I travelled to Oguta, in Imo State, recently with a 6-member crew, to hunt for locations for my debut film, The Distant Light, a story that has been described by German anthropologist, Sabine Jell-Bahlsen, as an ‘Avatar-in-Nigeria thriller.’ Sabine is an authority on Oguta/Oru-Igbo cultures and traditions and has written one of the most extensive and deeply researched works on the cosmology of the Igbo gods and goddesses. She spent close to 26 years there, living with the people and learning everything about them. That came to culminate into the groundbreaking work of anthropology, “The Water Goddess in Igbo Cosmology: Ogbuide of Oguta Lake,” published by Africa World Press, Inc.
Our paths crossed last year at a women’s conference, where she was speaking on Igbo traditions and I was giving a speech on why people need to study other people’s cultures. I found her quite intriguing (for she could speak Oguta Igbo, always sports Nigerian fabrics and holds a Chieftaincy title in Oguta) and when I finally bought her book, which she autographed, I saw names of my maternal family members in there, where she had acknowledged the help they had offered to her during her stay in Oguta.
At the beginning of this year, after getting nominated in the Creative Artist of the Year of the Future Awards, and Adekunle Samuel Owolabi beat me in that category, we agreed to work together, at least, to ‘cool me down,’ for bruising my ego. I agreed to produce a script and he will produce a camera. And we will do a film together.
I went into solitude at Bonny Island, and believe me; I finished the first draft within three days. I worked with a self-imposed deadline. On the fourth day, I left Bonny Island, with a broken heart, a broken pair of glasses and a completed script, that kept me happy.
This was just after the 2010 AMAA Awards, which I had attended in Bayelsa. For a lot, the AMAA was motivational and inspirational. For some, it was an avenue where anyone could face intimidation. Of course, watching Kunle Afolayan walk up to that stage, smiling and raising his plaques to thank the world, I felt I could come close. I just didn’t sleep well that night, as I kept thinking of how many heads he has! “The Figurine”, from every angle, came close to a perfect work of art.
Onyeka Onwenu has accepted a role in it, as well as AMAA-winning OC Ukeje. A friend recently said that critics are like eunuchs in a harem: they know how it’s done, they have seen how it’s done, but they can’t do it. I agree. I’ve always being very passionate about the cinema and decided to enroll into a film school abroad, where I was trained as a scriptwriter and got to understand that it is easier said than done. So, as a harsh critic of Nollywood, I take back whatever harsh criticism I made in the past about its directors and actors. However we want to summarise it, making a film is never a child’s play. It is a battlefield. People die. People live.
For choosing Oguta as our location to shoot, we have been asked by the Chief Priestess, Akuzzor Anozia, after making incantations and consulting Ogbuide Lake Goddess, that we will perform rituals. Oh, yes, we have a long list of things to buy after which we will proceed to the Shrine of Ogbuide to appease her. The Consort of the Priestess will guide us throughout the whole period we will spend in Oguta.
For last time I updated my Facebook about Oguta, a friend commented: “I lost a close friend of mine to the Lake recently. He got drowned and the native couldn’t let his people take his corpse.” It was no surprise as my mother used to tell me similar things. When I asked the Chief Priestess, she said that if the dead person’s family had performed rituals, they would have gone with the corpse. I went back to the friend who had commented and she said, “Yes, they were asked to perform ritual. But it was expensive.”
“The Distant Light” is my take on arrogance and belief. Is belief necessary for a people? Does arrogance pay? It is my own way of contributing to Nigerian cinema, with a cast and crew from different parts of the world. It is my way of saying that we the young people are quick at condemning the works of the older generation and still cannot do anything to make changes. This is my way of saying, “Thank you to Tunde Kelani and Kunle Afolayan” for refining Nigerian cinema, for inspiring a new generation.
Onyeka Nwelue is author of The Abyssinian Boy (DADA Books, 2009). “The Distant Light” will be produced by DADA Films, Lagos and KStunts Media, Johannesburg.
Biography
Onyeka Nwelue is the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of BLUES & HILLS Consultancy.He studied Sociology & Anthropology briefly at the University of Nigeria, before dropping out to focus on his writing and filmmaking. He has since then studied Scriptwriting.
He has been invited and participated at the 2nd International Writers' Festival - India, Jaipur Literature Festival-India, Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival- Hong Kong, DSC South Asian Literary Festival - UK and Lagos Book and Art Festival - Nigeria. He has received a grant from the Institute for Research on African Women, Children and Culture (IRAWCC), Arizona, USA. His first novel, The Abyssinian Boy (DADA Books, 2009) won TM ALUKO Prize for First Book and came second at the IBRAHIM TAHIR Prize for Fiction and has been republished in India by Serene Woods. Danish filmmaker and visual artist, Lasse Lau has bought the rights to film The Abyssinian Boy.
Nwelue has been nominated twice in the Creative Artist of the Year category of the Future Awards. He has been published in the Guardian, Times of India, NEXT, Punch, Daily Times, The Sun, Vanguard, ThisDay, Ecletica Magazine, Kafla InterContinental, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Insurance & Money Weekly and several other publications. He served as the Director for the first edition of Bayelsa Book & Craft Fair 2011, is currently a Writer-in-Residence at Centre for Research in Art of Film & TV (CRAFT), Delhi, where he teaches Film Adaptation and is a member of the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), organisers of the yearly Lagos Book & Art Festival. His second novel, The Orchard of Memories is forthcoming.
He is the editor of FilmAfrique, the exciting new film magazine, published by Africa Film Academy, curators of the Africa Movie Academy Awards.
Posted by Ezedike Oliver Uche (c)2011
