OLA BALOGUN AND NOLLYWOOD CRITICS BY BOB EJIKE

OLA BALOGUN AND NOLLYWOOD CRITICS
 

  BY BOB EJIKE 

Dr Ola Balogun’s recent acrimonious attack on the Nigerian film industry came as a rude shock to most of the country’s moving picture practitioners. Majority of Nollywood film makers murmured their indignation because of the pioneering role Dr Balogun played in the creation of the Nigerian film tradition. But it is my considered opinion that by publicly disowning Nigerian film and acidly castigating the professionals, Dr Ola Balogun has nullified the hallowed consideration accorded him as one of the pioneers of Nigerian film. The doomsday undertone of the doctor’s tirades are to say the least repugnant and reminiscent of the ‘market woman’ criticism that Nigerian film has faced from disgruntled seminal columnists, misguided elites, former specialists, former this, former that, seeking relevance where they have invested no effort.

Since Nigerian film broke out of the chains of NTA hegemony about a decade ago, the high living and low thinking elites have sought to prove their social per-eminence by advertising their DSTV patronage. The Nigerian media which, in any event thrives on negativity, initially wrote off the film revolution as an exercise in mediocrity, while the often racist western press dismissed Nollywood as ‘how not to make a film’. Admittedly, it is how not to make a Western film, but it works!

The dominant theme in these destructive critiques questioned the logic behind the very existence of a Nigerian film culture, the major complaint targeted the overemphasized theme of witchery and sorcery. Indeed this is the first time that the theme, rather than the acting, directing, story line, of films would be subject to mass critical rejection. Hollywood has its recurrent theme of James Bond-style detective thriller, Indians emphasize their peculiar brand of romance and Hong Kong repetitively features kung fu. What then is wrong with Nigeria being known for horror films? What makes it alright for the horror film to come from Hollywood, and fetish if is it comes from Nollywood?

The form of Nigerian films as shot with digital video camera format and packaged in VHS video and VCD was and still is maligned by theoretical critics and most of the less cerebral critics unfairly compare low budget Nollywood films with mega sponsored Hollywood productions. Much of this criticism is academic and idealistic rather than practical, their tone often rude and abusive. The tragedy is that beside irritating and occasionally distracting the film practitioners, they have alienated many Nigerians and Westerners from appreciating the original film genre that is uniquely Nigerian, from sponsorship, acting, directing, production, concept designs, packaging, advertising, publicity, promotion, marketing, distribution, to, in most parts consumption. These mercenary critics who begrudge Nigerians the freedom to express their cultures on their own terms, thereby denying them their, history, customs, dance and oral tradition, and personality, are not fit to be called Nigerians.

At this juncture, may I crave your indulgence to examine some of the gibberish from Dr Ola Balogun, towards re-educating the obviously senile doctor of films: Hear him: ‘the poorly put-together contraptions that are inappropriately called films in Nigeria are generally considered with scorn by people who are knowledgeable about films’ ‘the current crop of Nigeria video productions, some of which are even shot on VHS video format, and most of which are lamentable in quality at every level of production, whether it be scripting, acting, directing, or editing...’. ‘The jumbled productions that pass for film in Nigeria are of extremely poor quality, no matter from what angle they are considered. Most of the scripts are childishly conceived, amateurishly written, and thoroughly predictable within three or four minutes of the commencement of action. The acting is mostly of the "market woman" variety, and generally consists of untutored actors gesticulating wildly and shouting at each other at the tops of their voices. When it comes to photography, sound, directing and editing, what we see presented as Nigerian movies are most often deeply embarrassing exercises that illustrate deep ignorance of essential film values’. Dr Balogun does not spare the practitioners, ‘all one finds these days are folks who are so busy boasting all over the place about the non-existent achievements of the so-called Nollywood film industry’

  BY BOB EJIKE Dr Ola Balogun

Let us face it, the film of reference in Dr Ola Balogun’s critique Yesterday, cannot be rationally classified as an African film in the same sense that all Nigerian films are African, because even though the actors are Africans, the movie was sponsored and directed by non-Africans. In his blind fury, Dr Balogun fails to acknowledge the existence of any Nollywood achievement, just because Nigerian films are shot on practical DVC rather than the very expensive and elusive celluloid format that he knows Nigerian producers can ill afford. Many Hollywood films are shot on DV, but no one uses that as an excuse to deprive them of deserving awards, or tag them home videos rather than films as is often the case with Nigerian movies.

Dr Balogun refuses to appreciate the simple fact that Nigerians have been able to organize themselves into sponsors, producers, directors, special effects and lighting personnel, actors etc, and launch a 50 billion Naira annual industry from the ashes of his own films which were almost all commercial failures. No one in his right mind dismisses a 50 billion Naira annual industry with the wave of a hand. Whatever it is that brings in this great fortune is what the Nigerian film consumers want and not the hazy and impractical intellectual idealism of the Ola Baloguns. Nor does the learned doctor recognize the positive effects of the films in tackling the endemic unemployment situation which floored even The Federal Government, its impact on the Nigerian video culture in general, leading to the explosion of tributary industries like the video shops and video clubs, repair, importation, production, editing, training etc. which have provided entertainment, jobs and businesses for families across the nation, and beyond, thus making the film industry the greatest boost to the nation’s economy since the discovery of oil. Whether Balogun and the other area boy critics of Nigerian film like it or not, Nigeria currently has the most exuberant video culture worldwide. His wrathful declaration that he is, ‘hardly ever able to sit through even five minutes of what currently passes for the output of the Nigerian home video industry’, is unpatriotic if irresponsible. How can he see Nigerian films when he is perpetually glued to DSTV, relishing in the splendor of South African lavishly sponsored productions, where money and high-tech make up for talent.
 

It is of course true that due to poor sponsorship, many of our films are amateurish, yet it is unfair and dishonest to write off all the actors, directors, producers, executive producers and an entire national industry as riff-Raff, simply because the operators did not have the opportunity to be schooled like Balogun. The hard but obvious truth which I think is the real reason behind Dr Ola Baloguns onslaught is that these ‘illiterate traders’ succeeded where he failed. He failed because he was not and still is not pragmatic and imaginative. Dr Balogun was aping Hollywood producers and shooting very expensive flicks in celluloid for a country that has very few film theaters, that people are afraid to venture to, because of the menace of armed robbery, so he made beautiful films that nobody saw and was internationally acclaimed and honored with several worthless plaques and trophies from Western countries, while taking nothing worthwhile to the bank. The highly creative and target-oriented Nollywood executive producers, being video merchants, understood their market and knew that there was no point wasting millions of hard-earned Naira to hire celluloid equipment where a simple DV camera will give almost the same output. The average film watcher does not recognize the format in which a film is shot, and does not care , as long as it is interesting, therefore from a pragmatic perspective, the overemphasis of celluloid production is as irrelevant as it is an unwanted distraction. They went ahead to package their product in the video and VCD formats that their customers were demanding for, which they can watch several times with their families in the safety of their homes. They made the films primarily for their immediate audience who were firsthand customers of their shops, known personally to them and whose entertainment needs they were intimate with. This is why the ‘illiterate traders’ succeeded where the erudite academic doctor failed woefully. It is not that I expect the elitist Dr Balogun to become a cheering fan of a popular underclass artistic revolution, yet pouring out his frustration on the pages of the newspaper only further alienates him from what has become the mainstream African film expression.

The major tragic after-effect of the unusually cruel criticism that bedevils Nollywood is that the practitioners became afraid to venture into the Western market because they have been erroneously convinced that their products can not compete internationally. This is gradually being disproved as Nigerian films gain recognition globally. Another of its negative effects is that many distinguished filmmakers abandoned Nollywood to less able practitioners. Notable among these experts are Taiwo Ajayi-Lycett, Funso Alabi, Larry Williams, and Dr Ola Balogun. Lycett chose to invest her late husband’s fortune in an acting school in the obscure Ejigbo suburb, Alabi escaped to the English Department of University of Lagos, Larry Williams chose to run a mushroom cultural dance troupe, until Lagos State University, Ojo, offered him a place in their theater, while Balogun opted for an unsuccessful highlife band. I remember passionately appealing to some of them to contribute their quota to the building of a formidable Nigerian film industry and they would not have anything to do with the ‘untutored’ producers. Nobody begrudges them their choice of course, but whenever occasion permits they never lose the chance to insult the less skilled or talented people who zealously occupied the place they abdicated. I once rose to the occasion in defence of Taiwo-Ajayi Lycett, after Boobster Cossy Orjiakor responded to her insult by charging that Lycett was a nonentity in Nigerian film. I chastised Cossy in my Sunday Sun column Klieglights, for responding to a woman old enough to be her grandmother, but I was not lost to the fact that at least within the contest of this generation, Cossy was right, Ajayi-Lycett is irrelevant. If you have willfully chosen the path of obscurity, stop abusing those who chose to weather the storm and give the nation a buoyant film culture.

Prof. Bob Ejike 
In his illusive grandeur from past glory, Dr Balogun feverishly imagines that the world is still where he left off in the 1970s, when human success was the straight jacketed exclusive preserve of the dull student who was considered brilliant because he listened to the wisdom of his teachers and reproduced it verbatim to earn honors degrees. Today all that wisdom has been compressed into computer programs and digital cameras, you no longer need to be academically clever to be a genius. Bill Gates was a college dropout. You just need to know which button to press, and Nollywood is pressing the right buttons and churning out billions of dollars. How can Ola Balogun see this if he is glued to DSTV, dazzled by programs made in South Africa, a country where the 13 percent white population still disproportionately control all the means of production, occasionally featuring some black performers in their productions to give the false impression of equity. That is not the kind of African film we desire in Nigeria.

I watched OJ transform from an Idumota video marketer to a respectable director with a multifaceted studio that would intrigue any filmmaker anywhere. Inspite of the epistles of Dr Ola Balogun and other armchair critics, Nollywood did attract many intellectuals like Professor Laz Ekwueme, Sola Fosudo, Onyeka Onwenu, Pete Edochie, Olu Jacobs, Justus Esiri, Chief Eddy Ugbomah, Dr Balogun’s contemporary) to mention but a few. Many of the Nollywood critics are often appalled by what they see as ‘arrogance’ in Nigerian film stars. This is mainly because they expect them to wear the cloak of inferiority and kowtow before their Western counterparts. Luckily this is not the case, because Nigerian actors are mostly university graduates who realize that they are trailblazers in a very difficult renaissance. What Dr Ola Balogun refers to as ‘boasting’ is called ‘promotion’ in entertainment parlance. Something his own films unfortunately lacked, which is why nobody remembers them. Most of the ad-hoc measures taken so far in producing and disseminating Nigerian films, may be unconventional, but the fact that they have worked and bequeathed upon the beleaguered nation an honest means of livelihood, which even The President acknowledged as the best public relations initiative of the nation imposes on all Nigerians the affirmative imperative to encouraged, not destroy it. As Balogun has already been told, Nigerian films have been recognized by many authoritative international journals and Western film festivals, but he should understand that his mindset, which craves the accumulation of useless plaques and trophies from Europe and America is not the foundation under which the Nigerian film industry was built. Nollywood will surely evolve to the point where even the mighty Hollywood will doff its cap.

How art the mighty fallen! Haba! For the great Ola Balogun to withdraw into the cocoon of an obscure dance band, making absolutely no impact for over a decade and condescending as low as a Bolekaja critic smacks of senility. Nollywood provided a great opportunity for Ola Balogun to finally benefit from his efforts but he was blinded by his superiority complex, and did not see it. Yet it is not too late for him to get on board and make the kind of movies he believes Nigerians deserve. Sir, prove me wrong, not by the all-so-easy abusive rejoinders that Nigerians have become notorious for, but by shooting some quality films in whatever format, to show the world that you are really better than these Nollywood ‘mediocre’.

BOB EJIKE