‘Reelviews’ and ‘Behind the scenes’

Inspired by what the author calls “the dearth of informed reference materials….and scholarly publications” on the works of the pioneer film makers, Reel Views tells the history of film in Nigeria from its colonial beginnings in the early 1900s through the “Celluloid Golden Period” of the late 1970s and early 1980s to the present Nollywood […]

Inspired by what the author calls “the dearth of informed reference materials….and scholarly publications” on the works of the pioneer film makers, Reel Views tells the history of film in Nigeria from its colonial beginnings in the early 1900s through the “Celluloid Golden Period” of the late 1970s and early 1980s to the present Nollywood phenomenon of videography and its cast of rich, famous and flamboyant characters.

The collection discusses familiar issues in the film industry, such as ensuring quality content, having in place the best technical, production and post-production facilities, getting well-trained and professionals to man the various units or to play the various roles, and meeting the challenges of distribution and marketing as well as financing.

The work also captures the raging debate then about language and elitism in the Nigerian film.

One of the essays in the book, titled “The Film Industry: Starring or Staring?” published in The Guardian in 1984, elicited furious rejoinders from two respected voices in the industry: Mr Frank Aig-Imoukhuede and Dr. Ola Balogun. In the controversial essay, Adesanya looked at the Nigerian film industry in its nearly eight decades of existence then and concluded that the pioneer film makers were unable to build on or to sustain their remarkable achievements because they failed to anticipate audience taste and to uphold professionalism and standard. He accused some of them of seeing film making as an all comers’ job and of trying to be all in all in the creativity chain. The film maker, he writes, was often the writer, director, producer and distributor/marketer.

There were other factors beyond the control of the pioneers, Adesanya conceded.

In his response to Adesanya’s seeming indictment of the pioneers, Mr Frank Aig-Imoukhuede, a former staff of the defunct Federal Film Unit, cited “the problem of poor craftsmanship and poorly organized market and marketing system” as being responsible for the box office failure of Nigerian films. Film maker Ola Balogun, in his rejoinder, talked about the ‘vastly different material context in which films are produced and distributed, rather than some miraculous capacity to anticipate audience tastes by a decade’ as the problem of the film industry.

Adesanya was not exactly thumbing his nose at his elders in the essay. He was somehow disappointed that after the hugely successful period of film making in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the industry appeared comatose by the mid 1980s.

The pioneers had filled a void. They had told the Nigerian story. The Nigerian people were hungry for more. But the pioneers had gone suddenly quiet. What happened?

To win back the market, Adesanya advises film makers to produce films not common on the small screens – epics, spectaculars, serious dramas or action packed thrillers, films that stand the test of time, films that have meaning and relevance, that can stir people and entertain them.

About five years after Adesanya had agonized over the imminent death of the Nigerian (celluloid) film industry, something else started to stir in movie-dom. It was the emergence of video films. Neither Adesanya nor the other film makers and critics could have anticipated the profound changes videography would wrought on the film industry. Even the videographers themselves had no idea that they were on to something big. In an article written in June 1990 titled “Film Shows versus Home Video”, Adesanya grudgingly acknowledged the arrival of video films in Nigeria which he linked to the VHS video players and colour television sets that suited home viewership over cinema culture. But he was not excited over this development.

Adesanya is a celluloid man, having done two highly rated movies (Vigilante and Ose Sango) with his brother, Adedeji, on celluloid.

However, he was interested in how videographers were able to overcome age-old problems of distribution and marketing. In nearly three decades of celluloid history, there were less than 200 films produced, he writes, but videographers were churning out titles by the thousands annually. Despite their popularity, quality is still a problem, production techniques are inferior, Adesanya argues.

Adesanya believes that videography and the entire Nollywood phenomenon, succeeded as a result of the following: the restrictions on the importation of foreign films into the country and the advent of local production; the emergence of affordable, micro digital equipment for video film production; the liberalisation of the broadcast media which led to the establishment of private television stations; and the arrival of DSTV, the South African cable television company that offers bouquets of sports and entertainment channels such as African Magic. All these helped to spread the gospel of Nollywood to a worldwide audience.

Reel Views also contains an interview with the late Hubert Ogunde (who says that the theatre/film should mirror the society we live in); a 1984 profile of the then 19-year old Clarion Chukwurah (who we are told was making a mouth-watering N7000 a year as an actress); and a profile of Ladi Ladebo, a film maker and businessman whose credits included Bisi, Daughter of the River and Eewo (Taboo),etc. There is also an interview and profile of a Nigerian of Isale Eko origin with the rather strange name of Joy Lemoine, a London based actress, dancer, acrobat and musician.

The book offers interesting reviews of films, television programmes and books, including the review of Nollywood Confidential, a 2009 visual and narrative history of Nollywood and Kannywood written by the US- based Malian film scholar Manthia Diawara. Professor Diawara’s 2010 book, African Film: New Form of Aesthetics and Politics, also got a favourable review, with Adesanya calling it “undoubtedly a comprehensive scholarly work”. But Diawara’s 1992 book titled, African Cinema – Politics and Culture, was dismissed by Adesanya for its scanty treatment of Anglophone African film industry.

Adesanya’s well-deserved appointment as Managing Director of the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) in 2005 provided an opportunity for the critic, activist and stakeholder to test the ideas and suggestions he dished out freely in the past.  In Behind the Scenes, therefore, we see Adesanya, the critic turned helmsman of the NFC, trying to implement the ideas he articulated so clearly as an outsider in Reel Views.

The 227-page Behind the Scenes contains 48 speeches and papers delivered between 2005 and 2012 at various forums in Nigeria and beyond.  Through these speeches and essays, Adesanya has been able to articulate a vision and design a road map for the Nigerian film which he says is now an industry, a means of communication, a tool for mobilization and an important contributor to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product. The thriving film industry, he adds, was created by the collective ingenuity and hard work of the Nigerian artists.

Three of the essays in Behind the Scenes stand out for their depth and the range of issues tackled.

He suggests that themes and stories should “reflect positive aspects of Nigerian life, our core values – the things that bind us together, films that create cross cultural understanding” and advises the industry to “upgrade to the highest production standard”.

Despite these minor editing and proof-reading oversights, Reel Views and Behind the Scenes are important historical materials in the Nigerian film industry. With the publication of the two books, it can no longer be said that the Nigerian film industry lacks “informed reference materials….and scholarly publications”. I would like to therefore recommend them to stakeholders in the film industry and other curious minds.

• This review was and presented at the public presentation of the two books on October 23rd, 2012 at the Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton Hotel, Abuja.