In this report SOLOMON NDA-ISAIAH and SAMUEL ABULUDE look at the art of film making as a veritable tool in shaping the ideas of the African people and ultimately, providing employment to multitudes of young people
Film making is an art and a science at the same time. The art thrives on passion on the part of the persons making the movie or documentary. Just like the art of telling a story is a gift and can be honed, movie making or film making comes as a gift and with adequate training and learning modern trends, it becomes mastered.
The movie industry in Africa has become a tool or a weapon in shaping the minds of young and old people, correcting vices. Though filmmaking and the art of script writing- transferring an ordinary story to plots and into motion pictures is a tool for entertaining the people, it could be used to educate and correct social vices like the Xenophobic vices partaken of by the black South Africans as advocated by a notable personality and filmmaker in the industry.
The younger generation are beginning to embrace filmmaking as a way of expressing their creative gift. In the last ten years, a great number of filmmakers largely from the younger generation has been trained, thanks to the Africa Film Academy AFA and Africa America Film Festival (AFRIFF) and other platforms.
5,000 filmmakers trained from Africa
According to Peace Anyiam Osigwe, the lady of steel who has steered the ship of the training workshop, over five thousand filmmakers have been trained across the African continent. Peace who founded the reward system, African Movie Academy Award AMAA which is in its eleventh year, has made giant strides by bridging the gap among African countries- English speaking and French speaking countries via filmmaking- telling our stories to ourselves and the outside world and not the white nations telling us about ourselves- always painting Africa as a debased and backward uncivilised nation.
“AFA has become a lobbying group for Africa. It has helped immensely to provide the platform where Africans learn filmmaking and other business aspects of it, marketing, promotions, screening at the international film festivals. Through contributions largely by the Anyiam Osigwe foundation led by late brother, Michael Anyiam-Osigwe, we have trained thousands of young filmmakers, made collaborations with state agencies. Like in Malawi, I have conducted training to young filmmakers. At a subsidised rate, the price of less than a dollar, we have trained each filmmaker giving him or her a weapon to change Africa by telling the true stories to the world. In Bayelsa State alone, and of course, with the support of the state agencies, ministry of arts, culture and tourism, with AMAA as a platform and a brand, thousands of young indigenes have been taken off the streets by training them on how to make films. This is still ongoing,” says Peace.
This is lofty as training young people in filmmaking has reduced unemployment in Nigeria. What needs to be done is to create an enabling environment for these young filmmakers to thrive through grants, loans and re-training.
African Films Academy, others empowering filmmakers
AFA and a number of other institutions have organised a lot of training programmes to build capacity for the industry and that is very commendable because you can see that the training has rubbed off on the quality of the offerings in the industry.
“We have more people making films that are fit enough to show on the big screen and to put forward for screening at festival awards. So, I think we have a great number of young filmmakers that have been empowered and we have a lot more on the wings. This means that we need more of these training opportunities and chase for these talents to express themselves. Because it is one thing to be trained and another to be given the opportunity to express yourself.
“But the empowerment effort is encouraging. Even now, I hear that AFA is running an acting workshop across the continent and the training has continued at the National Film Institute and at other training institutions,” Shuaibu Hussein, a movie critic submitted.
African Film Academy has recently expanded its Film in a Box (FIB) project to direct the creative energy of young men and women towards making a career in filmmaking. The programme seeks to enhance the opportunities for young people in Africa by using filmmaking and creative works to develop skills that would eventually impact on the economy of Africa nations and develop young players in the industry. The Film in a Box Project which is a 21-day intensive training in different aspects of film making has taken place in three countries in Africa namely, Lagos Nigeria; Johannesburg, South Africa and is now starting in Banjul, Gambia.
AFRIFF training overview
Speaking to Chioma Ude CEO AFRIFF, she said that this is a skill acquisition and youth development initiative using film making as a veritable vehicle for youth empowerment. This acts as the CSR for the festival.
AFRIFF has since its first edition in 2010, provided free training and talent development opportunities for young people and aspiring filmmakers. It has provided groundbreaking education in Sound for Film, Cinematography and Screen Writing for over 800 students. This, it did in partnership with Sound & Motion Technical College and City Varsity, Cape Town, South Africa. It has also worked directly with students of the National Film Institute, Jos; the Creative Arts Department of University of Port Harcourt; PEFTI Film Institute, Lagos, as well as other aspiring young filmmakers.
The application process is done solely online.
Growth
Registrations for AFRIFF’s Youth Development and Empowerment Training Workshops tripled to over 600 applicants, a 300 per cent growth from the preceding year’s figures.
In November 2014, The Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), extended its signature youth development and empowerment initiative to new, innovative domains. With the recent addition of Ford Foundation awarded scholarships to an American Film School for the best 15 students and broadened its economic impact locally on the City of Calabar, nationally on all of Nigeria and regionally most definitely, Africa.
AFRIFF Team implemented an online application process on its website that sought to capture candidates’ bio data, interest in a particular course, and commitment to the 5-day training course in Tinapa, Calabar. After 600 individual applications online from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroun etc, as well as interest from the Film studies departments of the University of Calabar and Uyo, candidates were pre-selected based on their course interests and basic knowledge of the preferred course by the course intsructors/facilitators. Candidates were informed of their selection via e-mail and asked to find their way to Tinapa, Calabar, where AFRIFF provided accommodation, feeding and local transportation throughout the duration of the course.
After five days of rigorous training, candidates were put through written testing and practical test situations/presentations to determine the best 15 candidates.
Relativity School in Hollywood, California has committed to accepting 20 candidates from the industry directly for discounted masterclass courses for professionals this summer.
Last year the training was sponsored by Desicon and Ford Foundation awarded scholarships.
Gladiators in filmmaking
Chioma Ude
Chioma Ude is the delectable CEO of Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), a world class yearly film festival that gathers filmmakers and it’s practitioners from all over the World in Tinapa, Calabar, Cross River State
She chooses to train people because like the proverbial, “teaching a person how to fish instead of giving them fish to eat”, she believes she can make an impact on the lives of young people if the opportunity to get a life skill is give to them. And she goes a step further because she has such high standards, to ensure that not just any kind of education is given to them, but the best possible.
Chioma is very passionate about the film industry because she loves movies.
Her passion for this industry lies in developing the children and youths. In her words she said, “ I will continue to use the workshops at AFRIFF to improve the skill set within the industry.”
Peace Anyiam Osigwe
Her passion for the movie industry knows no bounds. This drove her to creating a pan African film academy, AFA and also African Movie Academy Awards AMAA. Peace Anyiam Osigwe has trod the path where lily livered men feared.
“I think what has been the secret and selling point of the president and founder of AFA Peace Anyiam Osigwe has been her passion for the industry and her commitment to elevating the practice of filmmaking in Nigeria and Africa continent. I’m not sure she is doing all that she is doing; the AMAA, funding movie productions, training people through AFA and building structures for the industry, because of what will come to her in terms of financial gain. No. In fact I know that she has lost so much and has even sold choice properties just so as to give Nigeria and Africa a face and a voice in world cinema. Now, she has even revived her music label and is into humanitarian activities that she was all along doing side by side her running the AFA and AMAA. So I will say it is the passion that is her secret and of course God that has kept her strong and the tremendous support of her family and African filmmakers. So it is the passion. Only passion can make you get neck deep in this very thankless vocation. True,” says Shuaibu Hussein.
Amaka Igwe
The late Amaka Igwe also deserves to be mentioned here. The late movie maker trained several young talents on the art of filmmaking. Her death last year was a monumental loss to the Nigerian film industry. The late Amaka discovered actors through her classic soap-drama series. She died in Enugu while shooting an Igbo language drama series in 2014.
Tunde Kelani
His name is synonymous with filmmaking. This is because for more than thirty years, the ace cinematographer who started out as a BBC cameraman has contributed to the movie industry and promotion of our cultural diversity as a nation. From Ti Olu Wa Ni ile, to Arugba, Maami and Dazzling Mirage, Uncle TK has passionately shown the way how movie making can promote culture and our values. He’s inspired the likes of Kunle Afolayan, Adebayo Tijani, Kunle Afod and so many other young film makers in the movie industry.
Change in the movie industry
Mr Hussein speaking on the giant strides in the movie industry over the years stated, “Looking at the movie industry in the last five years, I would say a lot has changed even though there are things that have remained the way they are. What has changed? Well, we have so many new entrants in the industry. The funding environment has witnessed transformation. You are aware that funds were provided by the federal government to boost movie production, to train practitioners and to develop infrastructure. Development banks like Bank of Industry (BoI) and Nigeria Export and Import Bank (NEXIM) are now willing to advance loans to practitioners to make films and build infrastructure such as cinemas and studios. This is what was rare some 10 years back. The banks were not interested in doing business with the industry that they all considered a high risk industry. It is still a high risk industry largely because of the activities of pirates but am sure they found the industry a bride that must be courted after they discovered that it contributed 1.4 per cent to the country’s GDP. That is not an industry to ignore at all. So, the funding environment has changed even though it can be better. Also, We have more practitioner now who are determined to play a raised game so anytime they sign a work, you can tell the future of the industry.
So a lot has changed just that we have not been able to address the issue of piracy and distribution.
The issue of piracy has assumed a worrisome dimension and it is likely to make nonsense of whatever the industry has achieved if it is not tamed. People make films and before it is released on DVD, pirates feast on it and have it sold everywhere. That will kill the industry if it is not speedily addressed.”