I produced Dazzling Mirage to create awareness about sickle cell -Tunde Kelani

Tunde Kelani (Photo by ADA DIKE)

Tunde Kelani, a foremost cinematographer is the executive director of Mainframe Film and Television Productions, an outfit he set up to document Nigeria's rich culture. In an interview with ADA DIKE, he about his career and issues affecting film production and marketing in Nigeria.

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Tunde Kelani joined Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) in early 1970s and worked for 10 years in both Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) and Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) in Lagos. He studied the Art and Technique of Film making at the London International Film School, London. When he returned he did a lot of works for many organisations including Reuters.

TK’s current project, Dazzling Mirage was written by Dr. Olayinka Abimbola Egbokhare in the Department of Communication and Language Art, the University of Ibadan. The film aims to create awareness about sickle cell. He said: “I usually have a very strong female character in my films. Dazzling Mirage is story about a lady who suffers from sickle cell, against all odds; she managed to go through the pains and trauma and managed to graduate from a university. Her father is a doctor and her mother is a nurse who discovered that they are carriers of sickle cell and decided not to have children.

“One day in their hospital, a woman had a baby girl through operation but died and they didn’t know her relatives. So they adopted the baby and take care of her. She has a crisis and asks her parents to explain to her why they put her in such a situation after all, they are educated and into medical field. So, they inform her that they are actually not her biological parents, that she’s actually adopted. They try to console her. The question is: would she make something out of her life?”

Furthermore, he said: “Sickle cell predominantly, is a black man’s disease because it is a genetic disorder and about 150,000 children are born with the disease every year. Also, 415 children are born every day with the disease. Its management is expensive and unreliable, but, it can be prevented by simply going for a genotype test before marriage. If you are not AA, you must make sure you do not marry an AS. The film aims to create awareness about sickle cell,” Kelani said.

Also, one of his films, Ifa of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, a 57-minute film which was shot in Oyo State tells a story about Ifa literary corpus derived from a complex divining process, which is a collective knowledge system of the Yorubas, combining their history, philosophy, medicine, mythology, religion including performance poetry and more. This documentary was done prior to the inscription of Ifa as worthy representative list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Kelani revealed that Prof Wande Abimbola, Prof Akinwunmi Isola and Prof Ajuwon invited him to provide the video documentary evidence of their academic work on the subject matter. So the documentary created awareness on the importance of Ifa and hopefully trigger a process of re-orientation into African values. In the film, Ifa faithfuls frowned at the way Islamic and Christian religions have wooed African s and they advised Africans to go back to their roots. The Ifa aesthetic poems were highly rich and the film revealed that some Yoruba people still patronise Ifa priest to get prediction about issues bothering them.

Some of TK’s16mm feature films among others include Taxi Driver; Anikura, Ogun Ajay, Iya Ni Wura, Iwa and Fopomoyo. He has produced many award-winning videos and they include: Ayo Ni Mo Fe; Koseegbe, Ti Oluwa Nile and Oleku.
He also produced and directed two digital features, Saworoide and Thunderbolt. He shot Agogo-eewo on Dvcam

Others include: an M-net short features films, Twins of the Rainforest, A Place Called Home and Barber's Wisdom, The White Handkerchief, The Campus Queen Abeni, The Narrow Path, which were his initial works using digital camera.

The veteran shot Efunsetan Aniwura in 2005, The Narrow Path in 2007, Arugba in 2008 and Maami in 2011.

Having spent up to 40 years in film production, he has carved a niche for himself in the movie industry. He encouraged other stakeholders not to relent in taking the industry to a greater height, irrespective of the difficulties they are facing.

“We believe that this industry is economically viable, that is why we are struggling to introduce innovations to take it to the next level. I know that Lagos State Government has a programme for us in terms of training and they planning to provide an enabling environment for cinema and they are going to set up an endowment fund. Also, the Federal Government has their plan including the $200 million intervention fund President Goodluck Jonathan approved. So, there is hope for the industry.”

Tunde Kelani (Photo by ADA DIKE)

He suggested ways by which film makers can ameliorate the impediment of advertising and marketing their films. He believes that every movie production is problematic, especially when you are making films in an unfriendly environment like Nigeria. However, he noted that today’s producers have more opportunities than when they started film production in Nigeria. “When we started, we did not have mobile phone, internet, social media, You Tube and so on.  So today’s producer has a better avenues to position themselves in the industry. They can advertise their films online and don’t have to wait for a television station to advertise their products before their films would be sold.

Against the backdrop of myriads of impediments that bedevilled recouping one’s investment in movie production, mobile phone, internet and social media can be used to bring about positive changes.  

Film making in Nigeria has evolved over the years and its emergence can be traced from 1962 after the establishment of television in Nigeria in Ibadan Oyo State.

As time went on, foreign movies (Chinese, Indians and others) dominated the market. But, Kenneth Nnebue’s ‘Living in Bondage’ produced in 1992 done in VHS contributed immensely to the emergence of what is known today as Nollywood.
Prior to this period, films produced by veterans like Eddy Ugbomah and Hubert Ogunde were mostly for cinemas. Along the line, many Nigerians became reluctant to go to cinemas and resorted to watching movies at the comfort of their homes. Within a space of few years, Nollywwod became the third largest film industry in the world after Hollywood of The United States of America and Bollywood of India.

But, marketing has continued to be the main challenge for film producers. That is why many of them recently resorted to producing films to be first shown at cinemas before selling them on video compact disc (VCD).

However, at a recent event where some stakeholders in the movie industry spoke extensively about myriads of problems affecting Nollywood and suggested ways to tackle those problems, Mammud Alli-Balogun was of the opinion that “Distributors are not here. Meanwhile, we have digital video disc (DVD) and video compact disc (VCD) markets in Nigeria because people hardly go to cinema. We need to re-jig and retrace our steps.”

Also, Hope Okpara suggested that the issue of piracy must be dealt with for a movie producer to make profit from his work. Other speakers including Francis Onuchi and Charles Novia said that there is need for more cinemas in Nigeria, including cottage cinemas.

Tunde Kelani Photo by (ADA DIKE)

TK, as he is fondly called, is of the opinion that film production in Nigeria is being threatened by high cost of production, so none of film producers could recoup their investment couple with the menace of piracy. “Nigeria today has one film to three million people as against one film to 8000 people in the United States of America.  There are over 13,000 screenings in India where about 15 million people watch films at cinemas every day, while South Africa has about 761 screenings. I see nothing stopping Nigeria from having up to 5,000 screenings. So it shows that, although, Nollywood is the second largest film producers in the world, we are facing a lot of challenges in terms of production. Individually, we are striving to move the industry forward, but government should create enabling environment for the industry.

“Government must provide security and electricity. Individually, we procured generator sets; we now drink sachet water while some people dig well or put boreholes in their homes. Government has to enforce the law to protect the industry, lives and property.

“Although, I have not released any movie for years, we have not given up so, we have many projects lined up,” Kelani said.

He advised the upcoming film producers to be passionate about their jobs because the road is not easy but tough so only the focused and determined ones can succeed.