Dance of Vipers dares Nollywood

Lawyer Nathan Oguwike began scripting Dance of Vipers in 2011, originally with a five-season series in mind, but scarce production funds altered the story into a six-part movie instead.Without any famous Nollywood names to help push young actors into shape, the film boasts a cast of more than 200, mostly students -and they pitched in […]

Lawyer Nathan Oguwike began scripting Dance of Vipers in 2011, originally with a five-season series in mind, but scarce production funds altered the story into a six-part movie instead.
Without any famous Nollywood names to help push young actors into shape, the film boasts a cast of more than 200, mostly students -and they pitched in to fund production when finance was nowhere in sight.
They are under the banner of Students in Nigeria Reawakening Initiative (STINRI).
 “It has been an unfortunate thing that in Nigeria, nobody cares about the youths, and I say that with sadness in my heart,” said Oguwike, who is also a trustee for STINRI.
Major networks and production houses declined to support, and high-net-worth financiers and government agencies that target youth also were not inclined to support.
“We thought these people owed the nation a responsibility to show interest in what responsible youths are doing to promote violence-free society. Politicians and people in government were not interested in what we were doing,” said Oguwike.
Dance of Vipers is the story of a pre-colonial community of Amankpa, caught in the throes of terrorism as its residents attempt to choose a leader.
Its residents in fear of a machete-happy band of vandals mirror modern-day Nigerians coping under the yoke of insurgency-and a political landscape that is as fragile as it is robust.
“We have a clear message: terrorism is a global phenomenon,” said Oguwike. “The question is should people allow themselves be intimidated and allow people gain power by means of terror and threats?”
It also reflects how the growth trajectory of Nollywood dictated mostly by marketers and recycling the same superstar faces while stifling younger talent.
“People criticise Nollywood for not growing, and it isn’t growing,” said Peter Ekwerike, who directed the film. A final-year student of Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, he had directed three other films and runs the production house Greenville. He also co-produced Dance of Vipers.
“Ghanaians don’t do their movies with superstars. They look for their own artistes, beautiful faces. In Nigeria, marketers are not helping the industry. Marketers will always want to see our veterans, our superstars. If you bring a movie to them when they are not seeing all these people, they get discouraged. By so doing, after acting this movie with all students and upcoming artistes, if you don’t push it, you end up watching it only you and the people around you. It is very difficult for us.”
Dance of Vipers cleverly uses material available to do the needful, even with a lack of finance. Stretched by the difficulty of sourcing pre-colonial costumes for a 200-strong cast of villagers, its makers did clever things with medium shots. The tweaks aren’t apparent unless the scene has up to 30 people in it.
The project was “a very big challenge for us,” said Ekwerike. “If you go around society, we have so many touts doing one or two things. Some are not learned. We use this opportunity to look for things to help us. When you look at the project, this is all about students. It has been very difficult to execute this particular project.”