Shooting on KODAK 16mm, DP Jermaine Edwards depicted a touching odyssey about childhood, parenthood and nationhood for Akinola Davies Jr.'s acclaimed debut 'My Father's Shadow'

Filming on KODAK 16mm, DP Jermaine Edwards captured a tender and touching odyssey encompassing childhood, parenthood and nationhood in 1990s Nigeria for My Father's Shadow, director Akinola Davies Jr.'s critically acclaimed and award-winning debut feature.

Co-written by Davies and his brother Wale, with a budget of around £2.5million ($3.4 million), the film follows Akin and Remi, two young brothers who accompany their estranged and enigmatic father, Folarin, from their remote countryside to the big city in order to collect his overdue salary.

Their journey together takes place on the day of the pivotal 1993 Nigerian presidential election – widely hoped as a turning point in the nation's tense transition from military rule to democracy – during which the wide-eyed boys witness their father's torments and personal frailties, while political unrest threatens to engulf their journey back home.

The coming-of-age film stars Sope Dirisu as Folarin, with Akin and Remi played respectively by real-life siblings Godwin Chiemerie and Chibuike Marvellous Egbo. It had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, the first Nigerian film to do so, winning a Special Mention in the Caméra d'Or for first features.

It also earned widespread critical acclaim for the gentle style of Davies' direction and the emotional intelligence of Edward's cinematography in addressing themes such as familial love, absence, memory and identity. The film has since garnered many other wins and nominations at film festivals around the world.

Edwards, also making his feature film debut as a cinematographer, had previously worked with Davies shooting several vignettes on 16mm film for Rituals: Unionblack (2025), the director's immersive audio-visual experience project that documents worship, carnivals, weddings and daily moments as part of an authentic archive and celebration of Black British life.

"Akinola mentioned My Father's Shadow to me when we were filming a birth scene in Birmingham for Rituals but didn't tell me much," Edwards confides. "I absolutely loved the script when it was sent to me later, as the story chimed with me personally.

"Although I had never been to Nigeria and didn't know a lot of about its culture, I had an innate feeling that this film shouldn't be framed in a conventional way as the narrative was quintessentially African, and I put a pitch-deck together along those lines. This proved a great leaping-off point during my initial interview about finding emotional truthfulness, and although I was hugely nervous, I got the job."

Edwards recounts, "During those early stages, Akin, Wale and I sat down and went through the script for over several days, talking about how the beats in the narrative were meant to feel. It was all about connections – to the physical landscape and the urban locations, and connecting to the children's point-of-view, as well as their father.

"The general idea was that the camera should inhabit the world from Akin and Remi's perspective, to keep them together in-frame, with the camera down at their eye-level as much as possible, so as to emphasize their shared curiosity about their father and his vulnerabilities, and how they pick up on the nuances of what adults are saying, but with the image getting gradually wider as their world expands with wonderment along their journey.

"For their father Folarin, it was the opposite, with the camera at his eye-level and keeping tighter-in. All with a slightly magical tone, focusing on the beauty of dark skin tones and the vibrant colors of Nigeria and its culture."

A plethora of references shared between Edwards and Davies included We the Animals (2018, dir. Jeremiah Zagar, DP Zak Mulligan), a coming-of-age drama shot on 16mm film, for the magical nature of its visual storytelling, along with the Senegalese feature Touki Bouki (The Journey of the Hyena) (1973, dir. Djibril Diop Mambéty, DP Pap Samba Sow) for the dreamlike rhythms in its camerawork and construction. The pair also considered A Thousand and One (2023, dir. A V Rockwell, DP Eric K. Yue) for the ways in which its naturalistic camerawork relied on character actions, gestures and reactions rather than verbal exposition.

Edwards says the decision to shoot My Father's Shadow on film was made before his attachment to the project, although the precise format had yet to be decided.

"We went for 16mm in the end as we believed it would be more grounded in time and place," Edwards recalls. "Also, the equipment rental is more cost effective than 35mm, and the infrastructure around the camera is smaller too. Some might say that shooting on film, on-the-ground in Nigeria, whilst dealing with child actors, might have been constricting, but it was the opposite, actually. It was very liberating.

"Akin wanted me boots-on-the-ground in Nigeria as early as possible. So, I flew out in early January of 2024 and, apart from a week doing prep at Panavision, I spent three months there on scouts and recces before we started filming. As I was an outsider, and it was my first time there, what you see in the film is what Nigeria is, rather than an idea or an impression.

"I found it to be beautiful, intriguing, refreshing and overwhelming. It was also the first time I'd experienced the Harmattan, the cool, dry, dusty trade wind that brings particles of sand from the Sahara and makes the skies hazy with a really beautiful, soft, pink light."

Edwards selected KODAK VISION3 50D 7203 for the film's day exteriors, plus KODAK VISION3 500T 7219 for the daylight interiors and low-light/night scenes. Film processing was done at Kodak Film Lab, on the lot at Pinewood Studios.

"I could have used the 250D 7207 for the day exteriors, but the light in Nigeria is really striking and bright and I knew it would be much easier to work with the slower 50D filmstock and avoid strong ND filters. The way the 50D rendered the colors of our locations and the production design by Pablo Rodriguez and Jennifer Boyd was quite breathtaking.

"I also liked the contrast between the crispness of the 50D and the beautiful sensitivity of the 500T, which delivers even richer and more tonally vibrant color rendition. I trusted both stocks and it's amazing to see the level of detail at both ends of the exposure curve."

Although this was Edward's debut feature, and would be captured on film, he is no stranger to the analog medium.

"I started out in 2007 when pretty much everything was still shot on celluloid," he says, "and worked my way up from video assist, on 16mm films like Bronson (2008, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn, DP Larry Smith BSC ASC), then to film loader, before becoming an operator and now a cinematographer."

A decade into his career, Edwards enrolled at the UK's National Film & TV School, where he recalls the counsel of award-winning cinematographer Brian Tufano BSC, who then headed the course.

"Brian's advice to me was to shoot on film as much as I could and to keep learning from those experiences. I love any opportunity to use my trusty Spectra Cine light meter that I bought whilst at film school and have shot lot on 16mm and 35mm with my friend Sanvir Chana, such as Luminaries (2023) and Too Brown for the Crown (2024). I also shot The Walk (2023) for Michael Jobling on 35mm.

"There's and aura of mystery in the filmed image. It's important to retain a culture of knowing how to shoot on film and to make it attainable, especially to people who wrongly presume that they can't afford it. If it was my decision, I would shoot everything on film."

Edwards operated A-camera during production, either shooting off a dolly/slider with a geared head or working handheld. Cristina Cretu, who worked as 1^st AC throughout, operated B-camera during the film's riot scenes, a 15-page chunk of the script spread over three days, with multiple characters and background elements to capture.

"The idea behind the camera movement, and especially, the handheld style, wasn't to have the camera agitated at all. It's was all about connecting the audience to our characters through the portraiture and the landscape of the face, showing the body language and tender moments, like a hand on someone's shoulder. I also wanted the camera to float and observe in the way children might watch and discover the world.

"When it comes to handheld, I don't use an Easyrig as I don't like the micro vibrations or pendulum effects that can come from the tension of the string. So, I used a Cine Saddle around my shoulders to cradle the camera and rest my elbows. Working this way is more intimate. The camera felt attached to me, and I responded to the performances as I saw fit."

While the visual approach was to keep the look real and naturalistic, Edwards says it involved a great deal of lighting expertise. He was supported in this task by gaffer Tamu Bakr Jr., who came from New York especially for the project.

"On the exteriors, it was a massive job trying to shape the hard sunlight at our locations, and we regularly used 20x20, 18x18 or 12x12 silks to cut or soften the light. For the 360° shot of the boys running out of the bedroom, we had lost the light, and it was nighttime. So had 18, 10 and 5K HMIs shining in through foliage from the outside, plus Aputure Infinibars bars, smaller heads and silks to bounce, creating shape and atmosphere."

Reflecting on his experience of shooting My Father's Shadow, Edwards says, "After 17 years in the industry, shooting my first feature on film was the biggest challenge of my career, and I worried a lot.

"Understanding and being so intertwined in the visual storytelling about a different culture was one thing. The physicality and insane heat from day one, chasing round the two boys with the 416, was another.

"But it was a magical experience to work with Akin, the actors and my crew. The nuances in the look and feel of the colors and the tactility of film are unsurpassed. I suspect that if we'd shot it digitally, I think it would've been a completely different movie. I'm incredibly proud of the result and touched by the reactions."