Nollywood deserve better attention

 

THE NATION’S motion picture industry is one bedeviled by many ills. While it is a potent tool for image making, most Nigerians see Nollywood as a drawback for the country’s rebranding efforts. What with lack of quality productions with poor pictures, inaudible sound, unappealing messages, and wrong portrayal of values?

  But the producers of a new film Bishops Cabinet have resolved to make a difference in the industry. The producers also blamed government for not doing enough to help filmmakers realise the full potential so as to produce quality films. Paul Obazele lamented that government had done nothing to fund the industry and that the problems of pirate still abound, which had effectively denied them due reward from their work.

  He stated this during the premiere of the movie recently in Lagos. He said, “We have agencies that are supposed to be protecting us such as Customs and Immigrations, yet pirates are on the increase. For the Customs, how many people have they arrested for bringing in pirated CDs into the country?

  “The boys we picked from the streets during the boom era of Nollywood are going back to the streets again. The prostitutes are going back to it again. I have been shot twice by pirates because we are out to protect the average filmmaker. I know we have well-meaning Nigerians that can protect us”.

  Obazele stated that Nollywood had been spreading good news about the country while also providing employment to the teeming population. He therefore called on government to help fight piracy and alleviate the problems of the industry.

  “For the industry to really reach its expected height, the government needs to come into all aspects of it,” he said.

  The film director said solution to the industry would come only when practitioners faced the problems of the industry squarely and called on well meaning Nigerians and organisations outside government to also help make the industry get to its desired height.

  He advised, “When you have a lot of money invested in the industry, the zeal of people to work will improve, thereby generating more income, and the expected change will come”.

  The film is based on Christian theme and touches all aspects of life, as a way to effect change in the industry.

  The producer said the movie’s “storyline is about the neglect of the home, and that the film aims to teach, correct and direct our mindset to the right direction,” adding that “the victims in the film attend different events, where they were held at a high esteem, yet they cared less for their children. Outsiders see them as angels, but, before their children they are Satan incarnate”.

  The director uses the film to talk about the decay in the society and how worldliness has crept into the church, the homes of the clergy, and those who profess Christianity.

 Although the industry might seem to have failed Nigerians in various aspect mentioned above, Obazele stated that practitioners were working round the clock to see that the errors were corrected.

He also noted that Nollywood was capable producing masterpiece movies for Nigeria.