Streets of Lagos
Streets of Lagos provides a rare insight into the lives of Nigeria’s first generation of rollerbladers. What was once a niche sport that saw widespread participation across the globe in the late 90’s has emerged in 2020 as a fringe subculture in the streets of Lagos. Originally used as a way to navigate the city’s dense traffic, today, a select few use their skates as a form of self-expression, something which can be hard to find in one of the toughest cities in the world.
In Depth with the Director -
Dom West
Hi Dom, tell us a little about yourself and your background in filmmaking
I picked up my first video camera when I was about 10 years old to film me and my friends rollerblading and pretty much haven’t put the camera down since. For the past 6 years I’ve been working as a Director & Cinematographer at Untitled Film Works, an Australian based production company, specialising in documentary and natural history. In my spare time I try to create short films that shine a light on the unique stories surrounding the different rollerblading communities around the world.
How did Streets of Lagos come together as a project?
I’d been following the emergence of inline skating across Africa for a few years and came across a young skater from Nigeria, Daniel Ogbogu. After we connected through Instagram it was clear that his passion and dedication would make for a great story and so over the course of about 6 months we planned a trip to visit him in Lagos. It didn’t sound great when I told my wife I was going to go to Nigeria on my own to meet someone I had spoken to online, but fortunately the skating community around the world is powered by trust and so everything worked out for the best.
Meeting strangers online is always a bold move, and you've mentioned that Lagos is “one of the toughest cities in the world”. What was the experience like filming in Nigeria?
Shooting on the streets of Lagos was stressful to say the least. You have to constantly be on your toes and be ready for anything to happen. I spent most of my time on my skates, which made me feel slightly safer, but we often found ourselves in tricky situations that involved some form of negotiating to get us out of trouble. Each shoot location had to be assessed as to whether it was safe due to local gangs or ‘area boys’ that control each suburb. The local skaters would often have to pay bribes to the gang leader in order to allow for filming to take place. It’s usually recommended that foreigners travel with armed security in Nigeria due to the high risk of kidnapping, but for the purposes of this film I made the call to travel solo in order to fully immerse myself in the story.
What were the major challenges in putting this film together?
As always with these kinds of projects I look back and wish I had more time on the ground to tell the story in more detail.
What projects are coming up for you in the future?
Travel restrictions have put a lot of my current projects on hold and so I’m turning my attention to some Australia-based stories for the next year or so.