‘We went through 30 years together - making a film about my friend dying became a celebration of his life’

It was a friendship that had spanned addiction and cancer. Leo Regan, the photographer and filmmaker, explains what an extraordinarily special relationship he had with Lanre Fehintola and why they decided to capture his last days

Lanre spent his life capturing the beauty and humanity of the marginalised and misunderstood (Courtesy of Emu Films)

I didn’t set out to make a film about my close friend dying, although that’s what happened. But that’s not what the film, My Friend Lanre, is really about. It’s a celebration of an extraordinary life. An open and honest account, with all its flaws and imperfections, embracing the glorious murkiness of what it means to be alive. And what it means to be a friend.

Lanre Fehintola was an artist and an incredible photographer. He died a couple of years ago, aged 63. During his remarkable life, he was also involved in crime, drug dealing, addiction and had been to prison. For some, these experiences negate or detract from his artistic legacy. For me, the opposite is true. Every wayward sidestep, however unwelcome, brought him closer to his realisation of a life-long obsession; to capture the beauty and humanity of the marginalised and misunderstood.

The results of which, I believe, we all benefit from, as painful as some of those experiences were.