Participants at a forum organised by the Committee for Relevant
Art (CORA) in honour of writer Mabel Segun, who clocked 80 recently, did more
than eat the birthday cake. They thoroughly appraised the non-existent
cooperation between Nigeria’s literature and motion picture industries during
the round-table at the National Theatre, Iganmu on March 21. They also touched
on why collaboration should be encouraged.
Filmmaker Tunde Kelani, Francis Onwuche, Dapo Adeniyi, writers
Odili Ujubuonu, Toni Kan, and Mowunmi Segun who stood in for her mother during
the discussion, were the panellists who talked on the theme, ‘Promoting
Cooperation between Literature and Film.’
The cutting of the birthday cake preceded the discussion. Poet
Odia Ofeimu, Kelani and others joined the celebrant during this aspect of the
programme. Segun only spoke once at the occasion. “If you say the youth don’t
read, what do they do on the Internet? You can’t be illiterate and go on the
Internet,” she said in defence of youth, said by the older ones to be lacking a
reading culture.
CORA secretary general, Toyin Akinosho set the ball rolling by
reading ‘Never Again’, a short story by Segun. He added that the author of ‘My
Father’s Daughter’ and other children’s work is, “the matriarch of Nigerian
letters, the only woman who could match the big men of the Nigerian literature
world.”
Mutually exclusive
sectors
Mowunmi Segun disclosed that her mother believes she spends too
much time watching Nigerian movies. “I do watch Nollywood films but I find
myself dozing off at intervals because they are so predictable,” she said. She
reiterated that Nollywood can’t develop unless scriptwriters first develop
their craft.
Author of ‘Under the Brown Rusted Roofs’, Abimbola Adelakun,
revealed that a filmmaker had approached her to write him a film. “I asked him
if he had read Purple Hibiscus he replied no. [It was the ]same for Half of A
Yellow Sun, Everything Good will Come and all the other titles I asked if he
had read.” She noted that the filmmaker wasn’t actually interested in making
good movies; all he wanted was “something that will make him money. Adelakun
however noted that Nollywood will be forced to grow if the audience grows.
“I can’t make a film that won’t earn me money, the end must
justify the means,” stated filmmaker, Francis Onwuche. According to him,
filmmakers in other countries receive grants to make art-films because they are
more expensive to make. “I can’t be forced to be ready. I need to ask myself if
I am ready and receive confirmation that the society is ready,” he said
concerning the making of films adapted from Nigerian books.
Ujubuonu believes that Nollywood is not availing itself of the
opportunity offered by books. “If Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka’s works are
complex, you can start by adapting ‘The Passport of Mallam Illia’ and ‘The
Drummer Boy’, these are not complex stories,” Ujubuonu said in response to
Onwuche’s earlier claim that it is expensive to turn Nigerian classics into
films.
Toni Kan agreed that literature presents ready material and
thinks the film industry should seize the opportunity. “The Godfather was first
a novel, Crazy Heart, Blind Side, Precious, Lonely Bones and most of those
films that won awards this year were adapted from novels. If Nollywood aspires
to be like Hollywood, then it should do the same with its films,” he said.
Literature, film and
intellect
Kelani offered that ‘gullible’ audiences expect no more than a
quick fix when watching Nigerian films. He explained that this is why
filmmakers can get away with making films with insubstantial content.
“Literature stimulates the intellect of the whole people,” said the filmmaker.
He stressed that bad films are capable of causing a systematic degradation of
the intellect of the society itself. “I have a love for books, which is why I
am able to adapt books into films” said Kelani. He however noted that in
adapting a work, the filmmaker has to respect the writer by adding value to it.
Chief executive officer of Position International TV, Dapo
Adeniyi, has been trying to make Wole Soyinka’s ‘Ake’ into a film for close to
three decades with no success. He said, “Budgets shoot up when it comes to
adapting literature to motion pictures. If we can get the government involved
with funding and actually put in the funds they make available, then it will be
possible to turn our classic literature into film.” Adeniyi also mentioned the
difficulty of getting the right interpretation of an author’s work. “Achebe
says he was grossly misinterpretated, he was not happy with the film
adaptation. For Soyinka’s work, when we were discussing it with the NTA board
back then, none of the people on the board had actually read the work. How
possible would it have been for them to then make suitable adaptation?”
Do it well or…
“You can’t get Ola Rotimi or Wole Soyinka to write for the
screen because they are not screenwriters,” said Femi Oso from the audience. He
added that getting works adapted is the work of the screenwriter who should get
involved in establishing a relationship between literature and films. Pamela
Udoka supported Mabel Segun’s assertion that children want to read, and will
read if they can access reading material. She however pointed out that lack of
proper research is evident in some Nigerian literature.
Writer and filmmaker Chris Ihidero, passionately defended youth at the
occasion. He stated that established filmmakers should be sincere whenever they
feel they really should produce good films. “Americans also produce crap but
they make sure only the good films get here. Nevertheless, let us Nigerian
filmmakers not touch the classics unless we can do them well.”
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