We are excited with what is happening with “The Weekend” because it will help us in projecting these new films.”