Victor EzejaNigerian film industry known as Nollywood, rated as one of the big entertainment markets in the world, has according to movie stakeholders been flooded in recent times with army of unprofessionals in different aspects, which is negatively affecting quality of contents.
Notable movie professionals expressed this concern during the Coal City Film Festival 2022 which held in Enugu during the weekend.
Popular Nollywood actor, Mr. Charles Inojie who engaged a group of upcoming movie artists in a master class session said the reason there is poor or wrong representation of issues and cultures in Nigerian movies is because of influx of individuals especially movie directors who do not have deep knowledge on issues that are subject of their movies, thereby misdirecting actors/actresses and other crew members, and at the end, misinforming the audiences who watch the films in different parts of the world.
The Nollywood popular comedian also blamed the poor movie contents distributed in the industry on bad economy. The bad economy according to him, affects budgeting by film producers, leading to hiring of quacks who deliver anything but quality contents.
He cautioned the upcoming professionals to be well prepared for the job in order to give their best.
Another popular Nollywood actor, Ugezu J. Ugezu, who spoke on the topic: ‘Authentic African Story: Rediscovery in Scripting Development’, called on screenwriters and directors to be conscious of the kinds of things they present both in story lines and acting, with respect to how they tell African stories.
Ugezu, a movie producer, director and actor, is a custodian of Igbo tradition, and popular for featuring in African epic films.
Dwelling on how to use motion pictures to tell authentic Africa stories, Ugezu said the whole essence of films is not just to entertain but also informing and educating people about histories of traditions.
He pointed out that there are things a lot of people across the world believe today to be ideal about some African cultures which are as a result of wrong representations ignorantly made in movies over time by professionals in Nollywood.
He gave examples of things such as wrong costuming and attitudes of kings, portrayal of traditional priests, diviners, herbalists, other characters and believe systems that give the world wrong perception of the existing traditional systems in different parts of Africa.
Ugezu noted that one factor which takes Nollywood movies to the world stage is not about the technological know-how put into the production, but the traditional African story lines in them. Story he said, is the key in movie making.
Recalling an experience when he participated in the World Conference of Screenwriters at Warsaw, Poland in 2014, the movie thespian advised that those embarking on production of epic movies should see the need to properly research on issues about the story they are acting to avoid misrepresentation of facts.
He equally emphasized the need for movie directors to have a listening ear to people around to enable them seek better information on movie story lines and avoid mistakes.
He also urged upcoming artists to see the need for telling African stories through movies.
Another Nollywood legend, Zack Orji, who took the upcoming artists through the general rudiments of acting profession, highlighted the essential attitudes that actors and actresses should imbibe to be able to excel which include among others, having passion for the profession.
In a chat with Prime Business Africa, founder of the Coal City Film Festival, Uche Agbo, said the aim of the festival is to create an opportunity to tell Africa stories through the cinema, by encouraging artists to produce contents that promotes African culture.
The young hardworking and dynamic filmmaker from Enugu State, said the festival was inspired by the need to use films to unlock tourism potentials in Southeast Nigeria.
Agbo who is current National Secretary of the Director’s Guild of Nigeria (DGN), said that he thought of organising the festival as part of his contributions to nation building as a movie maker.
He said, “One of the things that actually inspired the Coal City Film Festival is tourism. We believe there is enormous tourism potentials in the Southeast Nigeria that we are not selling to outside world. That’s why our vision is to open the doors of the region to the rest of the world through films. I believe in regional economy, that when you put together regional economies, it will build the national economy.”
The CCFF 2022 was the second edition with the theme ‘Glocalization of African Cinema’.
Highlights of the events which held between Thursday March 24 and Saturday, March 26, 2022, were workshops, master classes, film screenings, panel discussions on movie enterprise and funding, and award/gala night. There was also palm wine and bush meat roundtable, where attendees were served local delicacies with ogene music which was used to entertain the guests.
The first edition was in 2021.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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