OKEY OGUNJIOFOR SPEAKS ON HIS NEW FILM AMINA

SHOWDISH

Okey Ogunjiofor..., Executive Producer AMINA

 Okey Ogunjiofor came into national limelight after he produced Living in Bondage agreed by many as the beginning of Nollywood.

For many years, Ogunjiofor had spent time doing many soap opera and projected the reward system for players in the audio visual world in The African Audio visual Awards TAVA.

Currently he is ready with his new movie AMINA which is a story of one of Africa’s celebrated heroines and speaks with Fred Iwenjora on his plans for it.

Could you throw some light on your new film Amina?

Amina film is a locally themed, globally relevant narrative. United Nations’ present focus is on women empowerment and Goal 3 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) makes a very strong case also for the empowerment of the girl child & women around the world, therefore Videosonic has chosen this feature film as a medium to drive this message of change to make our nation and the world a more equal place, to give all humans, female or male, poor or rich, the opportunity to rise to national and global leadership.

How authentic is your story of one of Africa’s greatest heroines?

The authenticity of Amina story was verified through an intensive research, which spanned a period of 23years in addition to authentic exotic set, costume and props designs created and built for the purpose of its thematic actualization.

Izu Ojukwu...Director

Do you think it can stand the test of international film productions?

“Amina” was executed using all the benefits of High DefinitionVideo origination equipment (ALEXA), up-to-date cinematographic support devices and computerized digital edit including motion graphics and 5.1 surround sound. In addition, a trained team of audio-visual professionals responsible for the entire film is composed of a mix of experienced professionals and quite visionary young people with an eye toward constant innovation. Employing simple but ingenious low – cost approaches, the film will effectively achieve the level of awe – inspiring global pictures and universal sound quality only seen in foreign theatres.

It took some time any reasons for that?

An adage says, “Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well”. First and foremost, getting authentic Amina story that is acceptable to all was very difficult because there were many versions coupled with the fact that there was no single compendium containing Amina story.

Preparing the place to shoot this epic movie (Location, and we chose Jos for its beautiful filmic topography) took time, then recreating the ancient palaces and cities of Zazzau, how do we get the costumes and props of 15^th/16^th century? So I went to the North with 86 crewmembers, and we recruited over 1000 Northern artists – camped them for three months, trained them on how to ride horses, then, trained them on how to use the swords to fight on horse backs, before we went into the shoot proper. Then we built ancient buildings of mud and stones in that place for this shoot because there was no place we could find a semblance of Amina’s palace in those days that wouldn’t have the trappings of modernity. So, we needed top set, propsand costume designers to re-create. And, these things cost money but in the long run they were all worth the pains.

So expectedly any box office hit able to hold its own with the competition globally requires time and money.  Amina is a film that will compete favorably with movies from all over the world and take the Nigerian Film industry to a new level so there was no need to rush it. Specifically, we took time on the edited film with our partner studios inGermany, Canada and United States for quality Visual Effects, Picture Grading, Sound design (Foley, ADR), Music score etc. These were necessary to achieve the kind of film that would not only thrill audiences around the world, make Nigeria and Bank of Industry (BOI) proud, but a film that will attract international appeal and distribution, thereby generating enough revenues to repay our loans, encourage more investors to look favorably at Nollywood because of the profit margin.

Peter Kriel...Director of Photography

What plans do you have for Amina?

Presently, we are focused on some International film festivals and private screening to Well-meaning patrons and Corporates. The dates for the premier and theatrical release will be officially announced to the public via a press conference.

The primary reason for every creative enterprise is entertainment but apart from this, there are otherplans for embarking on Queen Amina film.

As the “Father of Nollywood” and in keeping with our visionwhich is to constantly chart a new course for others to follow, especially regarding the movement towards the investors’ market, we needed to show what is possible so that producers and investors can have a template upon which to base their calculations and decisions. This movie, which is a celebration of our historical heroine, is a cut above anything that has come out of Nigeria since the inception of Nollywood. We hope this film will once again change the landscape of film in Africa like Living in Bondage did in 1992 and then usher Nollywood into her final frontier which I call “the investors’ market.

And to say that an Igbo man is involved in a film that has to do with Hausa history…

I trust that Amina will bridge the gap between Nollywood and Kannywood. As we all know, there is a dichotomy between the North and the South of Nigeria in the creative space, while the Northern filmmakers call themselves (Kannywood), the Southern filmmakers refer to themselves as Nollywood.  What this dichotomy means is that film products from either divide could hardly penetrate the other side. We needed to build a bridge, a unifying bridge across that divide that would bring Nollywood and Kannywood together to learn from each other when they collaborate on a common projectthat tells one single story that subsequently lifts the Nigerian film industry to the global arena, so that the whole world will see, and the northern people and the southern people will as well see that together we can actually be unconquerable when we eschew perceived differences and prejudices.

So as a trailblazer, my choice to do Amina – a Northern story was deliberate. Nollywood as a brand is going through defining moments once again and I always try to find new ways to do the old things. It gives me great joy when I attemptthe things that others find so difficult, so that others can have something to fall back on when we finally crack the “whys” and “hows” of doing those difficult things. So in essence, wejust decided to create a partnership that would network the North and the South together so that the market can get bigger. What we have now is just a small Nollywood and a small Kannywood that could be bigger when we begin to collaborate to tell cross-cultural stories and thereby expanding the creative industry ecosystem for all.

By Fred Iwenjora