Eddie Ugboma is a veteran film-maker and the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Association of Movie Producers and Nigerian Cinema Living Legend, AMPNCLL.
Known for his classic movies like Oyenusi, The Boy Is Good, Apalara, The Mask, Oil Doom, Vengeance of The Cult, Black President and Omiran Esun Ake, among others, each time he looks back at Nigeria’s movie industry, Ugboma is filled with mixed feelings, ranging from anger, regret, accomplishment to hope.
For this septuagenarian film maker and former chairman of the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC), the hype attending Nollywood is way too exaggerated. “We are the largest junk movie makers in the world,” he lamented in disgust in this interview.
Below extract is culled from the news blog...
Looking at the entertainment industry as a whole today, there is still little to cheer as far as quality is concerned. This is despite President Goodluck Jonathan’s intervention. Where do you think we are losing it as an entertainment industry in this country?
Well, unfortunately Nigerians don’t appreciate the agony people like myself have gone through before this Nollywood, Kannywood and Yorubawood came out. The dictionary meaning of ‘nolly’ means “nothing.” So there we are, we have “nothing” Wood. Unfortunately it has come to stay. The name was given to them by one stupid Indian woman who works with a South African company. They met in a meeting and she was like, “what name should we give your industry? Is it like Hollywood and bollywood? Oh! Let’s call it Nollywood” and the nincompoops accepted it, now it has come to stay. Trust Nigerians we are gullible, we like to imitate, we like to copy. And so we agreed. But if you look at it, you would still praise all of us for trying to come up with the idea of trying to salvage the movie industry. You see there are two schools of movie making; one is the home videos which they are making now, then we have the filmmakers who are the cinematographers. Those were the ones that nosedived when SAP and our economy nosedived and it became too expensive to shoot film in celluloid. So people from NTA, the marketers and everyone came out with their toy cameras called from VHS to HD today.
But with HD our movie industry shot into global reckoning…
Ah! That was the biggest thing Nigerians have ever done. But then, the United Nations, making enquiry, deceived us by saying that Nigeria is the second biggest film industry in the world. No, we are the largest junk movie markers in the world. Last year and this year and for the past ten years we have been driven away from world films festivals. For example, that village, next door, I mean Burkina-Faso, this year rejected all Nigeria videos because they are not world standard videos/films. It was so bad that when a film festival is in somewhere in one of their big city like Lagos city, they send Nigeria films to their villages like Sagamu. They have done this several times to Tunde Kelani. This year, a Nigerian from France entered with a celluloid film but he didn’t win but at least he was accepted. So what I am telling them in the industry is that if they stand up and start making films, not home videos then we are on our way there.
The movie industry must surely have its good points?
Yes. You see I praise them for keeping the flag flying but if these people who tell lies that their film is N50 million, if four of them can come together with only 20 million and shoot an 80million Naira movie, the world would see it. Look at this small boy, Jeta Amata. He just shot a film worth 300million in Hollywood, that’s a film. The preview of the film was on CNN for six days. CNN was carrying this boy two times a day for six days because they have just seen a film. Another person is Tarila Thompson, my nephew who had just finished a film and they are editing. The movie is called Off the Creek, he used 280million naira to shoot this film. In America, that is peanuts, but you see if you shoot a film of 280million naira in Nigeria its equivalent to 500million dollars.
They put good money and that’s why they do good films. So that was why I had to talk when Jonathan brought 200million dollar intervention. They carried it and gave to the bank of industry. What do they know about the act of film making? What research have they made about film markers? They are asking me Eddie Ugboma to bring my account book, my house, and my wife and when I look at them I just laugh. My name should frighten them. The name Eddie Ugboma should frighten them in this industry, whether it’s in the music or in film because I have left a record.
What record, and why should they be frightened?
Do you know that my film, ‘The Mask’ that I shot made the British government call Nigeria to come and take back its artifacts. Also the film I shot ‘Black President,’ was what exposed South Africans who had missile in Equatorial Guinea and were planning on shooting it into Warri, Kaduna, Portharcourt? That is how film shakes the world. By now if we were in a good country, you should go through 12 security men to see me. I should have been protected more than the president. But unfortunately we don’t have distribution. So, all my massive hits were on National Theaters. When the hall is crowded and full, we clap and say, oh the film was a great hit.
What great hit? When you shoot a film like Black President and The Mask’ and films like The Boy is Good, where I talked about the future of 419 and Yahoo Yahoo, where are we today?
So exactly what is wrong with Nollywood?
The situation with Nollywood now is what we are at a cross road. All the players need now is to stop bickering. They need to respect one another and to accept mistake.
What do you think is the cause of these arguments?
You see, majority of our film makers are from Niger Delta. If you talk about people like me, Chief Eddie Ugboma, Fred and Chico Ejiro, Ralph Nwadike, Lancelot , Kinsley Ogoro, Paul Obazilie and many more. These are the core of Nollywood, but when government picked one Igbo, one Hausa, one Yoruba, they said they have spoken to Nollywood. So there will always be argument. What is holding back Nollywood today is that the government have not sat down and talked to the real Nollywood makers.
You have been so hard on your colleagues from South. This is supposed to be a Nigerian thing.
Art has no language. We don’t want to hear that any time you do a film it must Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba. The Hausa people are the worst in this industry. No, you don’t want to equate me with that camcorder films that Hausa people are shooting. They have the money bags and they have stories they can make millions with. So I don’t know why they are afraid of the Sharia. They can make films on the Sharia, because if I was a northerner, I will be making billions and millions because the entire north of Africa is Muslims. So I don’t know why they are shooting this their imitation of Indians. They annoy me because they have a bigger future than the south. They have good stories, so why are they trying to sing and dance like Indians and making a fool of themselves?
But with people like you still very much around and still talking, we may still see the desired changes?
I have been trying for the past eight years to get people to shoot good movie but nobody wants to listen. It has been my bad luck since Nollywood opened 20 years ago. Nobody has ever given me a penny to shoot a film, nobody has ever invited me to act except my nephew or a friend of mine. I am a producer, a writer and an actor.
What exactly is wrong with how they do the movies?
If you watch Nollywood today, kannywood and the Yoruba ANTP wood, they are like Action Group. This is wrong, we shouldn’t be involved in politics. We shouldn’t care who the president is, the question should be, can he rule? Now Jonathan is now the President and the North and the South West are throwing stones at him making things impossible and they want to blame him and that is what is happening in Nollywood. They are causing confusion for themselves and they want to blame the government.
The marketers were told to distribute films, but you know the style of these Igbo and Yoruba m a rketers; when they make films, 20 or 25 of them in a group would take two-two copies from you and they say “we are distributors”. So, you see, it is not organized. I remember one time I want to advise them and they said “what is this old papa talking about”.
Sir, you are always one of the famous music promoters n the 1980s, you have promoted a lot if legends high live musicians, what is your observation about our today music industry?
You see if you listen to our radio today in Nigeria, it makes me happy, 90percent of their music today whether video or audio are Nigerians. I thank people like Kenny Ogungbe and D1, these boys are keeping the flag flying that is why you can find out that people like Psquare and Dbanj can now sing anywhere in the world. They are massive artistes all over Africa. That is what I want to return the movie industry in Nigeria to, where they belong at the top.
Via National Mirror
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