Part of the Nigerian delegation at Sithengi 2003

Nigerian films are making heads turn in the audiovisual world globally with major Hollywood studios, film festivals and investors in film, and arts and culture promoters worldwide focusing on the West African nation’s straight-to-video model of churning out saleable movies.

In Kenya, 90 percent of homes with movie players have at least one Nigerian video, VCD or DVD. Among the most popular titles of the Sh240 million-480 million (US$3 million-6 million) strong Nigerian home video sector in Kenya are The price, Wasted Years, Suicide Mission, End time, True confessions, Anointed, Awilo sharp sharp, Highway to the grave, Aki na Ukwa, Sharon Stone, and Idi Coco. ArtMatters.Info recently met and talked with some Nigerian crew, cast and film investors and distributors at the Southern African International Film and Television Market, Sithengi, in Cape Town, South Africa.

Among the 35-strong Nigerian delegation were well known faces among lovers of Nigerian home videos in Kenya. They included actresses Patience Ozokwo (she plays difficult and conniving women with lots of unsavoury characteristics in most films) and Eucharia Arurobi-Ekwu (she usually plays the role of pleasure-loving, big-spending, wife who bullies her husband), 2003 Kora All Africa Music awards finalist (Gospel) Sammie Okposo and DX Generation Band, producer Shimite Nwakalo (she has made four television series on Kenya!), and Francis Onuochei (secretary-general of the Independent Television Producers Association of Nigeria, ITPAN).

Shimite Nwakalo and Justina Okonmah at the Artscape Centre in Cape Town

Our encounter let us in on the secret of Nigerian filmmakers: they hardly ever take a break from film. Not even when they are traveling! Ozokwo said she began her acting career while in school besides doing stage stints in her church. Sixteen years after she got into radio theatre while working as a broadcaster in 1982, trained teacher Ozakwo made her film debut. Her switch was dramatic. She took to film as a fish to water, rising quickly through the ranks to become one of the most popular and well-paid actresses fluent in English, Pidgin English and Igbo. She has so far appeared in more than 100 home videos.

So why had she come to Cape Town, we asked Ozokwo?

“To widen my scope in film and to get an agent to represent me,” she said.

Lawyer Efere Ozako

But it was more than just the scope she sought to widen: She was starring in a film called Mama G in America that was being shot in South Africa. “Besides representing Nigeria at Sithengi, we are shooting films and holidaying,” Ozokwo said with an almost wicked wink. Produced and directed by McCollins ‘China’ Chidebe who was also in Cape Town, the cast worked for between nine and 10 hours a day and spent the rest of the time—which wasn’t much—on networking, entertaining festivaliers, and resting.

While Nwakalo and Justina Okonmah were shooting their travel and culture—African Pot—television series, Okposo and DX Generation Band were refining their Christian music skills by entertaining festivalgoers with melodious music. The DXers stole the show during a party hosted by the National Film and Video Foundation as everyone danced the chilly evening away. Never mind that most people did not know they were dancing to Gospel music. In Igbo! From South Africa, Ozokwo said, they would travel to Cameroon to finalise their Mama G in America shoot before returning to Lagos for post-production.

Sammie Okposo entertains Sithengi guests

As for Nwakalo, she would rest for a month and then go to Ethiopia and Egypt in January and February, respectively. Nwakalo has not only made four episodes of her travel pieces on Kenyan communities—Kikuyu, Miji Kenda, Swahili, Maasai—but, she said, the Kenyan national carrier, Kenya Airways, sponsors her programme in Nigeria. She is offering her Kenyan programmes to Kenyan television stations for between US$1000 and US$1500 per episode! Saying Nigerians make more than 50 films per week, Ozokwo said the average budget of a good film is 50 million Naira (about Ksh500000). An actor’s fee, she said, starts from 5000 Naira. The average budget for a ‘great’ Nigerian movie, Onwochei said, is US$20000 (about Ksh1.6 million). This is because filmmakers use digital technology and one person may do everything from screen-writing, directing, producing, editing and even acting!

So what is the success formula of Nigerian home videos?

Our films concentrate on true life stories, and on spiritual and moral messages,” said Ozokwo. She however added that this menu exposes actors and actresses to attacks from “wizards, witches, cultists, drug-peddlers and other not-so-honest-people [who] attack them for exposing their evil ways to society.” Ozokwo said the Nigerian film sector is organised into guilds like those for writers, producers, director, and actors. Efere Ozako, a lawyer, was pleasantly surprised to learn that outside Nigeria, his country had produced a filmmaking model worth of emulation: “I had never known Nigeria had a model of filmmaking till now. This is something to brag about when I return home,” he said during a film production discussion.

Nwakalo’s African Pot had been in production for three years before going on air in early 2003. Saying her company produces African-flavoured soaps, documentaries and advertisements, Nwakalo said she researches, plans, scripts, edits and presents the programme on the national broadcaster, Nigerian Television Authority. What drives Nigerian filmmakers?

“Passion,” Nwakalo said. “Not money!”

Nwakalo said she had come to Sithengi in order “to learn and get some credibility in production.” She takes at least 10 days on each episode of African Pot, she said. Describing herself as an extrovert, she said her hobbies include reading, writing, eating, talking, watching TV, traveling and making new friends. But she appears to be jealously protected by her compatriots, as a Zimbabwean man whom she asked to dance with at the NFVF party found out painfully. The men came to them and pulled her away leaving the Zimbabwean bewildered.

African Pot is a 30-minute documentary series, exploring the food, culture and tourism potential of Africa with the objective of provoking pride in African heritage. Saying she intents to make African Pot continental, Nwakalo contends, “ Most audiovisual programmes in Africa have not been done by Africans and therefore may make them look like barbarians. We want to correct this.”

From the 39 episodes African Pot has made, only six are yet to be aired across Nigeria while 14 African countries are interested in purchasing the series. Saying she wants to prove that “Nigerians are not just fraudsters,” Nwakalo said, “I want people to know there is another side to Nigeria.” Among the episodes she has made besides the Kenyan ones are on Seychelles, Ghana, Togo, and South Africa.

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