March 13: THE LOST LEGACY OF BIDA BIKINI (2021) by Remi Vaughan-Richards

5pm | Sunday, March 13, 2022. | Alliance Française Lagos, 9 Osborne Road, Ikoyi | RSVP

Bida City recently became a member of the Unesco Creative Cities Network in recognition of its arts and crafts industry. The city’s renowned legacy in glass-making is spotlighted in THE LOST LEGACY OF BIDA BIKINI, an engrossing mid-feature length project by Singing Tree Films for Lababidi Holdings.
We are looking forward to the screening – our second collaboration with director Remi Vaughan-Richards – in celebration of cultural legacy projects that have marked her work, and also in relation to the upcoming International Women’s Day (March 8).
Join us on Sunday, March 13 as we present her most recent documentary, THE LOST LEGACY OF BIDA BIKINI, followed by a conversation with the filmmaker.
The event will start at 5pm prompt (doors open at 4.30pm) at Alliance Française Lagos/Mike Adenuga Centre.
Remember to arrive on time to secure your seat. Social distancing guidelines will also be in place. No face mask, no entry. 
No parking on site (commercial parking available around the corner from the venue).

ABOUT THE FILM
At the crossroads of west-central Nigeria in the Nupe city of Bida, Masagá glassmakers manufacture raw black glass, a method that has remained a secret for nearly two centuries. This patriarchal organisation is composed of guild members who distinguish themselves by the claim that they originally migrated from Egypt to Nupeland in the mid-nineteenth century.
The Masagá glassmakers of Bida are renowned for their production of glass beads and bangles made from modern glass and from locally manufactured raw glass known as bikini. Bikini is a black shiny molten glass produced and used by Masagá craftspeople before the importation of modern glass bottles into this area. Bikini served as the main raw material for glass work between the mid-19th and 20th centuries, but due to the expense and difficulty of sourcing the raw materials, the production and usage of bikini glass was phased out and replaced with easily sourced recycled glass.
From 2015, research into Masagá glass production revealed that only one ninety-year-old man retained the secret knowledge of glassmaking. The knowledge to produce bikini glass was in jeopardy of disappearing. As the threat of a lost legacy loomed, in November 2019, the Masagá glassmakers agreed to recreate bikini glass.