The biggest players in African film are about to burst onto the Sithengi scene when 130 Nigerian filmmakers arrive in Cape Town to do business.
Some of these filmmakers will be part of a delegation that heads up a forum on Co-production and Distribution possibilities with Nigeria. That discussion takes place formally on November 18th at the Sithengi conference. Many other delegates will be networking with local and international cineastes about the possibilities of business in South Africa and Nigeria.
The public will be treated to a kaleidoscope of Nigerian films on the African Magic Screen where they can choose between titles like
Formidable Force, Beautiful Angel, King's Pride and
Apostle Kasali.
Nigeria makes about 700 movies a year - films that are increasingly finding a following in South Africa. American movie companies are trying to make inroads on this phenomenal market force in a country where 120 million Nigerians regard VHS and VCD copies of the latest home-grown movie as part of their staple entertainment.
Joburg-based producer-director-actor, Akin Omotoso - who made
God Is African and produced this year's competition entry,
Gums And Noses - reckons that a symbiotic relationship between South Africa and Nigeria is all-important. The growth of Nigeria's film industry is vital to South Africa.
Omotoso believes there should be more reciprocity. The growth of African partnerships is as important to SA, if not more so, than linkages with Europe and the developed economies. He has, in the normal course of his business, been keeping lines of communication flowing between South Africa and Nigeria. "Discourse is already happening, under the radar," he says.
"I just want to meet up with the guys and find out what business they're doing and if we can do business - talk in the same way that I would talk to a Belgian, say. I understand the curiosity element about them (Nigerian filmmakers) but it's no different than anywhere else. It's not a weird thing."
The hyperbole and bad press that surrounds Nigerians masks the fact that their entrepreneurship in making movies that people want to see underlines big business.
Says Omotoso: "Nigerian audiences want to see Nigerian films. So there's a demand. And Nigerian producers understand their audience. So they produce movies for their market. It's a business - not like South Africa where nobody knows what South Africans want."
Cape Town based filmmaker Hakeem Kae-Kazim recently completed a co-production,
Coming to South Africa, with a Nigerian producer. Shot on minimal budget, on digital video, over ten days, with three lights and "lucky locations" in Durban, Kae-Kazim has emerged from the experience with a better understanding of the Nigerian style of film-making.
"It was deliberately done ‘the Nigerian way.' We wanted to mimic that style in the South African context," he says.
The film tells the story of two Nigerians who come to South Africa to improve themselves but end up in a drug gang. Kae-Kazim says it's a story that "humanises the South African stereotype about Nigerians." At the same time it's a cautionary tale to Nigerians back home as to why their fellow countrymen get such a bad press here.
Kae-Kazim admires the Nigerian filmmakers for finding and making stories that entertain, for doing the business without looking over their shoulder for guidance and affirmation.
In a population where thousands of VHS cassettes and VCDs are being pumped into the market, competition is intense.
Keeping it cheap is a way of getting high turnover, small margins and maximum return - and for the consumers, a great variety of product choice. Inevitably, this opens up a can of questions about volume versus quality. But the value lies in the audience reception and, as Kae-Kazim notes, some directors are pushing out three or four films at a time.
So, does quality matter to Nigerian filmmakers? The answer from Kae-Kazim is that you make the best out of what you've got available. Omotoso reckons that if a producer thinks he can get more bang from his buck by upping the investment, then he will do that. But the bottom line is - business. It's strictly business.
Typically, movies from the Nigerian stable have riveting storylines, says Hakeem Kae-Kazim, although they may be patchy in terms of technique. It all depends on the maker and the amount of budget and time he can afford.
Coming to South Africa was his first experience of working in this way, at high-speed, relying on the story to make the impact. But the experience was critical in his development. Like all filmmakers would like the big-budget movie to fall into his lap, but he can't afford to rely on that happening.
"We must begin to tell it from our own perspective. I want to tell the story. I don't want to wait three or four years to tell a story because I don't have the money."
For Hakeem, the method is: fill the gap, improve your technique as you learn, by doing; compete in the market.
It's all very well trying to do the Hollywood copycat formula movie that is going to make millions (if you get really lucky), but the most important motto is - tell our own stories.
Kae-Kazim continues: "You have to look at where you started, and then get better. Otherwise we are just playing catch up the whole time." And that, as we know, is not how Bollywood evolved.
Kae-Kazim believes, however, that the popular tide is turning in Nigeria. Audiences are beginning to discriminate much more. They are asking for quality of technique, style and story-telling. The practitioners themselves are looking to create guilds for professional practitioners - a case of separating the wheat from the chaff.
Wait, he says, "In three years time it will be a different picture in Nigeria, whilst South Africa is still flapping about in the dark."
One of the hot issues at Sithengi will be how South African filmmakers respond to the challenge of the Nigerians. Are their audiences even the same? How do our filmmakers respond to local audiences? Nigerians tend to invest in home entertainment - video and DVD machines. South Africans in the township lack that basic technology.
It's time for change... The Nigerians will be at Sithengi in force, to show just how change is done.
Posted on Saturday 6 Nov 2004
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