How it felt to win Arewa’s first ‘Best Film’ AMAA – Kenneth Gyang

“Four interlinked stories, each told individually, increasingly reveal the random, confusing and unfair nature of life and justice,” as the director described it. The film recently won the Best Film award at the AMAAs. We caught up with him. Weekend Magazine: Your movie, ‘Confusion Na Wa’ won the much-coveted Best Film laurel at the African […]

“Four interlinked stories, each told individually, increasingly reveal the random, confusing and unfair nature of life and justice,” as the director described it. The film recently won the Best Film award at the AMAAs. We caught up with him.
Weekend Magazine: Your movie, ‘Confusion Na Wa’ won the much-coveted Best Film laurel at the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). How does that feel?
Kenneth Gyang: Apart from making films and bringing smiles to the faces of people who’ll pay to watch, the hallmark of making films is to be recognised for it. During the awards I was totally emotionless, not because I was arrogant or anything, but largely because making ‘Confusion Na Wa’ was a draining exercise. Again, my lack of emotion has to do with the fact that I felt I was representing young filmmakers out there who have not been given a chance or taking seriously in this country. It was my silent protest and all thanks to the jury of AMAA for giving me that great platform.
I remember when the award for Best Film was announced, Tom (the producer) was sitting right behind me and he screamed “dude”! I was calm as I took strides to the stage to collect the award.  Collecting the award, I stammered my way a bit before finding my feet to deliver my winning speech about how it is for my fellow young filmmakers out there.
The next day when my phone, Facebook and Twitter started buzzing about our win and everyone was going ballistic about the Best Film award, I started feeling some excitement. Looking at the kind of films ‘Confusion Na Wa’ was up against made the euphoria of winning that coveted award much more exciting. Again, the realization of being the first person from this part of the country to win is sad but still has a nice feeling.
While your movies exude an art-house look and feel, you’re known to tag your work ‘Nollywood’. Why?
When UNESCO first carried out their research about how many film titles are produced a year in Nigeria, they didn’t say “Oh, this stat is for this particular brand of filmmakers alone.” They said for Nigerian films and films produced in Nigeria are from an industry widely known as Nollywood. Does Kenneth Gyang make cheap films like regular Nollywood films? Yes. Are his films in such terrible quality both in technique and story as those films? No. Is he making films to be massively consumed like other Nollywood films? Yes. You see, parallels could be drawn with regular Nollywood films but again there’s always a meeting point with the kind of films Cinema Kpatakpata always sets out to make. For me, the politics of calling the industry I find myself to be practising in doesn’t matter.
I think this whole issue of ‘Nollywood, no, not Nollywood’ is being stretched to its breaking point so much so that at this year’s FESPACO, the prestigious film festival in  Africa, Professor Wole Soyinka presented a paper about it called “A name is more than the tyranny of taste”. He talked about how in Yorubaland a name may mould a child so you don’t find any Yoruba parent giving their babies names that embed evil meanings. 
Personally I’ll say this, Nollywood followed in the Bollywood/Hollywood bandwagon. When the Indian film industry in Mumbai was tagged Bollywood, no-one cut it some slack. A whole ton of look-alike films were churned out in overwhelming quantity but with time, they started raising their game. In the opposite direction, France is synonymous with art films but you still have tons of popcorn movies emanating from there. For me, the totality of films coming from Nigeria make up what is known as Nollywood and I’ll rather spend my time making films that matter than worry myself with the name of industry.
The title ‘Confusion Na Wa’ has elicited both cheers and jeers. Why did you choose it?
Some people say it is a refreshing title, away from what has been coming out from Nigeria for some time now. We wanted to make an authentic film set in Nigeria with our characters speaking “Nigerian” whilst paying tribute to the works of great authentic artistes like Fela Kuti who spoke like a Nigerian in his songs. I think a few people don’t understand the concept behind the title and that is because they think we don’t know any better than speak Pidgin English because we can’t write Queen’s English. For us, it still comes down to our overall philosophy of standing out instead of fitting in.
Did Ali Nuhu, Ramsey Nouah and co. take large salary cuts to fit your modest budget?
They did and they greatly aided us in affording great screen personalities in the film. The thing is, we had a screenplay that works and we needed not only great actors but star vehicles to entice people into thinking about going to see the film in the first place. Ali Nuhu has consistenly performed with a resonating aplomb from his award-winning performance in Sitanda to TV series like Wetin Dey and Finding Aisha and a host of other films. Apart from being a performer, he’s a star.
Again, we looked around and Ramsey Nouah has been one actor who has always emerged with some credibility from mainstream Nollywood and some international productions. People always tend to pay attention to his good looks but apart from being a star with a handsome face which of course illuminates the camera, his talent and professionalism is incredible. There’s also OC Ukeje who has always delivered when called upon. Gold Ikponmwosa who eventually got a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance in our film also made huge sacrifices. All our actors and crew members took pay cuts and we’re grateful for that.
Your producing partner Tom Rowlands-Rees is British, but spend part of his childhood in Northern Nigeria. Is that why you became friends and business partners?
Tom Rowlands-Rees is a great guy. I would say his small northern Nigerian experience growing up cemented a lot of the holes that would have been there if I was meeting someone who doesn’t even know my country is somewhere in Africa. I remember meeting him through a friend in 2006. They met and became friends at the Berlinale and she invited me over to meet him. So here I was, first time out and meeting a white dude who knows the Hausa word “Sannu”. Google Translate hadn’t even been invented at the time.
Tom’s humility, respect and understanding of our culture also helped because I don’t think I can stand an Oyimbo person coming to Nigeria and complaining about everything. Again, I know the sort of stories that foreigners always hear about Africa. But Tom doesn’t care and though it is hard to find vegetarian food in regular Nigerian restaurants, he still eats his pounded yam with egusi soup after picking out the small pieces of fish in it because in Nigeria we cannot understand why a man will eat his meal without at least a piece of meat.
You’re the first Northerner to win an AMAA award for ‘Best Film’ even though at a point the region was virtually the home of Nigerian cinema. Do you feel a sense of responsibility because of this?
Of course I do feel a sense of responsibility to be part of the new generation of filmmakers that are gradually bringing back the lost years of our region. Those were the years when high budget films like Shehu Umar, Kasar Mu Ce and Kulba Na Barna were made, films that could compete anywhere and still sold out in our local theatres. I don’t know if there’s any region that had the sort of keen cinema-goers we had when I was growing up to even this day. I used to hear the funny stories of my uncle who used to break bounds in boarding school just to travel quite a distance to Jos in order to scale the fence of the various operating cinema houses at the time so as to sneak in and watch a film. 
I remember in film school I used to read a lot of stories about how this region was the home of film/TV. NTA Jos, I think, was the first colour-TV station in Africa. There were international productions, too. Apart from films, most of the best TV productions in Nigeria were mostly from this region. Years later you could see that most of the creatives who are making a difference in this industry one way or the other are from this region or have a history with it. People like Sani Mu’azu, Steve Gukas, Ibrahim Buba, Sadik Balewa, Ifeanyi Iloduba, Izu Ojukwu, Lot Pindem, Yinka Edward, Tajuddeen Adepetu, Mahmoud Alli-Balogun and a host of others.
I hope winning the biggest prize of the African Movie Academy Awards will be a solid, fresh starting point not only for me but for more young people from the North to be encouraged to up their interest in film so that we can catch up with what’s happening in various parts of Africa.
When will ‘Confusion Na Wa’ be premièred in Nigeria to a mainstream audience?
Soon. The premiere of this film is hopefully coming up in July and after that it’ll be the general release. I know there are a lot of people out there who want to know what makes this film tick and can’t wait to feast on it.
You’ve filmed heavily in Kaduna and Plateau states. Have you had any recognition or assistance of some sort from these state governments?
After winning the AMAA, a close relation called me after two weeks to ask me if I’ve seen the governors of Kaduna and Plateau states and I said no, because I’ve always tried to stay quietly away from the politics that comes with filmmaking. To be honest, I haven’t been in touch with any sort of government people. 
Before shooting ‘Confusion Na Wa’ in Kaduna, I had also shot a TV series in both Kaduna and Plateau. Some people might call it foolish but I am not so much about the government. If I can hussle a job that will employ a few people for a period of time, I am happy. The only thing I’ll say about the concerned state governments is to put in a lot more effort in helping and encouraging film practitioners around them. That will go a long way in consistently providing short-term employments.
What are your artistic influences as a director?
I grew up watching a considerable amount of films produced in India and China. Some guy called Elisha in Barkin Ladi used to run a shadow cinema, if you can call it that. First of all, from a carton, he cuts out several characters, with a stick to control them. Next a fresh carton is cut open in the shape of a TV box. White cloth is spread over it and a lantern is placed behind the clothed screen so that shadows of the cut-out characters will fall on the white cloth. For us in front of the screen, it was a spectacular cinematic treat. Elisha provides the sound effects and dialogue by himself with his mouth as well as the whole storyline from his head.
Growing up, I’ll say I liked very much the works of Ousmane Sembene and Gaston Kabore and other ‘world cinema’ films, but I’ll say my biggest influence is Quentin Tarantino. There’s also Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu whose film Amores Perros greatly inspired the concept of ‘Confusion Na Wa’.
The internet is abuzz with rumours of a science fiction movie being prepped to be directed by you. True?
First time Tom came to visit, he was with me in Abuja when I was working with the BBC Media Action and we went to Lagos because I took a short break to go and produce a series of short films on HIV/AIDS and we had an encounter with area boys in real ghettos. It was a bit-part experience of Nigeria for him as an adult and he left with that giant, up close and personal view of Lagos. It was still around the same time we were working on the last draft of ‘Confusion Na Wa’ that we went to Kurra Falls where on the hills Tom talked about the beauty of the rocks and his experience from the chaotic nature of Lagos which are two different worlds. He said maybe we should do a science fiction film set in Nigeria. Years later, we did a draft of the film’s treatment which we’ve tentatively called ‘AJ City’. I’m sure it’ll be fun working on that film because already we’ve had a few positive comments concerning the idea.