Exploits of Lagos-based finger-in-multiple pie culture apostle, Shaibu Husseini, kissed the climax on Friday, when his Moviedom... the Nollywood Narratives: Clips on Pioneers, was launched amidst tributes and promising words for the film world. Apart from having reported the sector in THE GUARDIAN in the past decade, Hussein, is also the Chairman of the College of Screeners of the African Movie Academy Awards.
But those who have followed his metamorphosis would recall that he had been so active in contemporary dance that he once headed the Dancers Guild of Nigeria. As if in celebration of his bourgeoning frame, he has also worked in various capacities at the National Theatre/National Troupe - the most eventful years being when he worked with a former General Manager of the National Theatre, Dr. Ahmed Yerima. But the publication of Moviedom appears to have crowned his moves.
Among other stakeholders who commended Husseini, Theatre Arts Lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Dr. Hyginus Ekwuazi, described the book as Husseini’s passionate love song to an industry he ardently loves-Nollywood, “that burgeoning industry that we praise and cavil in the same breath.”
According to the former boss of the National Film Corporation and award-winning poet, Moviedom…the Nollywood Narratives: Clips on Pioneers is somewhat like a sponge or a compressed towel.
“Its inherent absorbent capability vis-à-vis its information density, is, on the whole, remarkable,” Ekwuazi notes. “This book carries with it the burden of experience-the experience comprising Shaibu’s beat in and around Nollywood and his years as the Chair of the AMAA College of Screeners. However, in no instance does the work sag under such a heavy under.
Rather, this rarefied experience has been nuanced into the work in a laidback manner that makes the book as highly reader friendly as it is readable. What more does one ask of a book?”
He adds that one needn’t look too far to see all too clearly how Moviedom…the Nollywood Narratives happens to be at the centre of a widening gyre of irony. According to him, in the early 90’s, Nigerian filmmakers signed a petition against Jimmy Ate, then the General Manager, National Theatre, for allowing reversal films/home videos to be screened in the cinema halls of the National Theatre - the very same National Theatre in whose Banquet Hall, Nollywood stars gathered on Friday, 17th Dec, 2010 for the launch of the work, which he further describes as a celebration of the home video.
“And that other blockbuster of an irony: till the middle 90’s the Nigerian Film Corporation was still shouting from the roof tops that its statutory mandate didn’t include the video - the very same NFC whose current head and whose one time chairman have been profiled here among the stars of Nollywood,” Ekwuazi explains.
“The point here is that from 1903 when the first movie was shown in the country to 2005 when Nollywood was rated the second largest film industry in the world, the Nigerian film industry has passed through four defining stages: the Colonial Film Unit stage (the cine was the only format and the documentary the major genre); the post-Independence period again, the only format was the cine and the feature virtually eclipsed activities in any other genre); the SAP (Structural Adjustment Programme) stage (the feature continued to dominate but the reversal film took over from the cine); and, finally, the Post-SAP period [the home video completely took over the industry.”
Source:http://www.punchng.com/
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