Lagos — At a time when there was nothing like Nollywood, Okechukwu Ogunjiofor, came out with a home movie - Living in Bondage which instantly became a hit. He later churned out more other nine movies thereby pioneering what is today the Nigerian movie industry. This week, he relieved his experience with CHINYERE OKOYE

IN THE BEGINNING

I will say that it is God's way of transforming our industry through human beings. I strongly believe that in every season in a nation, God throws up something to change situations or change environment. Nothing can come to pass except God says it. I was the vessel God used as well as Kenneth Nnebue of NEK Video Links who sponsored "Living in Bondage" and other cast and crew who worked with me on set.

I thank God for using me to throw up a formula to make movies and it gives me a great sense of joy and responsibility that, this is something we did like an experiment, but today it has turned out to become something so big that the world is copying, that is bringing a lot of resources to our people and creating employment. It has given Nigeria a voice to counter western culture and imperialism. It has given us a voice to tell our own story the way we want and the way people would want to see it. I feel honoured giving me a part in the history of those who have changed the world and the environment

Nigeria government have never seen film making as a diplomatic tool that can be used to create psychological welfare to the minds of Nigerians because they have not realised the value of what we are practicing. Instead, they watch from Nigerian film changed identical crisis to the youths abroad from the side, our rights and mistakes but thy have never played a major part in driving this industry. I am proud of Nollywood.

ASSESSMENT OF NOLLYWOOD

Yes, you cannot take away people's behaviour, pattern, mindset, culture altitude and tradition from they story they tell. "Living in Bondage" was a story of a man that peer pressure lured to occult and he fell for it. Every nation has its high point and low point. In our's we tell the story to captivate the audience to buy. We do it to expose those characters so that it will stop.

I do not see anything wrong in us telling our stories the way we see it because occult, corruption and others are part of our society. Or because we are patriotic Nigerians we will no longer tell our stories. No, we have to tell our story the way it is. When you change, we change with it, but now everyone has to dance to the tune of the music. I don't see the reason why we'll not tell our stories, to bring out all the injustice in our nation. When there is change, it will bring back our value and stamp out the vices.

Nollywood has rebranded the industry more than the government can do even in the next ten years, no matter how much they pump into the project. Without Nollywood no one will have a voice. These films people tag as negative are what the world is watching and are glue to. They have come understand that not what the world paint us to be that we are. Rebranding starts in two-ways-rebranding the mindset and the system, rebranding should stand with us. Government should recognise what we have and team up with the industry to rebrand the minds of the people then rebranding will take shape naturally.

AFTER LIVING IN BONDAGE WHAT'S HAPPENING

Each time people tell me that the story of Living in Bondage is still the best, I thank God but it does not make me proud. It makes me believe that we are not growing, because if we were growing some other person would have done a movie better than "Living in Bondage". Recently I did TAVA (Television Audio Visual Award) and the reason is because for these 17 years, the movie industry has remained on the same level that we left it in 1992.

So I said to myself that there should be something that we can do to move the industry forward, to improve the pictures and sound. Our stories are good, but need to tell them in such a way that the pictures will be technically perfect and as well as the sound. If these are inculculated into our story today, it does not matter the story is good or not, but it will change the environment.

The second thing is that, the stories we tell are very strong, but we lack funding to be able to incubate such stories to receive adequate timing. For example, I rehearsed Living in Bondage for almost three months and I shot it for almost one month. From pre-production to post production I spent almost six more months in making Living in Bondage. We got somebody, (Kenneth Nnebue) who said, "Use this money" and professionally we did our job. But today because there is nobody who is ready to finance a film and wait enough so that production process can take it's own cause.

What we lack in our stories today is quality time to work on project and besides; we have enough wishy-washy producers who have not learnt the ropes. Some produce without having the basic background in production. Any culture that you want to do a film in, you have to be grounded in that culture to be able to make an impact so that it will be difficult to be faulted.

LIVING IN BONDAGE AND DEMISE OF IGBO FILMS

The Igbo was why the market was not sustained because the only industry the Igbo can boost of now is film making. They can have any industry as traders, but the only movie industry is the Nollywood and it was not invented because we told our story in English, it was because we told the story in our own tradition, the best way to portray Igbo culture across the nation. Suddenly because of the out growing nature of an Igbo man, we copy the outside world instead of copying ourselves.

At a point, if you make a movie in Igbo language, Igbo marketers reject it and prefer it to be told in English so that he can sell it even outside Nigeria to show that he has arrived. But tell an Igbo story in English language, it cannot win an Oscar award except an English man tells the story the way thing happened. I can win an Oscar with an Igbo film because they do not understand my language and the attitude of the people will be new to them but when you do a film in Igbo language and culture, whoever watches it has something new to learn and it will be new to him, he may not be able to judge because he is not grounded in that culture.

YOUR MOTIVATION IN LIVING IN BONDAGE?

The motivation was my story. I left school in 1987 and for so many years I was on the street looking for job. So many people came to lure me into cult (just like Andy in Living in Bondage). Every young man who comes out of school without being sure of where he wants will pass through these challenges. For every person who has not made it through the right way is "Living in Bondage" because your conscience is forever in turmoil, it is a matter of time except you are delivered from that bondage.

After leaving Television College, I came to Lagos and was Power Mike's general manager for few years until he retired to the East and we were on the street again. Each evening I will go to National Theatre to watch and keep myself abreast about what's going on in the industry.

That was how I was invited to rehearse free. While, we where doing that, a lady called Ruth Osi, that acted Nnanna in "Checkmate", asked why I was on the street and I told her I was looking for money to shoot my film and that was how she gave me a note to Kenneth Nnebue of NEK Video Links. The rest is history.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN NOLLYWOOD?

It is not really in a name. It is the same old people that gave it a name to meet the global brand. I believe in it, it does not matter what they call it. The only way to up our game is through uplifting the quality of our sound and picture. That is why I brought out TAVA to midwife perfect picture and sound.

I stopped making movies because of piracy but I am into TV production now and nobody is pirating it. A trade leader is a man who pioneers and others follow. When I did Living in Bondage was when piracy started, I did "Nneka the Pretty Serpent", "Circle of Doom", "Brotherhood of Darkness." I lost all by the time I did "When Flowers Turn Black." And I said to myself that it was not worth it. In all my movies, I did not make up to a million naira. Piracy makes it impossible for us to succeed and they see you as a trait.