Multiple award-wining director cum producer, Teco Benson, has criticised what has become a welcome development in the entertainment industry where politicians are steadily engaging entertainers in acts geared towards actualising their political ambitions.
Speaking on “Democracy in Film Making,” a lecture he delivered at the School of Media and Communication, Pan African University, Lagos, last week, the respected director of top flight movies such as State of Emergency, Terror, False Alarm, Mission To Nowhere, Executive Crime, Wasted Years and Formidable Force, took a quick swipe at the trend, saying using actors for political reasons contradict the code of conducts of the profession.
“ An actor appearing as brand Ambassador in a political and government functions portends a deviation from the standard rules and regulations guiding the industry.”
Teco Benson’s lecture focused extensively on the impact Nollywood had made over the years on the nation’s socio-cultural life, the uniqueness of the brand and the challenges therein.
He traced the origin of the industry, drawing instances, however, from his personal experience following the challenges Nollywood has faced over the years.
According to him, “ I was a civil servant before I delved into the film industry in 1994. My initial desire was to read medicine and become a medical doctor.
But my first encounter with “Living in Bondage” aborted my dreams. I saw opportunities and potentials from that angle and built my new love for it. It was not easy and rosy initially but a strong passion I developed for movie making saw an accelerated growth and fulfillment. My early movies did not turn out successful.
The movie Forbidden, was a consolation for me but been undeterred, I moved on until 1996 when I produced my first movie, Compromise, that changed the success story.
In 1997, I went into film directing and I finally put a stop to acting in 1998. This came on the hills of content conflict. I was not in agreement with some story contents and as a true Christian, I personally took control of my stories to check obnoxious contents. It was a positive effort that reorganized the industry.
Noting that a film maker is a change agent, Teco Benson said, the quality of any film determines the message it is passing across to the audience.
This, he said has become one of the greatest challenges facing the industry in recent times. “Regardless of all the censorship measures, certain film project sponsors are the culprits of some of these contemptible contents. Sponsors sometimes determine the storyline just for commercial purposes with little regards to societal effects.
A very good film should be informative, educative, entertaining as well as showcase moral and cultural values which transcends the commercial values as the acceptability counts.
Speaking further, Teco Benson blamed some of the problems affecting the industry on piracy. Describing piracy as ‘a hydra-headed parasite’ that has caused a lot of damage to the industry, the celebrated director said producing cinema bound films is one sure way of riding the industry of the menace of piracy.
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