Come Saturday, December 6th 2014 ‘Legends of Nollywood’ will come to town again to take the centre-stage of world’s attention. Unlike the two previous editions, this third edition promises to be different, more rewarding and momentous. At least those are the aspirations of Paul Obazele, the initiator of the award which started some eight years ago as a programme on TV. Many would remember him in popular soaps like Checkmate, Ripples and movies like Black Maria, Set-up, Wanted Alive to name a few.
Despite having everything ship-shape, with all the support he could hope for, Obazele is not a very happy man. He is of contrary view that Nollywood is on the upward progression. In this encounter with Weekend Groove, he talks about the industry and award ceremony coming up tomorrow:
By Damilola Sholola & Maureen Nwanze
You’ve disappeared from the screen for some time now.What happened?
I went on sabbatical for about four years or thereabout. I was about staging a comeback to the screen, but had to put it on hold because I am not satisfied with what we are watching on our television in recent times. What we are seeing is not our own, I call it a ‘Cultural dislocation’. What we see in movies now depicts nothing of our own culture but that of the White man. We are a wonderful story telling nation with folktales passed down from generation to generation. All of a sudden we stopped and started looking at the White man. Now, every scene shot on television is about kissing and smoking.
What is that thing we are willing to teach our children? What is that thing that makes us tick as a society? What is that thing that distinguishes us as Nigerians, as a morally sane nation? I’m not saying nations who smoke and drink are not morally sane but that is their culture but when you bring in what is not our own to our own system, you get people confused and that is what you’re seeing today in our society.
Get me right, I am not a racist, they have their things. I respect them for their culture. I respect the average Briton for defending what is his own, his own culture. I respect the average American for defending his own, why would an average Nigerian not defend his own culture?
So what you’re saying is wrong cultural acquisition?
Yes, and it becomes a problem in our system and the only custodians and teachers of what culture is are the filmmakers, actors, producers and directors. When you approach me with such scripts and I try to make you understand and you refuse, I don’t bother you, I just stay on my own. If you’ve seen thrillers of films like Invasion 1897, I acted in that film.
Invasion 1897 is a Lancelot Imasuen film, well-crafted, articulated and well executed. If you watch Iyore by Frank Rajah, it the same thing; well scripted and articulated. If you watch St Mary by Matthias Obahiagbon, it’s human trafficking. If you watch Upper Creek by Tharila Thompson, it’s the same thing; I can reel them out for you. Most of them are in cinemas and therefore I select the things that I do because I do not have an excuse to fail my fans and my admirers, to fail Nigeria, the true Nigeria we have
What do you think should be done, is it the scriptwriter’s fault or the producer’s or it’s just a commercial thing?
It’s a venture. In storytelling, everybody has the right of expression; they have to express themselves whether rightly or wrongly. But truth be told, because we have a nation and because we have a culture, the onus is on us to defend what we have, to defend green white green, to defend what our cultural heritage and backgrounds are, to see how we can further strengthen what our belief system is, that is why we are filmmakers in the first place. If we are not ready as filmmakers to defend that then we have failed in our professional duties
Don’t you think that it is what is sell-able, film production is an investment and because our society has consciously shifted from traditional norms…?
(Cuts) Are we selling? We are not selling because the truth is Nollywood is nose-diving. Nollywood is facing an extinction so it is not what is sell-able, this is total perversion. We are forcing down the throat of people what we think is sell-able. What makes you think Aba riot women is not sellable? What makes you think the Okija shrine thing is not sellable? What makes you think our epic stories, Madam Tinubu is not sellable? So, it is now somebody who sells cocaine, who goes in for sex that is sellable? We are forcing it down the throats of people
What inspired the ‘Legend’ of Nollywood Awards?
Let’s take it like this, it’s a deliberate act. I’ll go back to ‘Legends of Nollywood’ talk show, Legends of Nollywood talk show is 8 years old and it metamorphosed into Legends of Nollywood Awards. For you to be on that talk show, you must have had a mark of 10 years in the industry. We deal with people behind the scenes; the producers, directors, cinematographers, writers and we probe their mindsets.
Before Nollywood there were filmmakers that were there, before Nollywood, there was Television that was there. These were people who gave birth to the existing Nollywood right now. If you do not honor them and this new generation of filmmakers see what they have done before that made the nation tick as it were, then you will not be able to correct them about this perversion that is happening and we therefore decided to visit the yesterday of Nollywood. This is the 3rd season of Legends of Nollywood Award and we found out that most of these veterans were extincting just like that.
Why, because they did what they did as at that time as a result of passion, as a result of what they could do for the nation, what they could do for their people. If this veterans stop today, what is it the new ones would take? Nothing, so we decided to visit the yesterday of Nollywood. Another thing is we want to try and see how we can give back to them, looking at what our National Anthem is. That was where we derived the theme of this year’s award ‘The Labors of our Heroes Past shall not be in vain’. Now you have found out that most of them have never been given an award, never
And they are very poor?
Very very poor; most of them died out of poverty and sicknesses they couldn’t treat. Legends of Nollywood is now looking to to take care of that by partnering with Insurance companies that will provide health insurance. The first Lady of Lagos State has supported us. There are so many people coming in to support us
You mean the awardees have a lifetime health insurance scheme to take care of them?
As they win it, as they pick up that plaque, we sign them on
What is the criteria for winning an Award?
Like I said, the yesterday of Nollywood; Nollywood is a hierarchy thing, they’ll tell you the year the person joined, the first film and all that. We are looking at movies like Mirror in the Sun, Behind the Clouds, Ichoku, Zebrudaya, Hotel De Jordan, Mind Bending, Second Chance, Samanja, all these things are reeled out and when they are reeled out, they look at the years they’ve done them; they look at the actors and all those things. For example, somebody showed me something about Sonny Irabor. Sonny Irabor was the youngest teacher in Second Chance, he had Afro then. He is now the CEO of Inspiration FM and people never knew he was an actor. He has done series of things. We are looking at someone like Julie Coker; people do not even know that Mama G was into broadcasting before she came on Television, she was doing radio dramas. Those are things we look out for; the moment any name pops up, we run a complete research on that person. You find out that everybody that is being given this award has stayed put.
No comments:
Post a Comment