The Guardian Life Magazine: Figurine for Corporate Nigeria

BY SHAIBU HUSSEINI
KUNLE Afolayan’s Figurine is set to be shown to ‘Corporate Nigerian’ before hitting the cinema houses. The screening is Tuesday. According to Afolayan, “we want them to take advantage of the immense benefits of advertising and branding in movies, because we still have room for that.” Starring Ramsey Nouah Jnr., Kunle Afolayan, Omoni Oboli, Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi in lead roles, with Wale Adebayo (Sango), Chief Muraina Oyelami, Jide Kosoko in supporting roles, the film is filled with intrigues, betrayal and love. It revolves round two intimate friends — a girl whose life stories changed after one of them discovered a mysterious figurine in an abandoned shrine, which according to ancient legend bestows seven years of good luck on anyone who finds it and her friend. After Tuesdays screening, the movie will formally be premiered on October 1. “We chose that date because as the Figurine changed the lives of those folks, it would change things for the better here, not just for filmmaking industry, but Nigeria as a country,” he enthused. Those who were not at the premiere will have the opportunity of seeing the movie next day (October 2), at Genesis Deluxe Cinema and Silverbird Cinema, among others. It will run for two weeks at these venues. From Lagos, it moves to Port Harcourt and the (FTC) Abuja. It will also show at the Silverbird Cinema, Abuja, and at Genesis Cinema, Port Harcourt, between October 8 and 9. Afolayan said: “After the Abuja and Port Harcourt shows, the train moves to London and Ghana. Figurine will break at the 2009 BFI Film Festival between October 14 and 29, followed by a classy organised Nigeria/African Premiere in Odeon Cinemas in London. In Ghana, it will premiere on October 30 and November 1 at Silver Ben Cinema, Ghana.” Afolayan added that there are plans to tour the US in December, after screening at four of Kenya’s top cinemas. “You can see from the run down, that we are ready to run. We have everything planned out and we are hoping that we get the support of Corporate Nigeria to realise our dream of putting what we believe is one of our best feet forward for the whole world.” He said, “we have taken time to get this together as we did with Irapada and we want them to have faith in us and believe that we shall get their product and services to the right audience with the advertising and branding opportunities we are offering. We are also going round schools and NYSC camps all over Nigeria. We are in partnership with HiTV and they will cover the entire events and run them on most of their channels including sport channels. We intend involving some other TV stations depending on how much fund we are able to raise.”

Around and about Nollywood...
Lagos Film Festival ends
THE 2009 edition of the Lagos International Film Festival (LIFF) powered by the Madu Chikwendu media group ended on Friday. The festival opened at the National Theatre on Tuesday, August 11. Themed Promoting Policy Instruments For Cinema Development In Africa, the festival, which had the presentation of the Golden Camel Award, a number of films being screened. An International Conference on Video/Music Mobile Download held on Wednesday while the workshop on tax and production incentives facilitated by the Nigerian Film Corporation and the Federal Inland Revenue Service held on Thursday. The 2010 edition of the festival will hold between August 12 and 15.

Time for Romania International Film Festival
THE former Bucharest International Film Festival has changed its name to Romania International Film Festival. The first Ro-IFF will hold between September 27 and October 4, in the City of Arad. The official competition called CineBlackSea, focuses films that must have been produced in either Russia, Republic of Moldavia, Ukraina, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaidjan, Bulgaria, Turquie, Greece or Romania. There are separate competitions for feature films as well as short films and documentaries. CineBlackSea is meant to link countries that recent happenings have dismembered. The festival will feature a section on Women in Cinema. Competing films in this section are features and documentaries directed by women. The programmers consider cinema as a mirror, reflecting the needs and mentalities of different societies. One of the main principles of selecting films is drawing special attention to new filmmaking including their own ways of expression. The aim is to promote talents, to fight the cultural decay and to consolidate quality in culture, arts and mass media. After Arad, the films will be screened in other Romanian cities such as Bucharest, Ramnicu Vâlcea and Mangalia. In 2010, the programme will move to Pecs in Hungary as part of the initiatives of the European Capital of Culture.
Sola ‘Ireti’ Onayiga gets busy again
SOLA Onayiga, Ireti of Fuji House of Commotion has been selected as coordinator of the inaugural one week Dance School of the Academy of Creative Arts running from October 12 to17, at the National Theatre, Iganmu Lagos. The school is for producers, directors, event directors and organisers, who want to acquire skills on musical movie, stage and reality show productions for their viewers, audience and consumers. Students in secondary and tertiary institutions are also expected to participate in the school. According to the organising committee chairman, Deji Etiwe, apart from the main course content for different categories of participants, there will be motivational talks and seminars by resource persons from the Advertising and Banking world. The facilitators include King Sunny Ade; Adewale Ayuba; P- Square; 9ice; Kaffy; Liadi; Arnold Udoka, Director Performing National Troupe of Nigeria; Husseini Shuaib of the National Troupe of Nigeria; Muyiwa Osinaike; Clarion Chukwura; and Mrs. Phillips (Iya Rainbow). Participants will be expected to pick up their forms from the secretariat of Guild of Nigerian Dancers, National Theatre or a bank that will be stated soon. As a dancer, Onayiga represented Nigeria at the World Youth Festival in Cuba (1978) and in Australia (1983). At a time, she was a dancer with the National Troupe of Nigeria (Ososa experience. She introduced choreography into Jero Metamorphosis, when Kaakaki Group, led by Ben Tomoloju, took the play to Rome. The Mayor of that city had used the play to honour Wole Soyinka for winning the Nobel Award for Literature. Moses Adejumo’s (Baba Sala) Mosebolatan’s dance also has her creative input.

Waka pass… Producer- Amebo A. Amebo Director- Mr. Gossip Actors- Nollywood Celebrities
Michelle Bello is in town
MICHELLE Bello, CEO, Blustar Entertainment; producers of the AMAA award winning flick, Small Boy, is in town. One waka pass ran into her at the LIFF 2009 ground. She mentioned to someone close to waka pass that she is working on an online film directory. The details are still sketchy, but we gathered that she is working at meeting some practitioners to get them to key into the project. The waka pass has promised to keep us informed. Meanwhile if you try Michelle’s number next week and do not get her, please don’t be angry. We overhead her tell one waka pass that she is on the train to Isreal for the film festival there. Anyway if you know anyone who knows how we can get to Sister Michelle, please tell her that we need just a gift of Bible from Bethlehem.

Chris Ekejimbe likes Madu Chikwendu
PRESIDENT of the LIFF, Madu Chikwendu, should begin to count his friends. Someone said we should let him know that he has only a friend — Chris Ekejimbe. We asked them why they said so, and they told us that it was only Ekejimbe who stood by him during the just held Lagos l film festival. “Ekejimbe was everywher in jeans and T-shirt and stood by Oga Madu even when people refused to show up at the start of the festival,” the waka pass said. We thought that was all, but the waka pass added that not only did he stand by Chikwendu, he also made it to every event of the festival because he wanted to show off his newly acquired Ford Explorer. Meaning that Ekejimbe, whose only claim to being a filmmaker is the documentary he did on the industry, and the distribution license he got from the Censors Board, has moved up. He used to drive a Mercedes Coupe, but the last time one waka pass saw him in the car, he said the car was already beginning to be freed. So congrats Chris, may we also share in the proceeds of your documentary! To God be the Glory.

TEETH 4 TEETH
BY JUSTIN AKPOVI-ESADE
See what has happened to Dickson Iroegbu
THIS is a season of many battles in the nation’s entertainment industry especially Nollywood. While actors are battling — led by star Kanayo O. Kanayo (K.O.K) — to unseat the association’s president, Ejike Asiegbu, the Association of Movie Producers (AMP), are also in the trenches trying to hold elections that will remove its president, Paul Obazele. But this is not the news. Movie director and dreadlocks wearing producer, Dickson Iroegbu, is leading the pack in the two hottest battles in Nollywood at the moment. When he is not driving at top speed with K.O.K to ‘take possession’ of AGN office, he is holding meetings to plan Teco Benson’s move to overthrow (via the polls) Obazele. But such moves have their price. The ‘Conscious One’ as Dickson is popularly called, was beaten into a near state of coma last Wednesday at the AMP election venue. A source said Dickson was all over the place, doing last minute politicking, his hair in locks, flying in the morning wind, when some thugs pounced on him, tearing his shirt to pieces. The AMAA award winning director, a small frame man, was no match for the ‘thug’, who some people claimed is also an actor. Two blows, according to the ‘source’, sent Dickson sprawling on the hard, stony floor. In no time, blood was gushing from his head and he had to be rushed to the hospital for medical attention. To make matters worse, when they went to report the matter at Area C, a top officer walked them out, advising them to go and resolve the matter internally. The locks Dickson had worn for some years now, are gone, in its place is a clean shaven ‘Conscious One’.
See what association politics has done to Iroegbu? If na PDP or AC election nko, dem for kill am I sure.

Ejike Vs K.O.K Update
THE raging battle for the soul of Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) between Ejike Asiegbu and Kanayo O. Kanayo has taken a new dimension. Last week, when the K.O.K-led faction announced they had taken possession of the national secretariat (like a coup in motor parks), many waited for Ejike’s reaction with apprehension. The reaction came on Wednesday when policemen at Panti ‘invited’ K.O.K and his supporters, who have made useful statements in the case of breaking and entry, stealing of AGN’s cash and other valuables.