A Conversation with Award-winning Hausa film Director Hafizu Bello

You were nominated for three films at the Africa Magic Viewers Awards. Could you briefly tell me about each of them?Fa’ida, which won the best Hausa local language film, is thriller about Internet fraud. The actors featured in the film are Baballe Hayatu, Maimuna Watarana, Shu’aibu Lawan Kumurci, and Abba El-Mustapha. Of the other two […]

You were nominated for three films at the Africa Magic Viewers Awards. Could you briefly tell me about each of them?
Fa’ida, which won the best Hausa local language film, is thriller about Internet fraud. The actors featured in the film are Baballe Hayatu, Maimuna Watarana, Shu’aibu Lawan Kumurci, and Abba El-Mustapha. Of the other two films that were nominated, Asirka is about a younger sister who is jealous of her brother’s wife, and Yunkuri is about how a mother-in-law persecutes her son’s wife.
Could you tell me about the other awards you’ve received?
This Africa Magic Viewers Choice Award is the seventh award I’ve received. A film I produced Mukadare won best film at the Arewa Awards in 2000. In 2001, my film Huzni won an award in Abuja. At the Yahoo Group Awards, I won Best Director and Best Film for Ruhi in 2002; Best Producer for Yanayi in 2004, and Best Director for Qarni in 2005.
When did you start making films and what interested you in entering the film industry?
Since I was a young boy, I was interested in making films. When I grew up and finished school, I decided to enter Hausa film industry. In 1998 I produced the film Dijangala. I also produced a film called Mukadare, which won Best film at Arewa Film Awards in 2000. Then I decided to start directing films, so I directed Ukuba in 2001. It was for this film that Aminu Sheriff (Momoh) received Best Actor award in the Arewa Film Awards in 2001. When I started making films, the industry was full of love stories. That is all you would see, love story, love story, love story. I was tired of all these. There wasn’t any challenge in them. So, I changed my genre to horror films and made films like Almuru, Qarni, and so on.
Which of your films do you like the best? If people search for your films to watch, which ones should they look for?
I prefer my film Ruhi, because it was the film that I took to FESPACO film festival in 2003. Also, there’s Qarni (2004), Fa’ida (2011), and Mukadare (2000).
What impresses you about Kannywood. Do you have advice about improvements that need to be made?
What impresses me in Kannywood is the young talented kids you find in the industry. They don’t even know how talented they are.
As for advice, I think we should really seek out knowledge. A few years ago, I started asking myself, what is our biggest problem in the film industry? For almost 6-7 years, we are doing films, without any challenge. We’re always asking the government to do things for us. But you don’t have to wait for someone to come along and support you. You can do it yourself. If you look at Nollywood, those making Nigerian films, they are doing things for themselves, but us, we are sitting down by ourselves in Kano, we don’t travel, we don’t go to festivals, we don’t do anything. So, I said, let me start going to these courses that they offer. I went to courses like National Film Institute’s SHOOT, Bob-TV, which are trying to improve the standards of films. So, in my own opinion, I don’t want us to be making home videos. I want us to make real films. We should be focusing on making films on celluloid, not always just making home video, home video, home video. When I went to Bob-TV, I heard that New York Film Academy had come to Nigeria, but they were already gone. So I looked into National Film Insitute, but I can’t spend four years in school, since I have so many things going on. So, I decided to do a 10-week certificate course at Zenith Film Institute in Abuja.
There are a lot of stories we can tell in Kannywood, history, other stories that we should make films about. A director becomes a psychologist, a teacher, and a leader. But once you think about it as a “home video,” you just take a camera and say you’re going to go shooting in some place. That’s not how we should do it. We should go and really seek out education. If I told you how much I had learned at Zenith Film Institute, you would be surprised, wallahi.
Are there films from outside Kannywood that impress you?
Yes, from Nollywood, this film The Figurine [by Kunle Afolayan] really impressed me. It’s a Nigerian movie, but the director really tried to upgrade the standard in how he shot it. I was struck by the depth of field in the shots. In Kannywood, I like Mandawari’s 1998 film Kara da Kiyashe. In Hollywood, there’s Avatar. When I saw the “making of the film,” it impressed me how they created a whole other world. It’s science fiction, animation, everything combined.
I did something a bit similar a while back in 2004, Qarni. In the film we created another tribe, with their own language. We went into the mind of Ali Nuhu through the computer. I want to do the sort of thing that people have never seen. I like challenges. It sold really well. People liked it.
Is there a message in your films?
I have a message in every film. But I prefer to bring a new thing, which has not been seen in Hausa films before. I like to bring a new concept.
What is the relationship between Nollywood and Kannywood?
I don’t like these different names. I know they named Kannywood in 1998, and they named Nollywood in 2001. They are different industries. Kannywood is the northern film industry, because there is a difference between culture, religion, and other things. Nollywood has their own different cultures, and also the language they use is different. We make films in Hausa. They make films in English. After all, you know the Yoruba have their own industry, though they sometimes collaborate with Nollywood. And there are also Igbo films. But I don’t think we should have all these separate names, it should just be the Nigerian film industry, since we all belong to the same country—just different languages. Isn’t it? There is even Bollywood, and what is it that they call Ghanaian films? Ghallywood? I don’t know where we got all this wood, wood, wood? I think the name “Nigerian film industry” is better.
Are you interested in working with Nollywood?
Yes, I’m interested. I have a project in the future, Insha Allah. Once I finish my education and find sponsors. I want to make a film to show that all of us are Nigerian and we are the same. The poor people in north and south are suffering the same problem. So, let us put Nigeria first.
Is there any final message you want to send to readers?
I want Nigerians to understand that film is a profession. Foreign investors should come invest in the film. There are a lot of messages in the films, and there are youths with talent, that they should help. Film has become big in Nigeria. That is why we should go back and study film, even if it is a 2-week or a 1-week course. It will teach you things that help your film. Finally, I call on the government to open film schools, so that we don’t have to spend a lot of money on expensive private schools. Opening new schools will encourage the youths.