2025 WFF Youth Film Festival: Abdulafiz Opeyemi Shittu’s Short Documentary “Dodo-Ikire” Spotlights Women In Agrifood Systems

In 2007, during a visit to his uncle in Gbongan, Osun state, Abdulafiz Opeyemi Shittu spent some time with someone who made dodo-ikire, a local delicacy derived from bananas. He fell in love with it. He noticed  that there was a special storage area for unripe bananas until they were ripe and suitable for the sweet snack. Sixteen years later on a documentary trip with the Olu of Warri, he encountered some youths who had a strong but erroneous perception of dodo-ikire, maintaining that the local food was made from rotten bananas. He sensed the ignorance in their conversation, a typical trait of people who claimed knowledge over things they knew little or nothing of. Touched by this experience, he decided to investigate and tell the true story behind the snack. The end product is a short documentary, titled Dodo-Ikire, produced, directed and shot by Shittu himself.

“I realized that a documentary would give me the opportunity to go to the grassroots and show people what truly happens behind the scenes,” says Shittu. “Unlike a vlog, which might only capture surface moments, a documentary allows me to explore depth, right from the agricultural process and sourcing of raw materials to the finished product. That level of detail was essential for me, and it couldn’t have been achieved through a vlog.”

Dodo-Ikire delves into the process involved in the making of the food, through interviews with four local women in the business. With each of the women taking turns, the documentary settles briefly on their personal journeys into the business.  It primarily reveals the step-by-step approach to the production. One of the women debunks the belief that they use rotten bananas, a moment that ascertains the integrity with which she approaches the business. A look beyond the surface and one realizes that the documentary, which adopts a quick-witted, minimalist storytelling approach, is as much about self-empowerment, survival, food legacy and women involvement in agro-allied endeavours. In a society like Nigeria where women are still defined and subjected to traditional roles in the family such as cooking and caregiving, Shittu’s documentary reflects the women as an essential part of the agrifood ecosystem.

One of the documentary’s subjects, Akintoye Fasilat, shares that she has been in the business for two decades, during which she has built a house and educated her children from its proceeds. Moments like this, though rooted in local experience, are deeply inspiring, offering a message of hope to younger women navigating their lives and careers in today’s world.

Dodo-Ikire was filmed in Osun, the Southwestern state from which the food originated. An opening note reveals that the exact place of origin remains in dispute between the towns of Ikire and Apomu. This historical elusiveness points to the fluid nature of oral and food traditions, a slight evidence of how often stories of origin may alternate from one generation or geography to another, the reflection of a poor documentation culture.

The short documentary begins in media res, throwing the audience into a quick encounter with one of the Yoruba-speaking women even before proper introduction happens—a technique that immediately contextualizes the subject. Then, amidst B-rolls, a voiceover delivers an Ikire eulogy, further immersing the audience in the cultural atmosphere of the town. Throughout the rest of the video, the camera attends to key and supporting details: the women, the process of making or selling dodo-ikiri, the environment, and a few random townspeople.

Dodo-Ikire is Shittu’s first documentary, though he has worked on other people’s projects before then. He says the hardest part of it was first leaving Lagos without having the right equipment, from sophisticated gadgets to stabilizer and even a proper microphone. On arriving at Ikire, he thought he would figure things out and finish shooting in one day. But that was not the case. The community was initially skeptical about getting involved. Due to the recent flood of content creators, many of them associated cameras with viral social media videos that mocked individuals. They assumed he wanted to exploit them  as soon as he appeared with his camera, fearing they would be ridiculed online. He had to convince them of his noble intentions.

When he began interviewing his subjects, he had a problem getting them to talk because they wanted to be tipped or paid before they could. some passers-by on motorcycles did not help matters, as they advised subjects not to grant free interviews, which created tense moments during filming. Another challenge came from some of the women who were reluctant to reveal their recipes because they wanted to protect their business. However, one of them, Iya Ibeji, did not mind disclosing every detail, understanding that it was better to share full knowledge than to let the craft fade into extinction. Shittu is also grateful for the power of collaboration and help from other people, including his location scout and the person that accommodated him.

After filming, Shittu was not entirely satisfied with the footage, so he left it on his drive for a while. Later that year, he attended a boot camp, organized by Story Maxima, led by Damilola Onafuwa. At the programme, the filmmakers in attendance had the opportunity to talk about their past projects. When it was his turn, Shittu spoke about his documentary Dodo-Ikire, purely considering it from the perspective of work that was meant to showcase a particular food process, oblivious to any deeper significance it held. One of the mentors at the gathering, Sophie Bolion from Story Me Academy, called his attention to the reality that every single person featured in the documentary, from market sellers to the makers, were women. It was then he realized that he had documented a female-dominated business that had been sustained by women for generations.

Later on, when he came across the call for submissions of the 2025 World Food Forum Youth Film Festival, he decided to submit the documentary he had made, unsure about its potential. To his surprise, in July of the same year, he received an email requesting further details and learnt that Dodo-Ikire was  one of the only two African documentaries selected for the festival, the other being Hidden Hunger, directed by Orit Novak.  Both films, representing West Africa and East Africa respectively, were nominated for the Best Focus on  Women In Agrifood Systems category in the festival. The WFF Youth Film Festival took place on October 15th, 2025 as part of the WFF flagship event at the headquarters of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, Italy.

“Seeing a global platform like the World Food Forum recognize my work motivates me to take it further, to screen it  at more festivals and use it to celebrate Nigerian and African food culture,” Shittu remarks with a mix of  gratitude and optimism. He plans to further promote the documentary, encouraged by the overwhelming feedback he has received, especially from young people in Nigeria and abroad, since its release. “Some even messaged me from the UK, US, and other countries, thanking me for enlightening them”.

With Dodo-Ikire, Shittu transforms a simple, local delicacy into a story of resilience, heritage and female agency. His documentary not only challenges a cultural misconception but also honours the legacy of the women preserving the tradition. Its appearance at the WFF Youth Film Festival ultimately captures the significance of local stories and the power of documentary filmmaking in presenting and preserving  authentic narratives.