Movie Run By Shaibu Husseini

Big sister Palesa was in Naija for Tales of Two cities

Palesa at the Freedom Park in Lagos

Palesa Letlaka was in Lagos for the Tales of Two African Cities project organised by the South African High commission and powered by Ayoola Sadare’s led Inspiro Limited. Letlaka who has directed various multi-media installations in addition to directing and producing various documentaries, youth magazine shows, drama series facilitated the documentary filmmaking workshop organized as part of the film screening segment of the show that seized Lagos for four days from October 3. ‘I am happy to be here and I am glad to be exchanging ideas with young people who are willing to learn’ Letlaka who studied African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa and who recently completed an MA in History said shortly after she wrapped up the 2 hour long workshop. An award winning filmmaker, Letlaka’s career has spanned over twenty one years. She trained in New York in the late 1980’s, while her career as an independent filmmaker began in South Africa in 1991 as a director and producer of social issue documentaries and television inserts for an independent production house. She later went on to direct fiction films and commercials, where she was commissioned by the United Nations for their 50th Anniversary to direct their only commercial from Africa, which premiered at the Beijing International Women’s Conference in 1995. In 1996 Letlaka directed her second short fiction film the award winning Mamlambo, which has been invited to over thirty festivals and has the distinction of also having been used as part of the course curriculum for the three different academic departments - Architecture, Drama and Urban Geography at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Letlaka is the first black woman to direct commercials and fiction films in South Africa. The former commissioning editor at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), spoke to moviedom.

My first time in Naija

This is my first time in Lagos and in Nigeria and so far it has been great. I am happy that I came. I actually postponed a trip to America to be able to be here.  I wanted to come and experience Lagos and it seems like a very vibrant place. People here are very polite and are ready to chat you up about Nigeria. It is nice to be here. Lagos is different from some of the stuff you read about the city on the Internet and that is because the things that we tend to read about one another through the media are mediated. They are usually not written by us for us. But I am glad I am here. This is the real experience for me. A lot of the other people who travel to the rest of Africa for the first time normally experience shock but whenever I travel, things appear familiar and I feel that I am at home.

First black South African woman to direct a fiction film

 Yes I am the first black South African woman to direct a fiction film and I think that at the time I was doing that it was a lot of self-push because I did that before 1993 and so it wasn’t as a result of freedom. It was as a result of just understanding that I could do it. My father was part of the ANC and so we grew up believing that there is nothing we cannot do. So I took up the challenge and just put my mind to it. I think the situation with having a lot of women behind the camera is improving now because even in South Africa there is more access to film schools and there are more access to broadcast platforms and so this will mean more access to women making stuff because the money will be there. Meanwhile there are universities, there are private film schools and there are also bursaries that come from government so in general we will see more young women coming in to make films. But don’t forget that filmmaking is a hard industry. We are fighting other issues back there in South Africa and not bordered about how many women or men are making films. But there are more women coming up in directing and producing but again opportunities are some what limited and then again you have the situation with broadcast stations who commission most of the works and they don’t want to commission first time directors who have just come out of film school. Which is a problem. They want to engage people who are experienced. But things are looking good and in no time we will have more women behind the camera.

You can’t compare Nollywood with our own industry

You can’t compare what is happening here in Nollywood to the situation in South Africa. Nigeria is even bigger in terms of population so we have to acknowledge and remember that. Nollywood and its revenues are much bigger and its output is big too except that I don’t know what the output is for theatrical releases here. Nollywood is huge. We probably make about 10 maximum including African feature per year but I hear Nollywood churns out more than we do and that the industry is the third largest in the world. So Nollywood is huge.

Taking so much away from here

I am taking away the fact that there is always work to be done. I am always concerned about how I inspire younger people to try and be heard and try to be seen. We have to keep on working with this medium so that the majority of the images that we see of ourselves should be made by us because we are still fighting big imperial forces. We have to be heard. We have to make ourselves seen. I am much more interested in legacy projects now.

I enjoyed Nigerian pepper soup

I have tried the pepper soup catfish and I enjoyed it. But it is very hot. It is really fiery. But I enjoyed it. Then I tried the Egusi soup and pounded yam. Oh that was lovely. I also enjoy the goat pepper soup I ate on arrival.

AROUND AND ABOUT NOLLYWOOD

Airtel Tours Nigeria with AMAA 2012 winning Films

In a bid to make Nigerians outside Lagos experience the glamour and splendor of Africa Movie Academy Awards, Airtel Nigeria in collaboration with the awards organizers will commence a 6-city tour of the top films that were in competition at the last award ceremony. It would be re-called that the 8th edition of the widely popular continental reward scheme for motion picture practitioners in Africa took place on 22^nd April, 2012 at Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos with top celebrities, captains of industries, business moguls and filmmakers across the world in attendance. The second phase of the 2012 Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) project is taking on a new platform called the AMAA Film Screening & Party and it’s the first time to be held since its inception and this is supported by Airtel Nigeria the major sponsor of the 2012 awards. 

‘’The AMAA Film Screening & Party is a platform set up to show and screen the winning films of the immediate past edition of the AMAA's across six selected Nigerian Cities. We want Nigerians to see for themselves some of the top films in AMAA and we hope this will laid to rest some of the assumptions by certain people who feels they must win even when there are better or stronger films in competition as far as the eminent jurors are concerned. This is the first time we are taking this initiative and it will become part of AMAA going forward,’’ said Tony Anih, Director of Administration of the award body. The AMAA screening party will berth at Benin this weekend Saturday October 13^th as curtain raiser before moving to Ibadan, Lagos, Enugu, Port Harcourt and finally Abuja with a Gala Night on 6^th December 2012. The Lagos leg of the screening will take place twice according to Tony Anih. ‘We will have media screening mainly for journalists October 30^th and another one for the general public in Lagos again on December 1^st, 2012. 


PEFTI holds premiere for final year students

Adenuga jnr, Kelani, a guest, and akande 

The annual PEFTI Film Institute National Innovation Diploma (NID) Programme, approved by the Federal Ministry of Education, through the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), recently held a premiere for its final year students’ projects. The event took place at the PEFTI Film Institute campus situated at Ajao Estate, Lagos, and recognized the presence of prominent practitioners in the media industry, including Mr. Tunde Kelani (TK) of Mainframe Productions, Lanre Olupuna; Director I-REP International and Victor Akande of The Nation Newspaper. The Managing Director of Wale Adenuga Productions (WAP); Mr. Wale Adenuga Jnr, was also present. They graced the venue of the event and also served as the panel that previewed the works done by the final year students, to ensure that the skills acquired during the course of their study, are well utilized and will also play a major role in the growing media industry. Some of the students’ projects were screened and the invited guests were very impressed with the outstanding performances cum ideas of the students. They were praised for their unique performances and also encouraged to work harder. Mr. Tunde Kelani was specifically overwhelmed with the piece presented by the young film makers that he told them how fortunate it was for them to have acquired such a formal education in film-making and so, a lot is being expected from them. The Managing Director of WAP, Mr. Wale Adenuga Jnr, encouraged the graduating students and advised them to package their work for local and international film festivals and get ready, for the industry awaits them.

Mr. Olaitan Faranpojo, the students’ project co-coordinator for PEFTI concluded the programme with a vote of thanks to all and sundry that graced the day with their presence. PEFTI Film Institute offers Professional Training in the diverse disciplines of Film, Television and Music Production. The Annual two (2) year National Innovation Diploma (NID) Programme is open to all who score 160 and above in the 2012 JAMB Exam, irrespective of the chosen institution. 

Why we brought comedians from across Africa to Lagos, Opa Williams

AUDIENCE members at the recently held Opa Williams’ Nite of a Thousand Laughs Xtra got more than what they bargained for when comedians from across the African continent joined forces with their Nigerian counterparts to hold them hostage for over eight hours with rib cracking jokes.

 Leading the African onslaught was Patrick Salvador, a renowned figure in the stand up comic industry in Uganda. He came with the Cotilda, Ugandan version of Nigeria’s female comic Princess and Lepacious Bose all rolled into one. Eric Omondi, the vibrant comedian and Kenya’s biggest export to the world in the laughter trade graced Lagos stage for the first time. Although, Omondi had in May this year tore Abuja crowd apart at the Workers’ Day edition of Opa Williams’ Nite of A Thousand Laughs Xtra. The show was sponsored by mobile telecommunications giant, MTN, Loya Milk and Bacchus Lite among others.    Salvador in a statement signed by Opa Williams’s media Company, Media Image Managers, MIM, described Lagos crowd as one of the best he had performed before in his career so far. “The crowd was receptive, very warm and welcoming…it got to a point I thought I was performing before my people in Kampala. I love Lagos,” he said. Salvador’s joker that sent the packed Shell Hall of the MUSON Centre into a state of frenzy was his joke about his native Mgbokolo village. The laughter was so long and sustained, the comedian had to break it up. “I am grateful to Opa Williams for giving me the opportunity to come to Lagos, Nigeria for the first time in my life. It was a major break for me as a comedian. I believe I had Lagos that night because any comedian that wants to make it must have the ability to make Nigerians laugh, I did it and I thank Opa Williams for that.”  Eric Omondi said he was no stranger to the Nigerian crowd. “I did it in Abuja and I have done it again in Lagos. Lagos show was it for me and thank God we made the Nite of A Thousand Laughs to have the ‘xtra’ package that makes it stand out from any other comedy shows in Africa.”  Tall, Elegant Cotilda could not hide her excitement. “I did a little research about Lagos before I flew in and I discovered there a top female comedians like Princess, Lepa Bose and Mandy, who I have met in Uganda…now, Lagos would add Cotilda to their list of good female comedians they know and have seen deliver. I love Lagos.” Comedy merchant Opa Williams on his part revealed why he made the revolutionary move of bringing comedians from across Africa to rock Lagos at the October 1 edition of his premier comedy show, Nite Of A Thousand Laughs Xtra. “Its fresh comedy, its revolutionary and it can only happen on Opa Williams' Nite of a Thousand Laughs Xtra show,” Williams said.

The show also featured wave making comic acts from Nigeria such as Bovi, Funnybone, Pencil, Ajebutter, Akpororo and veteran Okey Bakassi. “We were on a mission on October 1, and that was to ensure Lagos residents laughed away their stress and thank God it was a public holiday.”  Williams said he decided to experiment with top comedians from African countries “because we have always been known for blazing the trail in the comedy industry and since comedy shows have turned to a ‘see one, see all’ affair, we decided to rewrite the book of comedy according to Opa Williams.” Consequently, what Lagos people saw on that day “was better seen than imagined because as I speak to you, Nairobi, Kenya, Abuja and Kampala, Uganda have not recovered from what they saw when we took the new face of comedy to these places.” When late last year Williams announced he was resting his premier show, Nite of A Thousand Laughs, the whole country was thrown into a shock. Fans nationwide, across Africa and even Europe where the show was popular prevailed on Williams to rescind his decision. The main reason given by the film producer was the bastardization of comedy shows in Nigeria after he began the revolution in 1995. Everybody consequently joined the fray and in no time, it became a ‘see one, see all’ affair as all the shows featured the same set of comedians and musicians. Williams through his media Company, Media Image Managers, MIM, said he was pulling out, as all comedy show organizers were short changing the paying crowd “and I don’t want to be part of the audience short changing scheme.” But after much persuasion, he gave in but had to come up with something different from what others are doing at the moment-Nite of A Thousand Laughs Xtra