Film village set to train writers on scriptwriting

Some of the facilitators would come from the University of California, Los Angeles, public, coeducational institution in the United States of America, where the Managing Director of the Abuja Film Village International, Mr Segun Oyekunle, studied. Mr Oyekunle, who came to the AFVI with nearly three decades of experience in Hollywood, envisions a film village […]

Some of the facilitators would come from the University of California, Los Angeles, public, coeducational institution in the United States of America, where the Managing Director of the Abuja Film Village International, Mr Segun Oyekunle, studied. Mr Oyekunle, who came to the AFVI with nearly three decades of experience in Hollywood, envisions a film village that would become a one-stop shop for entertainment and filmmaking. Already, he has attracted Landmark Entertainment, the world’s foremost builder of theme parks and production studios.

The workshop being organised by the AFVI is targeted at screenplay writers and is one of many others that shall focus on actors and actresses, directors, producers, directors of cinematography, gaffers, entertainment lawyers, camera operators, etc. There is a plan that the best script from the forthcoming workshop would be produced by the AFVI and premiered in Abuja and in Los Angeles. The aim of the workshop series is to raise the professional know-how of the Nigerian film industry practitioners. It hopes that by doing this, Nollywood would improve its income-generating capacity both at home and abroad. The AFVI operates from the viewpoint that filmmaking is a hub for a whole range of businesses, including fashion, tourism, equipment sales and rentals, catering, transportation, security, health, politics, et cetera. The promoters of the Film Village, thus, believe that, serving as a nucleus, the establishment can be prime catalyst for development.

The President’s Vision 20-2020 committee, whose major challenge includes mobilisation of investment from corporate entities locally and internationally, is reportedly employing the massive entertainment project as its main vehicle for showcasing the abundant potentials.

Already, as part of its ambitions to improve quality of film production, the AFVI is partnering with veteran filmmaker Saddik Balewa to produce a thoroughly researched docudrama titled “Seeds of Nationhood: The Sokoto Caliphate Story”. The story stretches to countries in West Africa and South America, areas that were touched by Othman Dan Fodio’s religious teachings that led to a social upheaval. “Seeds of Nationhood” would surely be a showcase of what the Abuja Film Village has to offer, especially to writers.