Africa in Pictures
A sneak peak behind the scenes of Nollywood.
Commentary
Discussing cellphone filmmaking in Africa
Tutorial
Character development with Oladipo Agboluaje
With Tunde Kelani
Kelani talks about his new film, Arugba.
On Mark of Uru
A look at an inspiring Nigerian animation.
With Emeka Mba
Director of NFVCB speaks on regulation.
Spotlight Uganda
Kamya on her award wining film, Imani.
> Screenshot from The Figurine
> The Figurine movie poster
> Behind the scenes of The Figurine
Creating a Trailer was another good approach as we enticed the audience, leaving them wanting more of The Figurine. We also made some money back through this.
And another very important strategy was Word of Mouth.
Your films –The Figurine and Irapada – seem to possess a strong spiritual theme, as well as both of them being thrillers. Is this a theme/genre you feel attached to? What would you define as your filmmaking style?
I am yet to still discover myself as a filmmaker and so I tend to run with what comes to mind. One thing that I have always wanted in my films was to create and maintain a strong feeling of Africa throughout.
And as much as this is important in my films, it is also very much about entertaining people. People like to be amused and so my films provide this through creating situations that leave a lot to the audience imagination.
It is about knowing what you want from the beginning – I remember I was working on another script and a friend asked me, what do you want from this script and I said, I want people to cry! (Laugh)
But in all this, selling novelty to the world is what keeps the audience interested. They don’t want to see the same thing over and over again.
What makes a good film? Which film (s) have inspired you?
Quality makes a good film. For a film to work very well, the use of good music, lighting, pace, the set for the film is all as important as the script and cinematography.
Apocolypto is one film that really inspired me. Right now Mel Gibson is the best director, as far as I am concerned.
I mean in both his films, Apocolypto and The Passion of the Christ, English is not the spoken language and yet he still managed to hold the audience.
How important is it to be a businessman, while being a filmmaker in the African Film Industry?
As a filmmaker from Nigeria, it is important to be a businessperson. Unlike the usual way of doing things, we had to do the work on the business proposals for the sponsorships from our home, while having to juggle the creative and technical aspect of making The Figurine.
With the proposals, it was about taking their concerns and finding a way to fit it to our project.
I am really working towards reviving the cinema culture in Nigeria. We cannot have DVD’s as the only form of screening and distributing within the country.
Going to the cinema is a culture, which we need to encourage more of.
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>Director/Actor Kunle Afolayan and co-actor Ramsey Nouah in The Figurine
Interview by Chinaka Iwunze
Kunle Afolayan takes us deeper into his latest film, The Figurine
