Award-winning Nigerian filmmaker, Jade Osiberu, has revealed her decision to start VIVA LA NOLLYWOOD, a series through which she will share her thoughts, ideas and useful nuggets about filmmaking in Nigeria.
Osiberu, who revealed this on Saturday via her Twitter handle @jadeosiberu, said that for aspiring filmmakers, there are many paths to filmmaking and distribution that they must know.
“I would advise researching those paths and the people who have successfully followed them, their successes, failures and what fresh ideas you have to create your own path and hopefully move the industry forward in your own way.”
In what served as her maiden edition of the educational Viva La Nollywood series, she said: “Also know that Nollywood is such a young industry, there’s a lot of experimenting and evolving still. So don’t accept when anyone tells you this is the only way to succeed… It’s the only way they know to success… It doesn’t have to be your story.”
Speaking on the dynamics of filmmaking, the producer of Isoken noted that the stakes are high without guaranteed outcomes but the industry needs filmmakers who can distill their voices and “join the plurality of voices Nollywood requires to really flourish.
“Listen to advice and learn from experience, but learn to discern the truth. Be wary of voices that tell you your way can’t work. The industry has dashed the hopes of many and many struggle[d] with navigating their own path. Some bitterness is inevitable,” she admonished.
Osiberu, though admitted that the journey to fame in filmmaking might be bumpy, nevertheless submitted that aspiring filmmakers are required to conquer new audiences, markets, territories and reshape the notion of what is possible.
“This is not a sprint. Let the journey take as long as it needs to,” she said.
“When you start off, your work might not be entirely what you hoped it will be or do as well as you had hoped. Don’t stop creating, learning, building your storytelling muscles.
“A time will come when the stars will align with your preparedness.. and all of it will have been worthwhile.
VIVA LA NOLLYWOOD,” the filmmaker concluded.
Osiberu is a screenwriter, producer and director known for flicks like Gidi Up (2013), Isoken (2017) and Sugar Rush (2019).
