The reason for this recollection has to do with a round-table that took place in London on the 3rd of January 2020. The participants at the event discussed potentials of positioning Nollywood in the UK as a commercially viable transnational cinema. According to the organizers “: “the roundtable, [was] originally suggested by Nollywood Legend, Clarion Chukwurah” The agenda of the round table was to draw “attention is on the state of film production by Nigerians in the diaspora.” The round-table interrogated “the challenges [faced by geographically displaced Nigerians in producing and distributing their movies] and proffer solutions to structural hindrances in financing, (pre/post) production, distribution and exhibition of our films.”
The convener, Dr. Samantha Iwowo of Bournemouth University and Rejoice Abutsa, a creative communications and brand consultant (who was co-convener) rightly observed that the “situation in the UK is largely different from what obtains in Nigeria: often times, our target audiences demand of neo-Nollywood films, cinema quality comparable in audio-visual quality to Anglo-American films. With the increasing outcry against the quality of several (neo)Nollywood films streaming on Amazon and Netflix, the timeliness of this roundtable is apt. As a collective, we come together to strategize and map out solutions for neo-Nollywood sustainability in the UK – particularly as a transnational film form.”
A report of this event will be presented soon but the round table took me down memory lane. I share my recollections of the time Dr. Richard Lang of the German Cultural Center had just arrived at his duty post in 1996. Prior to his coming to the Lagos offices of the Goethe Institute on Victoria Island, he was in India and had experienced the film industry in India. One of the few things he wanted to understand was how the film industry in Lagos operated. The “insider” duty fell on me and I took him round a few production companies. He had discussions with few stakeholders we could find. The report below you are about to read is over two decades old. You will notice that a lot has changed in the last twenty years. It is to Richard’s Lang that the Lagos Film Viewers’ Forum started and filmmakers from around Nigeria came to the venue to screen their films to the very critical audience. I will not forget the night Saddik Balewa came with his film Kasamu Ce: This Land is Ours (shot in 1993). This movie was not like the strictly commercial ventures of today. There are still a few memorable lines like if you look right, look left remember there is still up and down. In any case I leave you with the report below…
REPORT, REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE INFORMAL DISCOURSE ON FILM/VIDEO POLICY, PRODUCTION AND POSSIBILITIES (1996)
Introduction: Status of the Film Industry in Nigeria:
It is debatable if the present situation in the film/video market can be referred to as an industry where capital, machinery and resources are in place. One very heartening development is the presence of a film policy for the country. The history of the policy dates back to 1991 when Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) constituted a panel to look into the existing regulations with a view of harmonizing and distilling the essence of a film policy. The film policy fortunately is a beautiful document that not only articulates the many possibilities and options open to the country but also attempts at providing enabling environment for the production of films. The document on its face- value seems not to lack in the necessary guidelines and visions, for example the preamble recognizes that “the film is a unique means of communication, it is a means of education and entertainment, socialization, information and mobilization. More than any other means of mass communication the film can be used as a tool to promote positive social transformation as well as to consolidate and build a new relationship between culture and national development”.
From the fore going, it is evident that the brains that put together the policy are very current and visionary. However, the present situation seems not to be in harmony with the sentiments expressed. The situation of film production and consumption demands a critical attention. In terms of the technology of film production, the country is presently undergoing a rapid retrogression and decay. The Cinema culture built over the years on foreign films and taste is fast dying out and replaced with indoors small-screen consumption that may be local in content but still largely foreign in concept. Whichever way the film consumption/production pattern is framed, this country seem to be in a bind, a resolution of which, may require a concerted cultural revolution that places premium on available and affordable technology.
It may not be very necessary to engage in a review of the film policy or even the non-existent infrastructure or the subsistence finance and capital mode of funding film productions in the country as that should be a separate topic for another paper. In fact, it may require a whole seminar to appraise the funding and marketing of films in
Nigeria. The rare involvement of Banks and the capital market is enough proof of the primitive financing arrangement in place presently. Suffice to say, the level of financial involvement in any industry coupled with the risk taking mechanism determines the growth, sustenance and quality of the products that roll off the production lines.
Meanwhile, if the capital base is weak, the same cannot be said of the human resources available to the yet-to-take-off-film industry.
There abounds a multitude of scriptwriters, producers, technicians, directors, etc. in the land that can take on the challenge of any screenplay n matter how complex.
One thing that is quickly noticeable among these available human resources is the different educational backgrounds. In time past the British film school was the main supplier of film personnel in Nigeria before the entry of African-Americans and other Directors from mainstream America. It is therefore pertinent to look at the quality of film education available in the country. Is there a clear-cut direction as to the standard and cultural influence in the training? In the film policy document, section 9, deals with training, research and development.
In the subsequent sub-sections the document only reinforces rhetoric without laying any frameworks that can answer the lingering questions. It does not tackle the How of training but lays emphasis on why. Though it talks about the establishment of a film institute to “serve as training and research center”, it does not bother about how the center will come on stream or the direction of its policy.
There is no need again to delve into the merits or demerits of a film institute at this period of our national economic reality. What we can at best focus upon will be how to make the knowledge gained in a film school adaptable to our present situation where it is no longer economically prudent to invest in film stock [16mm gauge at the worst]. The deciding factor is the favorable reaction of the market to narrative films produced with less capital outlay on VHS format.
The curriculum of the film institute must include how to infuse both technologies and culture, to produce products of international standards in terms of quality of presentation. It must be stated that films/videos demand a certain basic standard that is irrespective of race, color of cultural backgrounds. That film aesthetics as a universal concept cannot be argued, what can be debated will most likely be resolved with the subjectivity of beauty being in the eye of the beholders.
Factors that influence Film production and consumption: In Nigeria as in other countries the content of films can be dictated by complex inter-related factors. The major factor being the culture of the people and their approach to relaxation. This is also a function of disposable income and available products ready for consumption at any point in time. The interplay of economics, expectations and socialization thus play a major role in determining the film culture.
Just like a society gets the kind of workmen it deserves, a film maker through research determines what the market prefers in terms of theme, the treatment however still happens to be the prerogative of the financier and director, in other words, “What works is repeated endlessly, until it stops working. What fails is not tried again”.
Yet in-between the market forces and the people is the sometimes uncomfortable position of the film critic, on whose shoulders rest the responsibility of making or breaking a box office hype or fact.
Recommendations –Without the benefit of a casual or critical assessment, the Nigerian film critic more than the film makers need education. Due to the nature of journalism in Nigeria and the esoteric nature of film technique and information, most writers on the Arts Desk are not armed with the basic tool of film critique and appraisal. The crossover from stage into big screen for both parties i.e. film makers and critics even compound the problem.
If the film quality will ever improve, there must be a way of creating authorities (full time or freelance) on film that can be taken seriously in one or two newspaper houses. Film reviews to say the least are still seen as a means of promotion without actual expenditure, in other words the film/video reviewer is not yet an integral part of the creative process that can lead to an evolution of quality products.
As a short-term option for resolving, the problem of film critics lacking basic film making knowledge, a see-how-it’s done workshop by seasoned film instructors may help. Also as a complement to the above a filmmaker – film critic debate may be arranged using real life situations.
For instance, an aggrieved film/video maker may come with the offending write-up to the forum especially organized to deal with the case, while the audience is shown parts of the production wrongly attacked by the critic. The audience then constitutes the jury to discuss the merits and demerits of the claims and counter-claims.
The expectation here is that both the critic and the producer would have learnt a lesson or two. However, the forum will need a neutral and culturally sensitive moderator.
While the short-term measure is being put in place, it is expected that film literature and awareness will be encouraged at all levels of re-education for all those involved in filmmaking. I hope that the critics become less caustic in their reviews and filmmakers too will clean up their acts.
Film Festivals as a means of inspiration: Just as the making of films/videos could be purely for commercial reasons, it is not also out of place to demand that the social construct of films must not be sacrificed or totally abandoned. The situation in the country presently does not encourage the making of films or productions that can be entered for competitions or exhibited at film festivals.
There have been efforts in the past at organizing film competitions and festivals in-country but like every thing else the fuel to ensure its continuity soon leaks out and everyone is left in the lurch as to whatever happened. If the film enterprise will grow into a multi-million Naira enterprise; things like festivals which serve as marketing, promotion and psyche-boosting ventures cannot be discontinued without its repercussion on quality of films produced. There is also the possibility that film festivals can help in the discovery of new talents and the reinforcement of old ones. Beyond the injunctions in the film policy that the state should “encourage and support through adequate funding the organization of film festivals at regular intervals of two years” [which never happens], the civil society should join hands to ensure that festivals like these which has economic and psychological impacts on their lives should not be neglected. The day for the evolution of a truly Nigerian film style
is not far if….
Summation of thoughts and ideas:
There are many options open to Nigeria as a country as it regards the development of quality films and videos. Each of the options is capital intensive and demand painstaking planning and implementation. There cannot be any short cut to success. However, there are certain structures that need to be put in place; cinemas where the film produced can be watched in comfort, if possible within the communities. The time worn suggestion has been the idea of converting the structures of the last political misadventure found in every local government area, into some sort of multi-purpose community centers where films and videos can be shown. Also there is the need to re-cultivate the lost generation of cinema buffs especially the middle class folks back into the big screen Halls.
In tandem to this is the question of film distribution in this country. The past situation whereby foreigners dominated the business of distribution to the detriments of local economic consideration should be looked into. This in a way also affected local initiatives in a negative way. Once the problem of distribution is solved, the producers will be free to return to locations to continue with more creative aspect of the enterprise than what obtain today. Film makers are not only the financiers of their projects, they are also the distributors, public relations experts and sometimes the ticket sales persons. To say the least these tasks are too heavy for individuals that are hardly equipped for such tasks. What can be done will of course be home grown.
As to the aspects of technology, finance and film education there are avenues for intervention and support. More so in areas of joint productions and in-country cooperatives with revolving loans at a social market determined rate and not left to the killing free market forces.
For the industry to take off, the economics and finance mechanisms must be given adequate considerations like other sectors of the national economy. There is little need to restate the obvious, films have great socio-economic potentials with quick turn around on investment, if…
