Sanijos

Africa International Film Centre, Tiga-Kano

2010-09-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

MOPPAN
Africa International Film Centre, Tiga-Kano
The Kannywood Centre

Alhaji Sani Mu’azu
1/3/2007

A Proposal aimed at developing the Hausa Film Industry, employing thousands of youths and opening vistas of opportunities where Hausa culture and traditions are showcased, as against stifling the growth and development of the sector through draconian policies.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PART ONE
1.1 Introduction
1.2 The Federal Government of Nigeria recognised the importance of the film industry in the country and have equally demonstrated this through the setting up of several committees to provide an enabling environment and infrastructural development. To underscore the commitment of government in addressing the problems of the industry towards its overall growth and development, five Associations, UMPAN, ANTPN, CMPPN, ITPAN and MOPPAN are recognised by Government and assembled for this objective. MOPPAN is the only association based in the North.

1.3 The Motion Picture Practitioners’ Association of Nigeria, MOPPAN, is the association responsible growth and development of the motion picture industry, with several affiliate guilds like that of Producers, Directors, Actors, Cinematographers, Writers, Editors, Film designers and Music Composers spread in 19 states in Northern Nigeria with its headquarters in Kano. The association had conducted several training programmes, Awards of excellence and research and documentation for the benefit of its affiliates.

1.4 Today, over 30 percent of Nigerian films are Hausa films. Nigerian films including Hausa films, account for more than half of Africa’s motion picture output. Indeed, Nigeria is rated among the three largest producers of film titles in the world with India’s Bollywood and America’s Hollywood. Likewise, the industry ranks as one of the highest employers of labour in the country, employing well over 200, 000 graduates, skilled and semi-skilled labour. This has in no small measure, impacted positively on the poverty alleviation of Nigerians. Besides, this industry which the world acknowledges as Nollywood has opened up investment opportunities in areas such as production, marketing, distribution and exhibition of films. The Northern part of the Nigerian Film industry that produces the bulk of its products in Hausa and a few Northern Nigerian languages is branded by MOPPAN with the tag of Kannywood for distinct identity and proper national positioning.

1.5 All these, as part of the success story of the Nigerian motion picture industry, have been made possible by the unwavering commitment of private entrepreneurs who took the plunge with the home video technology and ingeniously turned it into a thriving industry. This phenomenon has grown into a visible and remarkable element of popular culture, projected the abundance of untapped human resources in the art and business and has made the prospects for growth more viable today than ever before. Despite all these activities and investments, the industry remained unstructured and loosely regulated.

1.6 It is in recognition of these positive strides, the potential of becoming a strategic tool for development and the expanding huge markets for video movies that MOPPAN has taken the initiative to organize the industry in Northern Nigeria in order for it to contribute more positively to the Gross Domestic Product, GDP and become a major player in our national economy under an AFRICAN INTERNATIONAL FILM RESOURCE CENTRE in Kano.

1.7 Examples from other known film cultures show that the benefits of a regulated and organized film industry are enormous than what obtains in an unstructured environment. The absence of a Film Centre owned and operated by stakeholders themselves, has thus robbed the country of the opportunity to maximise the potentials which the film industry holds as a promise for the realization of both individuals and the corporate goals.

1.8 Instead, we have witnessed the taking over of our movie space by charlatans who throw professionalism and ethics to the dogs. Standards, both in techniques and values have been compromised over the years.

Consequently, MOPPAN recognizes the dire need for the establishment of an Africa International Film Resource Centre in Kano.

PART TWO
RATIONALE AND JUSTIFICATION FOR AN INTERNATIONAL FILM CENTRE

2.1 The need for an International Film Centre?
2.2 The lack of integration and cohesion within the film industry has no doubt created distortions and dysfunction, giving rise to varying levels of concerns being expressed by stakeholders. With a changing economy, technology and policy environment, the prevalence of poor production quality, dearth of requisite skills for enhanced capacity building, near-absence of an efficient, proactive and profit-oriented distribution and marketing structure, and the non-alignment of the industry to the larger industrial sub-sector of the national economy - all of which have led to its limited contribution to national re-orientation and international image building.

2.3 Whereas there is visible growth, the above indices are part of the several factors that have inhibited the development of the motion picture industry in Northern Nigeria. It is a case of all motion and no movement. The new paradigm of production and distribution which the video movies have come to represent has not been fully exploited to attract the requisite investment into the industry due to the absence of a structured body. The financial sector, as intermediaries in the economy, has been identified as a worthy partner in the journey towards the commercial viability of this initiative, and is equally looking forward to an institutional structure which would be responsible for facilitating the attainment of greater productivity and excellence in the industry.

2.4 MOPPAN observed that for our motion picture industry to thrive therefore, creativity, improved skill acquisition, modern technology, continuous training and exposure, benchmarking and setting higher standards, intellectual property rights protection, recognition/reward for excellence, and marketing and distribution must be given their pride of place. Every well-developed and viable film industry across the world has put one form of structure or the other in place, to stimulate its growth and development.

2.5 In the same vein, for a business that began almost by accident, was sustained by expediency, and has not benefited from the support of either the political establishment or the orthodox financial institutions, what the country needs at this point of our development is for the motion picture industry to be properly guided and nurtured to grow.

2.6 The tremendous impact of Hausa and other local films on the people’s minds, their ways of thinking, their habits of perception, their attitude to the world, work, family and neighbours has nonetheless helped to shape the implications for their development in recent times. This has also invariably dictated the direction of their authority over our values and our lives, as a counter-force against the influence of foreign values and imported cultures which threaten the survival of a truly indigenous motion picture industry.

2.7 The visual medium of film no doubt is one of the strongest media of cultural expression. The Hausa films in particular and Nigerian motion picture industry in general, today desperately needs to put a stamp on quality and standard in story interpretation, picture/visual, sound, and content as a whole. The revolution of quality productions, using local talents and other resources will not only project our culture that stemmed from our religion positively but also position Nigeria on the global map of filmmaking.

PART THREE

AN INTERNATIONAL FILM CENTRE IN KANO

3.1 Towards the Establishment of an International Film Centre
3.1.1 The Association notes that Northern Nigeria is one of the three filmmaking legs of Nigeria and the only one few filmmaking without a Film Centre. Lagos, Bayelsa and Enugu are in the process or have established some form of film centres. The Federal Government is trying to establish one more for them in Abuja.

3.1.2 MOPPAN also finds that all over the world, the significance of a film centre as an engine of growth is becoming increasingly recognised. Only recently did the Nigerian government realise that leaving the industry in the hands of the private sector, who are the more visible players in the home video revolution, will only continue to undermine effort at local and international image management and economic and socio-political progression. The industry has not only become a national institution, recently accorded official recognition but also an authentic economic sector, with the potential of becoming one of the greatest contributors to national wealth.

3.1.3 The imperative, therefore, of bridging the gaps in manpower development, capacity building, production, marketing, distribution and exhibition - with professionalism at its heart – formed one of the cornerstones of this presentation aimed at harnessing the potentials of the film medium for the achievement of national development objectives.

3.2 The Present State of the Film Industry in the North
3.2.1 The evolution of the motion picture industry in the North with Kano as its umbilical cord must be considered side by side with the economic potential, not only locally but also beyond our shores. Over the last 15 years or so of indigenous film production, the film medium has grown to become the major conveyor of Northern culture, arts and tourism potentials to the outside world. From pre-independence and post-independence era, and with more indigenous participation, the home video culture has manifested enormous capacity to create wealth, driven by a private sector entrepreneurship.

3.2.2 Apart from hiding under the guise of shari’ah to launch attempts aimed at killing the film industry in some parts of the North, the industry has virtually been left to exist on its own in the other parts, a development which deviates from what obtains in the more organised film cultures mentioned above. Though some effort has been made in the past to regulate the moral aspect of the industry to conform with Shari’ah, no attempt was made to consider the economic and other benefits, and the reality is that much more needs to be done in the following areas:
(i) Infrastructure and facilities;
(ii) Production;
(iii) Distribution, Exhibition and Marketing;
(iv) Training and capacity building;
(v) Funding and financing;
(vi) Legal Environment.

RECOMMENDATIONS

3.2.2.1 Infrastructure and Production Facilities

MOPPAN noted that few state-of-the-art equipment exist as part of the production facilities in the industry in the North. The cinema infrastructure among others, such as equipment and theatres have equally been abandoned to decay or converted to warehouses, banks, shopping malls and venues for religious worship, etc. The new phenomenon of the home video production therefore does not enjoy the communal conviviality which was the order of the day in the cinema era. In the same vein, production, distribution and exhibition facilities in the film industry are virtually non-existent.

Note must however be taken of the effort of private sector investors in Lagos, Port-Harcourt and recently Abuja by Silverbird and other stakeholders who are already financing a few standard film exhibition centres across some major cities of the country in an attempt to revive the film exhibition and cinema going culture. There are also a chain of video rental outlets and viewing centres in the urban centres and in some rural areas of the country, operating on the fringe. More of these structures and facilities are expected to be established in the North by these businesses and operated without recourse to northern cultural sensibilities.

Recommendation:
MOPPAN therefore sees the need to go into, or encourage northern businessmen to go into the business of cinema as it should be in a predominantly Muslim environment. MOPPAN also recommends that Kano State Government, in its new policy thrust on Film Development through the establishment of a practitioners driven film centre in Tiga, Kano, should seek to collaborate with motion picture equipment and film stock manufacturers from different parts of the world for the establishment of factories or sales offices in the Kano, with adequate incentives to attract their participation.

3.2.2.2 Production
MOPPAN observed that Kano, as the centre of Kannywood, is unarguably one of the highest producers of film titles in the Nigeria and Africa, with over one thousand video movies per annum. Film production encompasses several processes of transforming a story or subject matter from idea to a finished product. With the establishment of the Resource Centre, it is hoped that the above stated problems about motion picture production would be mitigated to the barest minimum.

Recommendation:
In its view, MOPPAN believes the establishment of the International Film Resource Centre at Tiga in Kano, would bring all Guilds and Associations together under one umbrella at the centre and give them the capacity to address the problems of technical and content quality, format, standards, professionalism, aesthetic appeal and of course, finance are some of the challenges facing the industry today.

3.2.2.3 Distribution, Exhibition and Marketing
MOPPAN observed the absence of effective structure and efficient and organised distribution network in the North, despite Kano being one of the major distribution centres of Films in Nigeria and sub Saharan Africa generally. MOPPAN also noted that there is the lack of political will on the part of Kano State Government to consider its strategic positioning and make plans to explore and revitalize the sector.

Recommendation:
MOPPAN recommends that Kano State Government should utilise the International Film Resource Centre at Tiga to facilitate an enabling environment to encourage public-private partnership to enhance an organised and efficient distribution and marketing network.

3.2.2.4 Training and Capacity Building

MOPPAN noted that it has become imperative for practitioners to possess a certain basic qualification that is recognised and acceptable by all stakeholders nationwide to bridge the yawning gap created by dearth of requisite skills in the industry.

Without training and capacity building therefore, it is difficult to maintain standards and ensure the regular supply of the needed manpower to feed the development needs of the industry.

Recommendation:
MOPPAN recommends that the International Film Resource Centre Tiga, Kano should host a film school to be known as TIGA INTERNATIONAL FILM CENTRE, KANO to be affiliated to either Bayero University Kano or Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. The school can work with other similar training institutions around the world to professionalise the industry. The Centre would also work with and encourage the Government-owned National Film Institute and the NTA Television College in Jos and other training institutions and initiatives by stakeholders to function adequately and provide the services needed in this sub-sector.

3.2.2.5 Funding and Financing
Modern filmmaking is business, big business. It is pertinent to note that all films, whether Government-sponsored or funded by corporations or individuals incur expenses in anticipation of expected returns. MOPPAN observed the absence of institutional funding, grants and endowment which has hampered the delivery power of the Northern Nigerian filmmaker.

Recommendation:
MOPPAN strongly recommends the establishment of a Film Development Fund in Kano for the Northern motion picture industry in collaboration with other Northern Governors that are major stakeholders and beneficiaries.

3.2.2.6 Legal Environment
MOPPAN observed that the Government has been making relevant and necessary efforts towards creating an enabling and enduring legal environment to stimulate the desired moral growth and development in the industry. The Kano Censors Board is however a source of concern to stakeholders and the law establishing the board is obviously done in a hurry.

Recommendation:
MOPPAN recommends that the Kano State Government should liaise with the National Film and Video Censors Board to harmonise and regularise its reforms until the motion picture industry is firmly put on a sound footing of focussed growth and development. The International Film Resource Centre would also maintain a standard legal office to continuously study and update its policies with regards to culture, tourism and growth without constituting itself as a nuisance and national/international embarrassment.

From the foregoing, MOPPAN therefore recommends the establishment of an International Film Resource Centre, to be known as THE AFRICA INTERNATIONAL FILM RESOURCE CENTRE TIGA, KANO at the present place of the ROCK CASTLE HOTEL to, when fully established, serve as THE CENTRE that would seek to intervene through its registered and affiliated Guilds and Associations in all aspects of motion picture production in Northern Nigeria and give KANNYWOOD a true identity and KANO STATE its position of pride as the third leg of film production in Nigeria.

Alhaji Sani Mu’azu
National President
MOPPAN

CALLING ON GOV. SHEKARAU TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGATION OF SEX SCANDAL AGAINST ABUBAKAR RABO

2010-08-31T06:44:00.000-07:00

CALLING ON GOV. SHEKARAU TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGATION OF SEX SCANDAL AGAINST ABUBAKAR RABO

We are aghast, as well as dismayed, by the frantic attempts of the Director-General, Kano State Censorship Board, Mallam Abubakar Rabo Abdulkareem, and some collaborators in the Kano State Government and elsewhere to trivialise the serious sex scandal that broke around him last week. We have no iota of doubt that these attempts are meant to discourage any further open discussion on the matter, portray it as an unimportant distraction in the issues of governance in the state, and then sweep it under the carpet.

But Rabo's self-imposed position as a vanguard of morality not only in the Hausa movie industry but also in the Kano society in general makes it imperative to launch a full inquiry into what really transpired on that night of Sunday, 22nd August, 2010. Rabo and the government he represents should not imagine that covering up this matter would be in their best interest because 1) a huge chunk of the good people of Kano State and indeed the whole North have now tended to believe the stories around the incident as they presently circulate, and 2) doing so would cast a big shadow of doubt about the Shekarau government's purported entrenchment of Shariah law in the state. Investigating the scandal, however, would bring out the truth of what actually happened. It could clear Rabo of all charges/suspicions or expose him as a hypocrite, someone who engages in secret philandering with girls old enough to be his daughters and therefore ill-fit to hold the sensitive position of DG, KNSCB.

The story going round in the public domain, as published by the Sunday Trust of 29th August and Leadership of August 30th, 2010, is that Rabo was discovered by patrolling policemen in the Sharada quarters of Kano City, in his parked car behind a building, off the road in the dark. It was around 10 p.m. When the police approached, he switched on his car and drove off in a devil-may-care speed. The patrol car pursued him. In his blind haste, he knocked down a pedestrian, seriously injuring him. The pedestrian was later discovered to be a staff member of the Kano State History and Culture Bureau. He is still on admission at the Nassarawa Hospital. Rabo was eventually apprehended by commercial motorcyclists, who had chased him hotly when he refused to stop after knocking down the pedestrian. A teenage girl, who was thoroughly frightened, was found in the car; her underwear was said to have been found in the back seat of the car.

Rabo was eventually taken by the patrolling policemen to the Sharada Divisional Police Station where he was questioned. However, he was allowed to leave with his badly damaged car and the girl that same night by the Divisional Police Officer in strange circumstances.

Both Rabo and the police authorities in Kano have confirmed this incident in their press interviews. What is being contested is what Rabo and the girl were doing at that forlorn place and in that unholy hour. The big story being spread is that Rabo was having a carnal knowledge of the girl as many unscrupulous men tend to do under similar circumstances. Rabo has, however, denied any wrongdoing, saying that the girl was the daughter of his late elder brother and that she had accompanied him to escort some relatives who had broken their fast at his house.

The government of His Excellency Governor Ibrahim Shekarau must investigate the incident in order to reassure the people of Kano about its sincerity on the implementation of its Shariah programme, about which there are millions of sceptics. And while doing so, Rabo should be ordered to go on suspension pending the outcome of the investigation.

The Motion Picture Practitioners’ Association of Nigeria (MOPPAN) hereby proposes that a powerful, independent Committee of Inquiry be set up by the Kano State Government to investigate the various claims in this saga. Some of the questions the Committee should investigate include, but not limited to, the following:
1) Who exactly was the girl in Rabo’s car on that fateful night? Was it really his niece as he claimed in his press interviews or a different person altogether? How old was she? The girl should be interviewed by the Committee;
2) Did Rabo really host his relatives to a Ramadan-breaking meal (Iftar)? Who were they? They should be made to appear before the Committee;
3) Why didn’t Rabo go with male member(s) of his family when escorting the said in-laws instead of going with the said teenager if at all she exists and was the one that went with him;
4) If indeed the girl in question was his niece, is it true that he and she were having a secret affair as is being rumoured?
5) What exactly was Rabo doing with the girl at around 10p.m. in a secluded place off the main road?
6) Why did Rabo drive away even though the police siren was said to have been blaring, urging him to stop? And why did he run away even after knocking down the unfortunate pedestrian?
7) Who were the policemen that arrested him and took him to the police station in Hotoro?
8) Exactly what did Rabo say in his first written statement to the police?
9) Why did the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Hotoro, release Rabo and the girl, together with the damaged car, when investigations were just commencing and Rabo’s hit-and-run victim had just been taken to the hospital in a critical condition? Was that a normal police procedure?
10) Why did Rabo virtually flee to Saudi Arabia, ostensibly to perform the lesser Hajj (Umrah) a day or two after almost killing a citizen and while having a sex scandal on his hands? Why didn’t he wait to clear himself of all charges and ensure that the victim of his hit-and-run accident was in a better condition of health?
11) Did Rabo contribute any money to the family of his hit-and-run victim for his medication, which must have been costing a lot?
12) Why did some Kano State government officials try to cover up the incident by misinforming the general public that there was no girl in Rabo’s car during the incident? Obviously, they had no idea that Rabo had already confirmed that there was indeed a girl in the car. They were also said to have been urging journalists in the state and elsewhere not to break the story and or allow further discussion on it;
13) Rabo had claimed that he was aware of certain meetings held for two weeks by some film industry stakeholders or PDP stalwarts with the aim of eliminating him. This serious allegation should be investigated not only by the investigative committee but also by the security agencies; Rabo must tell them where and when those meetings took place, as well as the names of those in attendance;
14) Rabo had told the press that officials of the opposition PDP in Kano were responsible for his present ordeal. He must tell the Committee how this was possible and the names of those involved.
Finally, we wish to note that Rabo has since become a liability to the government of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau. He has attracted more negative perception to the government than any goodwill. A more dynamic and people-oriented regime would have relieved him of his post, more so as he has failed woefully in discharging his responsibilities. The good people of Kano State and the nation at large wonder just why Governor Shekarau has been keeping him in that office even though he has contributed nothing in the direction of sanitising the industry. He has only succeeded in causing more unemployment of the youths that he prevents from earning their legitimate livelihood, encouraged the production of movies that are not censored yet are in full circulation all over Kano, and helped heat up the society.

This Rabo sex scandal is a litmus test for His Excellency Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau’s candidature for the presidency of Nigeria. Shekarau, who has announced his bid to run for president under his party the ANPP, should begin to show that he would be a responsive and responsible national leader when elected by not helping some elements in his present government to cover up this scandal. Doing so would question his motivation and commitment to the enthronement of a decent society in Nigeria.

MALLAM SANI MU’AZU
National President
MOPPAN

KANNYWOOD AND BEYOND

2009-07-13T12:50:00.000-07:00

234next.com On Twitter

Kannywood and beyond

By Akintayo Abodunrin
July 10, 2009 12:16PMT

Leading northern Nigeria filmmaker, Sani Muazu, is president of the Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MOPPAN). He discusses developments within the industry and on his productions.

Filmmakers in Kano have started to register with the Abubakar Rabo Abdulkarim- led Censors Board with which they fought a war of attrition for the most part of 2008.

“It is true that more than half of the filmmakers in Kano State have registered with [Abubakar] Rabo’s Censors Board, but more out of fear than a belief in what it stands for. The Board cannot really define what it wants other than it is fighting what it refers to as ‘badala’ in Hausa. Its definition of that word can be reduced to pornographic films in Kano.

We, the filmmakers, have argued that none of our members had ever produced such. We are not morally bankrupt to attempt to swim in such murky waters, but the man insists most of the films made prior to his posting to the Board are ‘badala’ films.

He capitalised on the general rejection of singing and dancing the Indian way, in some Hausa films, to justify his claims. But we were the first to agree that we must stop making films with those kinds of songs,” says Sani Muazu, a major producer of Hausa movies.

He continues: “In essence, both the filmmakers and the Board were singing the same song, yet he insists he has a formula for a clean film. To understand what he wants, and so as not to keep stakeholders in Kano out of work for too long, we okayed those that wanted to register with the Board to give him a chance to show us the way.

We now know that he is only interested in collecting the registration fees from filmmakers as nothing has changed in the content and quality of the works approved by that man yet.”

‘Damaged Merchandise’

Muazu’s newest film, ‘Haaja-Damaged Merchandise’ centres on Vesico-Vaginal Fistulae (VVF), a health condition rampant among girls forced into early marriages in the North.

“‘HAAJA-Damaged Merchandise’ is a feature movie that highlighted the VVF issue as never before. There were attempts to bring VVF to the front burner in the past, but never was it attempted at such magnitude and scope by the people that know it most.

This is a movie you finish watching with a grim expression on your face and a plenty-to-chew countenance. I am yet to see a viewer that clapped after a preview despite its promises and a happy ending.

It didn’t scratch the surface like the rest. It exposes the socio-cultural contradictions of our society where we end up doing harm, while trying to do some good. It also not only shows, in a creative way, the VVF issue as a national one adding to maternal mortality, but also proffers solutions out of it.”

Mrs. Yar’Adua and I

Does going to show the movie at Aso Rock for Mrs Turai Yar’Adua not indicatethat he is trying to romance government?

“VVF is a maternal issue that requires policy makers at the highest level to intervene and move to action. Who else is better placed to watch it first than Mrs. Turai Yar’Adua, in company with the wives of other governors?

What is wrong with romancing the government to bring change anyway? But to put the records straight, the movie was supported by the United Nations Population Fund that arranged the premiere for the first lady.”

Indian influence in Hausa movies

The producer of ‘Hafsah’, a movie which reportedly sold about 85,000 copies, apart from box office returns, is concerned about the Indian influences in Hausa movies. He discloses what he is doing about it.

“I am not happy with it and our Association is using training and retraining as the panacea to make it fizzle away. Do you know that once upon a time, even Hollywood struggled to find its footings?

"It is actually better to dance like an Indian than to promote cultism, don’t you think? All these are definitions of our teething beginnings that are bound to fizzle away once the boys are separated from the men.”

No wood tag

Muazu, who began his film career in Nollywood before crossing over to Kannywood, attempts a comparison between the two.

“Ordinarily, I will reject all the ...wood tags you mention, but I kind of see them as necessary for cultural symbolism. I am a part of the growth of the Nigerian film industry, no matter what tag they decide to give it.

"The white journalist that coined Nollywood and called us so, did it to show how we are not Hollywood but today, most of us are happy with that tag. Kannywood is another tag that some say, shows Hausa movies as second-rated.

"I always argue that if Tafawa Balewa and Sardauna of Sokoto never played second fiddle in national politics, Hausa films must rise to the occasion and rub shoulders in terms of creative and technical quality in Nigeria and beyond.

“I do not see points of divergence between Nollywood and Kannywood as they are an integral part of a whole. After all, when UNESCO used statistics to qualify us as the second largest film industry in the world (in terms of numbers), the organisation took into cognisance the multicultural nature of the kinds of films we make, especially the use of different local languages.
"I make films in the language of film, pictures, be they in Hausa or English or even Yoruba or Igbo.”

Productions

A vastly experienced filmmaker, Mu’azu was the executive producer for the British Council’s ‘Reel Dialogue’ project. His other notable productions include ‘Agumba’ and ‘Eg’igwe’. He produced ‘Chapters of Our Life’ and ‘Tambaree-The Beats of Pain’. He worked closely with the late Matt Dadzie on ‘Riddles and Hopes’ and ‘Change’.

His ‘Mountain Blues’ won the Best Feature Film in 2007 at the Abuja International Film Festival while ‘Hafsah’ won three nominations at AMAA. The movie also earned him the best Hausa Film Producer/Director at the UK based Africa Film Awards.

‘Mr Johnson’

Muazu was on the set of Bruce Beresford’s ‘Mr Johnson’ – and recalls the experience of working with the late Hubert Ogunde, Femi Fatoba and other greats.

“It was a great pleasure to have worked with all these great people on the set of ‘Mr Johnson’. I still remember Pa Ogunde being flown from his sick bed in the UK to the set of the movie to play his last role on earth.

"I saw him struggle in the pains of ill health to deliver his lines convincingly. I was among the Nigerian and other international crew members that applauded with pride that day. He died a few days after that.

“I remember Femi Fatoba, who is a good actor. I also got to know the likes of Tunde Kelani and a host of other talented Nigerians on that set. But above all, I am glad to have worked with one of the worlds’ greats, Bruce Beresford.

"I have never met a more composed, focused, down-to-earth and easy going film director in my life. No airs at all. Imagine, he got the Oscar that year as the Best Film Director for his movie, ‘Driving Miss Daisy’, but here he was working with us without raising a shoulder.”

Naturally, Muazu took some lessons away from the production. “The technical crew of ‘Mr Johnson’ was the best in the world then. I worked directly under the tutelage of Rosemary Burrows whom we fondly called Frox. There is no way you can work with those people and be the same again, never.

"That production changed me beyond anything I can imagine. You know, you don’t learn film in the classroom, you learn on locations, sets. My youthful exuberance as a filmmaker was tamed for the man in me to take over after ‘Mr Johnson.’”

Film Development Centre

Muazu has been agitating for the Nigerian Film Resource Development Centre project for a long time. “It is only in Nigeria where film is developing at an alarming pace without the necessary structure with corresponding investment to nurture and give it a sense of direction.

"Our antecedent is unlike that of Hollywood where the major studios played that role from inception. We are also not like Bollywood. If an investor is interested in film in Nigeria, where will he go to?
"The NFC in Jos, a local bank or the Censors Board? Where will the banks access facts and figures about the industry in Nigeria, from the fragmented Guilds and Associations?

"We really need at least three film resource centres to be situated in Lagos, Enugu and Kano. These centres must be manned by the practitioners themselves where issues such as the development of production villages and film support resources, training, technology and professional matters can be harnessed.”

The Nigeria Film Resource Centre

2009-05-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

This is a presentation made by Sani Mu'azu on behalf of MOPPAN to the WORLD BANK towards the establishment of

The Nigeria Film Resource
Development Centres

NFRDC

Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Enugu

Proposal

by

Sani Mu’azu
NATIONAL PRESIDENT
Motion Picture Practitioners’ Association
Of Nigeria

SUMMARY

Introduction
Nigeria is being recognised internationally as an important filmmaker providing film titles in numbers albeit on video format and the importance of this emerging film industry in the country cannot be underscored.

Today, Nigerian films account for more than half of Africa’s motion picture output. Indeed, Nigeria is rated the largest producers of film titles in the world after India’s Bollywood and America’s Hollywood. Likewise, the industry is estimated as one of the highest employers of labour in the country, employing well over 200, 000 graduates, skilled and semi-skilled labour. This must have, in no small measure, impacted positively on poverty reduction among Nigerians. Besides, this industry which the world acknowledges as Nollywood has opened up investment opportunities in areas such as production, marketing, distribution and exhibition of films.

All these, as part of the success story of the Nigerian motion picture industry, have been made possible by the unwavering commitment of private entrepreneurs who took the plunge with the home video technology and ingeniously turned it into a thriving industry. This phenomenon has grown into a visible and remarkable element of popular culture, projected the abundance of untapped human resources in the art and business and has made the prospects for growth more viable today than ever before. Despite all these activities and investments, the industry remained unstructured and loosely regulated.

It is in recognition of these positive strides, the potential of becoming a strategic tool for development and the expanding huge markets for video movies that we are proposing the establishment of The Nigeria Film resource development centre in order for it to contribute more positively to the Gross Domestic Product, GDP and become a major player in Africa’s growth and economy.

Examples from other known film cultures show that the benefits of an organized film industry are enormous than what obtains in an unstructured environment. The absence of a Film Centre owned and operated by stakeholders, thus robs the Nigeria of the opportunity to maximise the potentials which the film industry holds as a promise for the realization of both individual and the corporate goals.

We have witnessed the taking over of our movie space by charlatans who throw professionalism and ethics to the dogs. Standards, both in techniques and values are being compromised.

Consequently, MOPPAN as a major stakeholder, along with other professional Associations and Guilds in Nigeria, recognise the dire need for the establishment of The Nigeria Film Resource centre with Head office in Abuja and structures in Kano, Lagos and Enugu.

RATIONALE AND JUSTIFICATION FOR THE NIGERIA FILM RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

The lack of integration and cohesion within the film industry has no doubt created distortions and dysfunction, giving rise to varying levels of concerns being expressed by stakeholders. With a changing economy, technology and policy environment, there is prevalence of poor production quality, dearth of requisite skills for enhanced capacity building, near-absence of an efficient, proactive and profit-oriented distribution and marketing structure, and the non-alignment of the industry to the larger industrial sub-sector of a globalised economy - all of which have led to its limited contribution to national re-orientation and international image building.

Whereas there is visible growth, the above indices are part of the several factors that have inhibited the development of the motion picture industry in Nigeria and to a large extent, the African continent. The new paradigm of production and distribution which the video movies have come to represent has not been fully exploited to attract the requisite investment into the industry due to the absence of a structure. The financial sector, as intermediaries in the economy, has been identified as a worthy partner in the journey towards the commercial viability of this initiative, and is equally looking forward to an institutional structure which would be responsible for facilitating the attainment of greater productivity and excellence in the industry.

We observed that for our motion picture industry to thrive therefore, creativity, improved skill acquisition, modern technology, continuous training and exposure, benchmarking and setting higher standards, intellectual property rights protection, recognition/reward for excellence, and marketing and distribution must be given their pride of place. Every well-developed and viable film industry across the world has put one form of structure or the other in place, to stimulate its growth and development.

In the same vein, for a business that began almost by accident, was sustained by expediency, and has not benefited from the support of either the political establishment or the orthodox financial institutions, what the country needs at this point of our development is for the motion picture industry to be properly guided and nurtured to grow.

The tremendous impact of Nigerian and other local films on the minds of African, influencing their ways of thinking, their habits of perception, their attitude to the world, work, family and neighbours has nonetheless helped to shape the implications for African development in recent times. This has also invariably dictated the direction of their authority over our values and our lives, as a counter-force against the influence of foreign values and imported cultures which threaten the survival of a truly indigenous motion picture industry.

The visual medium of film no doubt is one of the strongest media of cultural expression. African films in particular and Nigerian motion picture industry in general, today desperately needs to put a stamp on quality and standard in story interpretation, picture/visual, sound, and content as a whole. The revolution of quality productions, using local talents and other resources will not only project our culture but also position Nigeria properly on the global map of filmmaking.

THE NIGERIA FILM RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

Towards the Establishment of The Nigeria Film Resource Development Centre
MOPPAN noted that Nigeria is one of the few filmmaking nations in the world without a Film Centre.

MOPPAN also found that all over the world, the significance of the film industry as an engine of growth is becoming increasingly recognised. Although Nigeria had maintained a film office from its colonial days, it is only recently did the Nigerian government realised that it needs to get involved in structuring the industry through the Motion Picture Council of Nigeria MOPICON, being coordinated by the Nigerian Film Corporation as well as evolving an organised film distribution framework by the National Film and Video Censors Board. Happily, the World Bank is now coming on board as well. Before now, the industry is left in the hands of the private sector, who are the more visible players in the home video revolution. An independent centre giving these governmental efforts direction will only continue to strengthen effort at local and international image management and economic and socio-political progression by the government. The industry has not only become a national institution, but also an authentic economic sector, with the potential of becoming one of the greatest contributors to national wealth.

The imperative, therefore, of bridging the gaps in manpower development, capacity building, production, marketing, distribution and exhibition - with professionalism at its heart – formed one of the cornerstones of the proposed Nigeria film centre aimed at harnessing the potentials of the film medium for the achievement of national development objectives.

The Present State of the Nigerian Motion Picture Industry
MOPPAN noted that the evolution of the Nigerian motion picture industry must be considered side by side with the economic potential, not only locally but also beyond our shores. Over the last few years or so of indigenous film production, the film medium has grown to become the major conveyor of African culture, arts and tourism potentials to the outside world. The cinema and video culture has manifested enormous capacity to create wealth, driven by the private sector.

MOPPAN also observed that the industry has virtually been left to exist on its own, a development which deviates from what obtains in the more organised film cultures mentioned above. Though some effort has been made in the past to give the industry a form of direction for economic and other benefits, the reality is that much more still needs to be done in the following areas:
(i) Infrastructure and facilities;
(ii) Production;
(iii) Distribution, Exhibition and Marketing;
(iv) Training and capacity building;
(v) Funding and financing;
(vi) Legal Environment.

a. Infrastructure and Production Facilities

MOPPAN noted that very few state-of-the-art equipment exist as part of the production facilities in the industry. The cinema infrastructure among others, such as equipment and theatres have equally been abandoned to decay or converted to warehouses, banks, shopping malls and venues for religious worship, etc. The new phenomenon of the home video production therefore does not enjoy the communal conviviality which was the order of the day in the cinema era. In the same vein, production, distribution and exhibition facilities in the film industry are virtually non-existent.

Note must however be taken of the effort of private sector investors who are already financing a few standard film exhibition centres across some major cities of the country in an attempt to revive the film exhibition and cinema going culture. There are also a chain of video rental outlets and viewing centres in the urban centres and in some rural areas of the country, operating on the fringe. Most of these structures and facilities are nonetheless expected to be beneficiaries of the Film Centre.

THE NIGERIA FILM FACILITY RESOURCE CENTRE:
The Centre, to be administered by Professional Guilds and Associations, will in its policy thrust seek to collaborate with the World Bank, the Government and other motion picture equipment and film stock manufacturers from different parts of the world for the establishment of factories or sales offices in the country, with adequate discount or waiver incentives to attract their participation.

b. Production
MOPPAN observes that Nigeria is unarguably one of the highest producers of film titles in the world, with over two thousand video movies per annum. In its view, the establishment of the Centre would give Guilds and Associations the capacity to address the problems of technical and content quality, format, standards, professionalism, aesthetic appeal and of course, finance are some of the challenges facing the industry today.

FILM PRODUCTION VILLAGE AND SOUND STAGE:
Film production encompasses several processes of transforming a story or subject matter from idea to a finished product. With the establishment of the Centre’s Film Village and Sound Stage, it is hoped that the above stated problems about motion picture production would be mitigated to the barest minimum. It is worthy of note that the Nigeria Film Institute under the NFC is building a Sound Stage presently for students of Film. It will only be logical that such facilities are available in the industry so that upon graduation, they will find the facilities ready at the workplaces.

c. Distribution, Exhibition and Marketing
MOPPAN observes the absence of effective structure and efficient and organised distribution network in Nigeria.

FILM DISTRIBUTION, EXHIBITION AND MARKETING OFFICE:
The Centres Film distribution, Exhibition and Marketing Office will work with the NFVCB to facilitate an enabling environment to encourage public-private partnership to enhance an organised and efficient distribution and marketing network.

d. Training and Capacity Building

MOPPAN notes that it has become imperative for practitioners to possess a certain basic qualification that is recognised and acceptable by all stakeholders nationwide to bridge the yawning gap created by dearth of requisite skills in the industry.

Without training and capacity building therefore, it is difficult to maintain standards and ensure the regular supply of the needed manpower to feed the development needs of the industry.

THE FILM RESOURCE ACADEMY:
The Centre will establish a Film Resource Academy. It will also work with the Government-owned National Film Institute in Jos and other training institutions like the Nigerian Universities and initiatives by stakeholders by encouraging them to function adequately and provide the service(s) needed in this sub-sector.

e. Funding and Financing
Modern filmmaking is business, big business. It is pertinent to note that all films, whether funded by corporations or individuals incur expenses in anticipation of expected returns. MOPPAN observes the absence of institutional funding, grants and endowment which has hampered the delivery power of the Nigerian filmmaker. The Nigeria Film Corporation had proposed the establishment of a Government Film Fund, though it is yet to get it started. There is a room for several sources of Funds for Film growth in any particular country.

THE NIGERIA FILM RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT FUND:
The Centre will establish a Nigeria Film Resource Development Fund for the motion picture industry.

f. Legal Environment
MOPPAN observed that the Government has been making relevant and necessary efforts towards creating an enabling and enduring legal environment to stimulate the desired growth and development in the industry like the establishment of Motion Picture Council of Nigeria.

AFRICA INTERNATIONAL FILM LEGAL OFFICE:
The Centre will establish a Film legal office that will interact with MOPICON, when established, working with international legal conventions and frameworks for film development and intellectual property protection. The Film Legal Office will work to encourage the Government not relent in its reforms until the motion picture industry is firmly put on a sound footing of focussed growth and development.

THE STRUCTURE
From the foregoing, THE WORLD BANK along with Professional Guilds and Associations will establish a film hub with head office in Abuja and Production Centres in Lagos, Enugu and Kano comprising of the following arms;
1. The Film Resource Facility Centre;
2. The Film Production Village and Sound Stage;
3. The Film Distribution, Exhibition and Marketing Office;
4. The Film Resource Academy;
5. The Film Resource Development Fund, and
6. The Film Legal Office

TIME FRAME
5 YEARS 2009 TO 2014
This facility will be an independent structure and a film hub developed within a period of 5 years, 2009 to 2014 by the World Bank in Nigeria, to coordinate professional practice in the motion picture industry. The Centre, when fully established would seek to intervene through these offices for growth and development in all aspects of motion picture production in Nigeria for the African continent.

Sani Mu’azu
NATIONAL PRESIDENT
Motion Picture Practitioners’ Association
of Nigeria
+234 (0)8037038940
sanijos2@yahoo.com

2009-05-08T14:31:00.000-07:00

Sani in Manchester

Sani in Scotland

2009-05-08T14:28:00.000-07:00

2009-05-08T14:23:00.000-07:00

Sani in Paris

Sani in London

2009-05-08T14:15:00.000-07:00

HAAJA-Damaged Merchandise (A New Feature Film by Sani Mu'azu)

2009-05-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

Haaja-Damaged Merchandise

A Sani Mu'azu Film

HAAJA – DAMAGED MERCHANDISE
THE MOVIE

STORY/DIRECTOR : SANI MU’AZU

SCREENPLAY : M. A. SALIHU
HARUNA ABUBAKAR

CINEMATOGRAPHY : IFEANYI ILODUBA

AUWALU DANLAMI

EDITORS : ERIC OBINWA

BABAKARAMI JOS

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER : SIDIKI COULIBALY

PRODUCTION AGENCIES : UNFPA/NCP

RUNNING TIME : 80 MINUTES

TECHNICAL SPECIFICS : HIGH DEFINITION VIDEO, PAL, STEREO

BACKGROUND

Haaja is an engaging story that captures the cultural richness, vibrancy and sense of order in the typical Hausa society and treats the subject of VVF in a dramatic, yet realistic manner, showing deep sensitivity to the cultural and religious norms of the people.

Nafisatu and Saude, each 13 years old, are very close friends in a part of Northern Nigeria where early marriage is a common cultural practice. Girls are married off at a tender age as a means to protect the society from promiscuity and uphold morality. A girl married off before she gets worldly-wise has no chance of bringing shame on her family or community. Unfortunately it has become obvious that nowadays such marriages end up in disaster and severe physical and mental agony, especially for the girls.

SYNOPSIS

Innocently, Nafisa is very happy that she is about to enter the highly romanticised institution of marriage. Little does she know that she is a bargaining chip. Her father, Gambo Mahauchi, 60, a small-time butcher is heavily indebted to Sarkin Fawa, the Chief Butcher of the locality, and is unable to pay back, with the possible consequences of going to jail. However, since Nafisa has caught the attention of the sixty-five-year-old Sarkin Fawa, they enter into a convenient arrangement.

Saude’s mother, Hajiya Altine, is alarmed when she hears about the marriage plan. She explains to the girls the dangers of VVF and the great agony and pain it causes.

Her advocacy however lands her in a police cell where she is treated quite roughly. Rather than give up, Hajiya Altine goes further to obtain a court injunction to try to stop the marriage, but this brings her face-to-face with traditional authority, which she dares not disobey.

When all seems hopeless, it is Hajiya Altine’s heart-rending encounter with VVF that shines the light for Gambo Mahauci, brings out the father in him and gives him the courage to confront Sarkin Fawa. This, coupled with recent developments in the Hakimi’s household, brings about a change of attitude that wipes the smug smile from Sarkin Fawa’s face and rescues Nafisa from imminent emotional and physical torture.

REDIFINING MOMENTS IN KANNYWOOD

2009-02-16T01:21:00.001-08:00

REDIFINING MOMENTS
THE TEXT OF A SPEECH DELIVERED BY SANI MU’AZU, NATIONAL PRESIDENT, MOPPAN AT THE DOP WORKSHOP ON MONDAY 9TH FEBRUARY, 2009 AT ALLIANCE FRANCAISE KANO

Protocol,
Gentlemen of the Press,

It gives me a great pleasure and a sense of accomplishment to welcome you to another training program on Cinematography and Lighting technique for Directors of photography (DOP’s), this time around in Kano Nigeria. This workshop is timely and unique because it comes at an auspicious moment, a redefining moment when stakeholders in the Hausa Film Industry were forced to search their souls just as Governments at various levels are coming to terms with the relevance of the industry to socio-cultural development. It is also a time when talks about professionalizing the practice of film both as an art and science is on the front burner of discourse at both national and local levels.

This workshop is the sixth in a consistent professional collaboration between MOPPAN and the French Embassy which started in 2004 when a premier workshop tagged “Acting for the camera” was organized here in Kano. Other training programs in this series are; Producers/ Directors Workshop - Kano-2004, Sound for film with Fredrick Noy – Jos – 2005, Digital Film Editing – at NTA Television College Jos- 2005 and last year, a Sound Mixing Workshop at Lenscope Media Studios in Jos.

Under this collaboration between MOPPAN and the French Embassy, more than one hundred Hausa Filmmakers benefited with high level training provided by experts mainly from France like Mr Fredrick Noy, Mr Vincent Hazard and now Mr Forrest as well as several local resource persons. We are therefore very grateful on this, as we pledge a total commitment to continue to work with the French Embassy and other development partners to develop the film industry.

KANO CENSORS BOARD AND MOPPAN
This is also a solid platform upon which to announce to you all a renewed commitment between MOPPAN and Kano Censors Board borne out of a common understanding and concern for the state of the Film industry here in Kano for the last two years or so. This concern had resulted in a myriad of litigations and unnecessary legal battles that are derailing us from fundamental issues affecting the growth of Film. We had dissipated so much energy and resources disagreeing on the basic definition of a method best suited to sanitize our industry. Intra wrangling negates purpose and redirect energies to the wrong direction. Instead of working to complement each other, friends on a common journey turned to foes. Understanding is replaced with mutual suspicion and total disregard to constituted authority. This must not be allowed to continue.

Luckily, we had always agreed that the industry is in dire need of intervention and sanity in the following areas; Professional conduct, training and retraining, utility of standard facilities, a focused and purposeful film culture, positive cultural exposition and proper positioning of film as a change tool for societal growth and moral rearmament. For this high level intervention to be effective and efficient, both the Kano Censors Board and MOPPAN have clear roles to play. While the Board is created by the law and armed with enforcement apparatus, MOPPAN sets the codes of practice for different guilds and associations and benchmarks for conformity to these codes. MOPPAN is also tailored to carry the crusade beyond Kano to other parts of the country. Collaboration between these two bodies is therefore necessary to ensure purposeful growth and development of the film industry.

It is in realization of this hard fact and in abeyance to our responsibilities to our different stakeholders that we allowed reason to prevail. Last week at the Federal High Court in Kano, MOPPAN lawyers announced our good intentions to discontinue all cases pending in different court rooms against the Kano Censors Board and give room to start working in harmony, together as we should, for the benefit of all.

THE FUTURE FOR KANNYWOOD
Collaboration between these two agencies, Kano Censors Board – a governmental organization and Motion picture practitioners Association of Nigeria MOPPAN, a nongovernmental organization can be the opening of new vistas and a beginning of being relevant in our common bid to use film production to make our society better. We believe also the collaboration will redefine Hausa films from a collection of bad remakes of Indian films to a cultural base for setting the agenda for an Islamic Hausa society. Hausa films when properly done will make a veritable display showcase through which Hausa culture will be better seen and appreciated the world over. We have argued in the past that Film or Motion picture is a very powerful medium, but whatever is not understood cannot be controlled and whatever cannot be controlled will be more of a source of danger than a source of power. We are therefore hopeful that the Board and MOPPAN will work out a new code of practice for the Hausa film industry that will reaffirm a mutually agreed belief that entertainment for the sake of entertainment is a luxury that a Muslim society cannot afford. As an industry, and in agreement with the larger society, our collaboration will try to determine strategic and tactical social goals that we want to use our stories to achieve. This is a redefining moment for the Hausa film industry.
Finally, we wish to draw a reference with the French Embassy in Nigeria and its consistency in working with MOPPAN for this several years, to show that our collaboration with the Board will succeed too for a long time to come. After all, we serve the same society, aim for the same ideals and will worry the same if our values are threatened.
We thank you for being here.

Sani Mu’azu
National President
MOPPAN

HAFSAH

2008-07-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

HAFSAH

A FILM REVIEW BY
M. A. SALIHU
awwalusalihu@yahoo.co.uk

CAST:
HAFSAH: Zainab Idris
FAISAL: Ali Nuhu
JANGWADA: Nura Husseini
LINDA: Hauwa Ali Dodo
MANAGER: Tanimu Akawu

SCREENPLAY: Sani Mu’azu
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Sani Mu’azu

DURATION: 90 Minutes

Preamble
A film company, Lenscope Media, with support from the BBC World service Trust, produced a feature film in Hausa, about ninety minutes in length with English subtitles, which attempted to illustrate the interrelated nature of cultural discrimination against some members of our society, specifically lepers, with contemporary issues on discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS. This simple technique of story presentation is imbedded in a technically deep ambitious film called ‘HAFSAH’. Opening with a young woman being chased by hoodlums into the ghetto side of town, it ultimately ends with the same woman staging a successful concert on HIV amidst thunderous applause by the crowd. The story is a sort of lift from the age-old rags to riches template.

Hafsah and Hausa Film Culture
‘HAFSAH’ is an object lesson in African filmmaking and to Hausa filmmaking genre, a re-definition to give it proper perspective. Tightly produced, it sucks the viewer to consider the power of the narrative to express a way of thinking about discrimination and society. It encapsulates Hausa literature, history, sociology, psychology, music and stagecraft and considers how scale operates in the world of northern Nigerian cultures, how seeing and understanding our norms and values from the next largest or next smallest vintage point broadens our perspective and deepens our understanding.

Approach
The idea of social growth, or the effect of comparison by ‘showing how it was’ metaphorically ebbs and flows through shifts in culture, the politic of each generation subtly altering as a generation rally against the beliefs and ideals held by those immediately preceding them. ‘HAFSAH’ is a portrait of filmmaking to the extent that it reflects certain shifts within broader Hausa culture, from the rise of the Late Bala Miller highlife’s pop music ‘zo muje garin kano, harka Alhazai’ to the renewed Hip hop pop format ‘Daya, biyu ukulle’. The story equally reflects the accelerated blurring of the Hausa stagecraft values and social boundaries by urban pop culture. The investigative spirit of the film collides with this contemporary music development, while its non-linear film technique utilizes the giddy pace of modernity as a comparative tool. Unraveling the multitude of images that slide through our consciousness on a daily basis, the filmmaker chose to adapt existing traditional forms of Hausa entertainment like ‘kidan duma and kalangu’ now found only in remote areas as means for intellectual and emotional exchange. It is an activity that gives regard to the philosophy of ‘knowing where one came from’ against the bankrupt notion of ‘moving with the trend and time’. Rather than drown under the sea of manufactured ideas, it is perhaps an attempt to re-order the fit of the world, a brilliant attempt to muddy the waters of changing times through backward integration.

Thematic Exposition
Removed from ‘the need to sell product’ making Hausa filmmakers of Kannywood parody Indian/Bollywood films, HAFSAH is a story reconfigured as a contemporary narrative device. Singing and dance are employed long before the visual settles on the retina, cutting through the red tape of communication to show an expansive and rich film in Hausa that can be as referential and descriptive of the world as visual imagery. It is a recent feat by the famous producers’ (Sani Mu’azu) diffident style, which exploded the fragile construct of the traditional Hausa film genre. The influence of the experience of the filmmaker is also evident in the encyclopaediacal desire to make connections between people, places and practices. Rather than didactic bound performance to camera, the artist chose to present past cultures as panacea for real life challenges on-screen. Yet, perceived reality is constantly checked by bombardment from plastic pop youth culture and European football to the kind of twisted life styles that challenge psychoanalysts. Removed from the need for objective truth, lives are complicated and skewed in an attempt to define new relations to given situations. Film in this sense is never straightforward. Many of the works in Hausa films re-sample other works as copycats, a technique that finds its parallel in HAFSAH, which views Hausa culture as original and thematically purposeful. This film jumps directly to root influence and stretch in content originality, connecting solutions from echoes of the past with the conversation of today. Simply brilliant!

Technicality
The technical production style is that of a generation at ease with the flick of the remote control, fast and mobile. In this sense HAFSAH reflects the role of the movie as a mediator for the visual imagery of the past and existing visual signs. Simply put, this film symbolize a desire to shift the focus of discussion on the use of technology in Hausa film culture one foot to the left or right of the main picture in the international art-space.

Ali Nuhu
Moving from the momentary high energy of the mundane macossa dance steps of the Ali Nuhu that we used to know, HAFSAH reveals the twilight existence of deeper latent talent in the actor. As fluorescent lights flicker into life, we are privy to a new world of this highly creative and versatile actor with coordinated choreographed chain-swilled traditional dance steps by a freshly new Ali Nuhu, making the viewer to do nothing but get impressed.

Zainab Idris
Zainab Idris on the other hand emerges from a first-class acting-class recounts in songs, with her alternating roles as both agony wife and zip fixer to a group of lepers. In HAFSAH, Zainab presents the lonely life of the mind invigilator with so much to hide. Contradicting suspense and endless corridors provide a backdrop for a vocal tale of barely concealed boredom and unsettling paranoia. Wistful close-up shots suggest dreams of escape. Eschewing glamour for ordinariness, Zainab presents centre stage the thoughts and deeds of people living with HIV with no peripheral cultural support.

Nura Husseini
The narrative-driven movie exposes the new discovery of Nura Husseini. Filmed in real time, Nura punctuate the calm still of the sober template of this moving movie. His character is that of denial and unimaginative desire, or a dark satire on the dead end job. He portrays a beguiling take upon the ordinariness of the rural man with descriptive defiance and hopelessness.

Sani Mu’azu
Sani Mu’azu combines the heritage of social realist film with the brooding lyrics of a Nigerian filmmaker from the north to create a thoroughly modern broad-way flick for the movie enthusiast. Mu’azu makes HAFSAH buzz with the malevolent energy from an Alfred Hitchcock movie – imagine ‘bird on a wire’ to Kwa Ansah’s African symbolisms – ‘Love brewed in an African Pot’. Shot mainly on a stage with a dance troupe, the film is predicated with a sense of desperate isolation from the run-of-the-mill to stand alone and tall among African film works. Mu’azu’s vision is of an unsettling automated world that awaits human inhabitation, silent monoliths created to fulfil the inherent desire to excel.

Directing
The Director of HAFSAH makes an attempt to decode the hidden order on the pulse of filmmaking, a journey that reflects the mix of modernity and tradition in contemporary Nigeria. As the camera skims the surface of the subject matter, it settles upon the other pavement, searching the cracks for messages and their hidden meanings. Sani Mu’azu, the film Director is a man alone – a tourist fighting to make sense of his Hausaness and his environment as a filmmaker anew.

Make-up and design – excellent. Sets – realistically appropriate. Costumes – simply reflective. Casting – so believable almost to the realm of documentary exposition.

Synopsis
Hafsah is a young woman who finds shelter in a roadside hut with three women lepers who are outcasts like her, abandoned by their communities. This is very typical of the north. As the story develops, we find out that Hafsah has a talent for singing ‘maula’ and is eventually spotted by Faisal, a bandleader (a-la Bala Miller) in desperate need of a female vocalist. Hafsah joins the band, whose members don’t know where she’s from and what brought her into the city. The environment is now urban city like Kano, Kaduna or Jos. Linda (Hauwa Ali Dodo) used to be the lead singer of the band, and being jealous of Hafsah’s talent, she looks for ‘bad news’ about her… She discovers Hafsah’s HIV positive status, spills the information to an unprepared band and thus creates rejection and stigma towards Hafsah who leaves the band in anger. Faisal – already in love with her - follows her and tries to hear her story. She reluctantly tells him the story of her HIV status and husband… he was the most attractive young man in her village, she married him without knowing that he was HIV positive. (This is currently happening everyday in our communities. I have an instance to share on this, but in some other write-ups.) Denying his status, the husband and the mother-in-law kicked her out and had thugs drive her as far away from the village as possible. It seemed that only the lepers would accept her, and so to them she went and with them she dwelt.

The Resolution
Having left the band in anger, Hafsah decides to deal with her past. She realizes the need to reconcile with her estranged husband and her own family who also chased her away. The husband is now beginning to suffer from full blown AIDS. Having grown wiser with the increasing suffering, he finally agrees to Hafsah’s advice to get counseling and treatment. They find peace in separating. Faisal is waiting outside the compound… After a visit to her family, Hafsah has freed herself from stigma and rejection and is able to go back to her music career. The film ends in a moving portrayal of Hafsah giving a live performance of a song about her own life, with Linda as her supporting singer.

Hafsah is the story of a young woman’s resolve to succeed in her chosen career in spite of the rejection and contempt directed at her on the basis of her HIV status. It is about strengthening traditional family ties, a clarion call to the youths to re-sharpen their focus on culture as an industry, to believe in self worth in whatever one does and have self esteem, and how knowledge can remedy an equation of ignorance among communities. To the Hausaman worldwide, Hafsah is an ambassadorial pride as it is a sturdy study. Well done.

M. A. Salihu works with the National Broadcasting Commission Headquarters in Abuja. He is the coordinator of the premier biennial conference of African broadcasters, AFRICAST.

Hausa Film and video; New Economic Frontier

2008-07-08T06:23:00.000-07:00

Hausa Film and video;
New Economic Frontier

By Sani Mu’azu

From the agricultural age to the information age the history of human civilization has been characterized by three major revolutions, the first being the agricultural revolution. The second major revolution in human history was the industrial revolution. At the industrial revolution however, man discovered that it is possible to extract energy from inanimate objects. Thus were the development of the steam engine and other uses of hydrocarbon and other fuels.

Human history is now experiencing yet another major revolution; the information revolution characterized by great developments in digital technology which now facilitate instant communication between any two or more people located anywhere on planet earth and even much of the space beyond the earth’s atmosphere. This has led to the much talked about ‘globalization’ of our world.
Even though the information revolution can be easily located in time within the last half century, but the seeds of this revolution had been sown over a much longer period of time, characterized by the development of human speech, the development of writing, the development of the capacity to record and reproduce speech, the development of photography and of great importance, the development of motion pictures.

Of all these developments, the development of motion pictures is a unique development in the sense that it brought about the capacity to represent reality in unequaled ways. The medium of motion pictures engages our visual and auditory senses and thereby communicates to us in ways that other media cannot.

The combined effects of the power of motion pictures and the information revolution have changed our world permanently. People are now easily affected by influences from far away lands. We only need to consider the effects of Indian films and American films on the modes of dressing of young people all over the north, ‘yan Arewa, today and we shall begin to understand the combined effects of the power of motion pictures and the information revolution. This is the sense in which Hausa film and video have become the new frontier.

Crossing the frontier

A frontier is a boundary, an edge, a place of crossing. We talk of the frontier of knowledge as the dividing line between that which is understood and that which is yet to be understood. Hence, a frontier represents both hope and despair. Crossing a boundary may either open up new and exciting vistas or introduce bleak ignorance of newly acquired realities. So what sort of new frontier does Hausa film and video represent to us?

Due to the effects of modern digital technology, motion picture equipment have become more powerful, cheaper and more accessible. As a result, in the last decade or so, there has been an upsurge of activities in motion picture production in Nigeria, examples being ‘Kannywood’ or ‘Nollywood North’ of Nigeria. In Nigeria in particular, an industry of sorts is developing around these efforts. Over a thousand feature length productions are undertaken every year. These productions are sold, the investments are recouped and the producers are able to do it again and again. So if this is a new frontier, what sort of frontier does it represent? An opening of new vistas? Or an introduction into bleak ignorance of newly acquired realities?

The position I am taking in this paper is, the choice is ours. Motion picture can be the opening of new vistas or an introduction into bleak ignorance of newly acquired realities depending on the way we use it. Definitely, we have derived benefits from high volume of sales recorded at ‘Bata’ in Kano crossing borders across the desert and engaging new frontiers, and we are beginning to be relevant in our internationally famed production efforts. The establishment of the cable TV channel, Africa Magic, which is essentially programmed on Nigerian productions, is an indication that benefits are derivable even from beyond. Hausa Films are beginning to enjoy that benefit too. But we have also acquired some negative characterization.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that while many other Africans see Nigeria as a country of fetish rituals by virtue of the prevalent themes of many Nigeria productions from the south, other Nigerian see Hausa films as a collection of bad remakes of Indian ‘Bollywood’ films. Beyond anecdotal evidence however, Hausa films are the most terrible among films on the aspirations of Nigeria’s different nationalities. Our films are neither Hausa in all intents and purposes, nor are they Islamic films. Reason why they attract public outcries and outward rejection by the very nationalities they are suppose to represent intermittently. Hausa films cannot be compared to Yoruba films in terms of cultural positioning as Yoruba films are Yoruba in nature. They cannot be compared to Igbo films or Anglicised Igbo films. These films are essentially films with ‘I must arrive – no matter how’ themes or basically Christianity films in content and exposition. What is the agenda of the Hausa film?

Understanding our medium

The pertinent question therefore is how we can turn motion picture production in Hausa language into the opening of new vistas rather than an introduction into bleak ignorance of newly acquired realities.

The first step is to ensure that we fully understand the medium in which we are working. Motion picture is a very powerful medium, but whatever is not understood cannot be controlled and whatever cannot be controlled will be more of a source of danger than a source of power.

The democratization of production technology is great advantage to us and it is desirable, but ownership of an ‘alkalami and tawada’ does not necessarily make someone ‘malami’. Owning a great voice does not automatically give you the ability to recite the holy Qur’an by heart. Compelling storytelling in motion picture demands skills in both the art and the techniques of filmmaking, and for most of us these have to be learnt. We are not likely to go far with the pedestrian efforts that we sometimes make and then argue is the Hausa ‘Hausawa’ way of doing things. Such ways are not likely to yield much if they do not take account of the already systematized techniques of filmmaking.

Having acquired deep understanding of our medium, we then need to consider what we intend to use it for. We are not likely to profit much from the medium if we leave our storytelling to chance subjects derived mainly from Bollywood. We must be motivated and propelled by our prevailing circumstances as a people, as Hausawa and Muslims. From the great exploits of our forefathers to the soft engaging voices of our grandmothers telling us ‘tatsuniya’ or moonlight stories, lies a huge reservoir of knowledge to tap from. Then the big one is, we are a Muslim society. Entertainment for entertainments sake is a luxury that the Muslim world cannot afford.

As an industry, and in agreement with the larger society, we need to determine strategic and tactical social goals that we want to use our stories to achieve. Furthermore, our governments need to realize the power of the medium as means of galvanizing development efforts and also presenting ourselves to the outside world. Recently, the Maryam Hiyana incident indicated how government agencies, particularly the Kano State Government can take us seriously. Apart from the ‘A daidaita sahu’ socio-cultural intervention that makes positive overtures to Hausa filmmakers even before the Hiyana incidence, a process of reorganizing the industry by the Kano Censors board is quite in line. It is hoped that through these cooperative efforts in Kano, the ‘Arewa’ film Industry will derive some of the latent benefits of having such a vibrant production industry. I must however caution quickly here, that the assumption that a pornographic Hausa film was made, in the Maryam Hiyana infamous case, is NOT TRUE. Technology is making films to be viewed on cell phones today, but filmmaking must be seen and defined on professional terms as a process involving a whole lot of people, cast and crew. No any Hausa film practitioner had made a blue film ‘Wa iyazu billahi’. We, Hausa-Fulani and other nationalities of Arewa, as a people and as Muslims, are too morally upright to make blue films. We therefore wish to call on Kano state government, through the state Censors Board to stop punishing us for a crime we have not committed. Kindly allow us to put up ethical and other professional structures, and continue making films relevant to our culture and religion.

Apart from understanding the medium and directing our products to strategic and tactical ends, we need to take account of the rapid changes taking place around us.

The landscape

Hausa film as a product is not afforded the protection it had in the past. Copyright and intellectual rights generally are not as easily enforceable as they were in the past. The technology is changing at such a pace that, from a tangible product of a certain physical nature, projected on a particular 16 or 35 mm projector in a particular place, now we have digital bits that are downloadable or swappable or are being broadcast on Digital satellite TV or being swapped over broadband internet connections: digital bits floating about in the ether or the sky. How can our governments protect us from products distributed in this mode and form? How can they protect our products from this changing landscape? Instead of engaging in reforms that can kill our creative abilities, we need to understand and engage this changing landscape.

The product

Our product is also a hybrid of this change. It has changed from an Indian filmic experience projected from celluloid by a large projector onto a large Screen in a particular room in a particular town and only a limited scale. Or from the Indian films shown almost on a daily basis on television channels like NTA and CTV without any institutional censorship on its likely impact on the mind of the youths. We now make digital films. Our products are now distributed on peer-to-peer networks and can be projected on mobile phones in small mpeg or mp4 files.

Our strategies for coping with the changing landscape and market have to come out of engaging the new technologies and evolving new and appropriate products for the end user. The times are changing fast. We used video for our immediate purposes and as the technology has improved we have found even Hollywood has come round to our way of doing things. We need to sustain this level of proactive thinking.

The market

The product we sell is sold mainly in Kano. It is for that reason that while we are accepting challenges pose by the Kano censors board in good faith, the board must also relate with us in like manner because, our market is changing fast.

Kano film marketers need to open the market up in other distant places. It is common knowledge that the Kano market is like an omblical cord with tentacles spread across the whole of the African continent. We need to sell Hausa films to the Igbo-man, to the Yoruba-man, to other Nigerians, and to the whole of Africa. Our product is shown at our local Cinemas, they can be shown internationally at digital Cinemas, on satellite and terrestrial TVs, and of course, in living rooms as DVDs, VCDs, instantly burnable, instantly rip-able and digitally reproducible. We need to anticipate the emerging market.
The methods

As an industry propelled mainly by individual enterprise and without support from any governments or mega-financial institutions, our experience has been such that we have had to make do generally with available resources. Hausa films have used found technology: cheap digital video cameras, computer applications in motion picture production to cut budget and production cycle.

To survive we have used alternatives to current models of financing in the Western world and we have had to use our sweat and blood to develop and finish projects with a degree of creativity that would task the most hard working and creative western filmmaker. Among the over one thousand titles produced in Nigeria annually, according to the National Film and Video Censors Board, Hausa filmmakers make more than 35% of that, or an average of one film per day, more than 360 films a year. Out of the over 50 billion naira worth of investment in the Nigerian film sub sector of the economy as indicated by the federal ministry of finance, Hausa films make 35% of that or over 17 billion naira of investment. Out of the over 14,000 employment opportunities created by the industry in Nigeria, Hausa films employs over 5600 young people on a permanent engagement bases.

Stifling film production in the north for six months had caused us about 9 billion naira of investment, putting more than 5000 people out of job, with a ripple effect on families and other dependants too numerous to mention.

On our part as an industry, we must however accept and acknowledge that to compete globally and to make products that will be morally upright, culturally a source of pride and religiously uplifting, we must improve our standards. We must find ways of raising funds that are not short term, we must find funds that do not compromise our creativity and we must find funds that will allow us to develop both as a people and an industry.
Alternative strategies must also be developed for our circumstances: we must aim to tap from other sources outside the now traditional vcd’s and dvd’s.
The digital age of filmmaking

To survive the digital age of filmmaking, we need access to training and re-training in the new techniques and technologies that are ever evolving and we need access to standard production and post-production facilities. We cannot continue to do things the old ways, the Hausa ways. We need to respond to the times. We also need access to funding to finance our productions and a modern marketing platform to sell them.

Finally, we need access to markets outside Nigeria and outside Africa. On one hand, access to markets outside Nigeria and outside Africa widens our income possibilities and thereby enhances the chances of profitability. On the hand, it is only in marketing our productions outside Africa that we can contribute positively to a fast globalizing world, in which Hausa films too have a stake.

In conclusion, if for us film and video as the new frontier is to be the opening of new vistas rather than an introduction into bleak ignorance of newly acquired realities we need to do more than we are now doing. We need a think-tank for the Hausa film industry. A think-tank that will know that we make over 360 films annually in Nigeria. That will know Hausa films are worth more than 17 billion naira in investment. That will know that we create employment opportunities in Nigeria to over 5600 young people on a permanent basis. A think-tank that will make us to be more organized and more proactive. We need the cooperation of Kano state government and the larger society.
Thank you for the opportunity.

Sani Mu’azu
MD/CEO
Lenscope Media
Sanijos2@yahoo.com