It is indeed a great pleasure for me to be here, my first impression is when I entered the hall, the first thing I noticed minus one, two, three about a dozen exception are young people and am excited, suddenly I realized that am going to be facing the next generation of Nigerians. Once again it is a great delight for me to be here and I want to assure u that we have had our own share of adventures getting here.
First of all, we anticipated that there will be a lot of traffic from out of Lagos so we decided to try lekki, lekki into Epe, Epe into Ijebu ode and to Ibadan and we went through a tropical storm and finally got to Ibadan around 4’o clock and stared from cultural center to get here we spend two hours to get here, infact more than two hours. Infact very exciting in Ibadan, when I received the invitation to be here, I didn’t know what to do, because let me confess to you, its been a lot of ideas especially about our nation Nigeria and I thought what more do we need? Probably we don’t need there is nothing for me to add because all the intellectuals, all the philosophers have offered their own ideas and I thought what could I possibly contribute,but this I had with opportunity to visit IT in a workshop and my impression change and I made up my mind to be here, because you know IT is very close to the United States of America, and flying from Miami; first of all into Atlanta and then Miami and on approach into IT, I felt a jolt and I thought, ‘wow! This is Ajegunle (you know) and once we were on the ground, I really knew this is another Nigeria. But my experience shows that it was worse than Nigeria and suddenly I felt we have to put our heads together and fight to ensure that Nigeria does not end up like this. so as a film maker, I thought this is an opportunity to show you a film and through this film we will have ideas, so I think you should sit back and enjoy the film........................
I don’t know anything about child survival but then they sent me the United Nation Report about the state of things like this and it is about 50 pages and generally it just described the situation of child survival, women mortality and things like that and one thing that got my attention was that 5 African countries has actually managed to make some progress and they have reduced child mortality and I actually went through the list of these countries and to my shock, Nigeria was not among. And if you realize that we are the giant of Africa and that we are the highest producer of oil and supposed to be in wealth. How come we are not on the list? How come the giant producers of the oil have not reduced the suffering of our people? So I got interested in this and I realize having gone into it, there are challenges ahead of us. There is a target that by 2015 Africa must have reduced child mortality and more interestingly by 2015 if Nigeria will make the list again because we all have the choices, we all have to make sure this is a priority, make it a priority to join. This task to making sure – see we cannot get the figure, the figure by united state is that everyday 16,000 children will die in Africa. That is, before the end of today, 16,000 children will died of preventable disease in Africa and am sure considerable percentage of this death would have been Nigerians and a countries greatness is not measured by his wealth it is not how many millions of barrels of oil we produce everyday but by its development in terms of the future about the children that constitute the next generation. You would know that will determine a county’s true wealth.
Now if we now go to the story itself, we realize that of course the power of the media(am a film maker ) is that we have the ability to tell our own stories ourselves rather than leave it for other people to tell the story for us. Therefore, it is a great strength that we use and I support that everyday if we break it down in our daily task, we can do the same. If we now go into the story of Jimmy Bello (in the film that was shown) who has lost a child as a result of, he gone to the village and didn’t know his child was playing with contaminated water and he lost the son and any case he was getting over it when he was given the responsibility to go to Ghana and get a contract.(it is about money) to make sure he secure the contract in Ghana who has discovered oil and he has prepared a speech because he’s an expert but then on his mind he could not forget his loss, his loss of a child. And then he had the opportunity/chance to visit a village, through his chance, meeting with a prostitute who was an undergraduate who was also raising a child. he found out it was the same all over Africa that people don’t have simple drinking water, no electricity and all that. At that point, he decided to make a change, he decided to intervene personally, he choose that moment because his life has change from that moment on and I think that is what is going to happen to people, all of us because we believe there will be a miracle that Nigeria will turn around by itself, that the government will do it. (we now know that the government will not do it) infact, I thought that if we got ourselves together and our coordinator here and we pay the house of Assembly a visit and we are lucky to get their attention and they want to know why we are visiting them and we say all we want to tell you like our Lord Jesus Christ go , sell all your property and follow the Lord, they will laugh for about 3 days and they will be wondering look, you don’t know how we got here, don’t tell us that story, maybe you should go and tell the house of rep. Maybe those people will listen to you. So I have come to the conclusion that we have to start in a small way maybe from the people, maybe from there to people of like minds that make a difference to make a change, we are not going to wait for anybody or wait for a miracle, to pray about it but I think we are going to intervene personally, I think this is the kind of revolution that we have to start and we have to start with us. As you see jimmy Bello in the film, took his stand and hopefully something will come out of this so I think that we can interact on this level, you’ve seen the film and have heard little that I have to say and maybe interesting, you know if we can start some kind of discussion. Thank you very much.
We’ll take some comments
1. The film is very interesting, it’s a film I have never seen because I did know when he was starting it and we spoke a lot about it when the project was developing, but I had never seen the film, this is the first time I am seeing it. I know that there are many films that TK (Tunde Kelani) produces that nobody sees or very few people see in groups like this, probable see the full length pictures that are released and sold through the normal channels but this is one of another type of film he does make. What I find interesting is that this man had a personal experience and wouldn’t let it go. He wasn’t holding on to his story, but he was using it as a stepping stone for a change and it didn’t matter to him that it was not his village, it didn’t matter it wasn’t his town, state or country, its now another country, he was sent by his own county to go and establish a foothold growing oil industry in Ghana, but he saw something a lot more interesting, a lot more important, a lot more urgent than making money and he felt this has to take his attention and it is interesting that these are things we never thought about when we are dealing with oil. I was a much younger fellow when Nigeria struck oil and I remember clearly headlines in daily times said money is no more our problem but how to spend it. This was what our former head of state said, (General Yakubu Gowon) when we struck oil, he said money was no more our problem but how to spend it. In my life time I now know that it was true that it’s a problem that we didn’t know how to spend it, maybe what we need to do like Bello said is we go back and look over our life in slow motion. And I think that is what we have been called upon to look at our life in slow motion so we can see it frame by frame and be able to take account and put our particular attention on some of the things that we don’t see when we see 24 frame, 25 frame in a second, we need to recourse and retrace our steps and determine new direction.
Second Person: it is a pleasure to finally meet TK, I have 2 questions:
1. in what language do you dream?
2. when did you decide to embrace this? because I know you did not start all like this. Because identify is very crucial since you mentioned earlier in your address that telling our stories ourselves is very important thing in this dialogue where media from all over the world is ready to tell your story the way you don’t like.
Thank you.
ANSWER (TK)
Well, I wonder if people dreamt like me, I dream every day and my attitude to dreams, some people are really scared and they worry about dream, I enjoy my dream because to me they are free cinema shows and it’s so interesting and wonderful phenomena and it has it journey it could be horror dream, you could have love dreams, you can have action dreams and all this is for free and I wonder sometimes they are monochromatic, they are black and white but you could have colored you know once in a while and when I was younger, I use to try if I wake up in the middle of a very interesting dream, I tried to go back to sleep if I would come back and continue it but it never really happens and its very strange b'cos I never tried to notice what language that are spoken in the dream, its just like the movies, some are in English, some are in Yoruba language so it just happens, it depends on several experience and our day to day life and I believe dreams are just an extension of our brain activities and all that. It depend on a thing called cultural interpretation, because people wonder if you are offered food, drinks in your dream, will you take, if you take it what does it mean? To me it means really nothing you better enjoy it anyway that’s apart from the dreams.
Then you said when did I change? The thing is I have never changed, I was raised on the Fagunwa as soon as I was able to read and write that was my first contact with literature and then I was brought up in the community although I was born in Lagos and at the age of 5 I had to come to Abeokuta, my father just sent or he decided once you are 5 years old you have to go to Abeokuta and leave in the family compound with their grandfather and I became very close to the Yoruba culture and we started education in the Yoruba language, you know, Yoruba literature before we stared to learn English and I suspect that having been brought up in the culture, there is no way you can leave it, I think through my secondary school, they tried to make us civilized people by trying to ban us from speaking Yoruba language but I had enough Yoruba in me that would be the foundation to any thing that I did, although I spend 2 years in London, I had to rush back quickly before I was contaminated in that since I have no grudge against western clothing but in my youth I’ve been dressed in suit and tie but I’ve since regretted and I’ve since apologized for wearing those things. I think that the greatest gift that I have got from God is my culture and my people and my environment and I realized that my strength is in my own and I just need to learn the media, technology to preserve and to promote and to present what God has given us. I mean that, I cannot be apologetic about that, that’s a mission which I have come to realize and my small regret is I have not really done enough so I still want to do a lot more. Thank you.
Third Person: Good evening sir, I have a comment and a question, my comment is about the guy, I notice he had a mind set that he wanted to change something and when he got to Ghana, he had to put himself in their own mind set, that was why he had to go to the village to see what was happening but he needed a link to the village which was that lady and she introduces herself saying this you put her off not knowing she will be the link to where the guy was going so we need to learn to relate with every body no matter where they are coming from, they might be the link to where we are going. That is my own lesson.
My question is this- Where are you coming from? Most of us we often see people that are well made and we are out to be like them not finding or looking for where they are coming from, what they have passed through because that will really help us to where we are going. Because when I know that person has gone through this and am going through it , then it gives me a kind of strength that once the man has overcome this huddle I will surely do it. So where are you coming from and what are are the obstacles you faced? What are the setbacks? What make you think I don’t want to do this anymore, am going to quit but yet you just woke up and you just like am still going to go on. Thank you.
ANSWER
Well very difficult question, but let’s talk about the link first. I think that the opportunity for me to make this film is a kind of a link also for me to discover, it was Education. I can tell you because previously I wasn’t aware of issue though in previous film I have made I’ve been concerned about our women and I felt that our women were under represented. So I’ve been preoccupied in my own way rather subconsciously about women and I never really thought about children until this opportunity came and during the production of this film, I learnt quite a lot about Africa, we are more or less in the same boat, it was meant to be Ghana and the first thing I learnt about Ghana is to know that Ghana had oil and I’ve heard from my own research that Ghana planned to use all the oil money for Ghana development. They are not going to put it in their economy, they are just going to continue like that and all the proceeds from oil will be used, just set aside for Ghana’s development. And this is what I believe and of course when I got to Ghana and decided to discuss, I told them what, picked up and my shock was that people said where you read that please. Forget it, we are on the ground and Ghana’s income is not going to be used for any development, it going to be end up shared so I know Africa’s problem is the same. I’ve had the opportunity to assembly both past and crew from Nigeria, Benin Republic and Ghana and have to travel by road to Ghana and of cos once you travel by road you can see all those places is not better than Nigeria. Infact in some cases worse off than Nigeria, So now in getting to Ghana, we found that and believe you me, this village is just 20 or 50km from Accra and these days every body want to go to Accra even though you are going to start a new business, people will say don’t waste your time in Nigeria to Ghana/Accra. Believe you me, this village is 30km from Accra and didn’t having running water. That was the same water they drank, birth in, and fetch and didn’t have electricity so I realize that this is the same problem we have in Nigeria and now by extension all over Africa.
And as far as what keeps me going…..if you see the kind of the things I have made, they include social issues, maybe some bit of political issues in them, and it would be absolutely irresponsible of me as a film maker to close my eyes to these things because theses are the things I see everyday if I came out of my house, these are the kind of things that stared me in the face, so I dint believe that I could ignore all these things. As to what kept me going, I don’t want to be like any body else, I just want to be me, am just following my own intuition doing my own thing and I’ve been very, very patient and I think that it is the same. If u make quick money, bur if u make money after you have done something over a period of time, I think that is even better, so am really patient person, am not influenced in anyway, am immune to almost everybody, I have a feeling am just to do what is right.
Forth Person
Good evening sir, it’s a rear opportunity to be here with you this evening. First I want to commend your work, I have seen a lot of movies in Nigeria, and I want to say you have virtually the best. Secondly I have a comment, I went to the internet one day and I was browsing, I didn’t know what came upon me, I saw this thing on the internet, it was like a happiness pool all over the world and I was shocked to find that Nigerians were the happiest people, number one in spite of malaria, diarrhea and all those rubbish that white people say about us. Am proud to be a Nigerian and I can say it anywhere.
Now I have a question, I saw a movie last week in pursuit of happiness and there was this kid Christopher, I was taken back with the training that little boy had to feature in the movie of that caliber and with Willis smith- his father. That little boy cannot be more than 5 years or at the most 8 years. I want to ask, do you have something like a training for people in the grass root probably let me use the word drama b'cos I know you are into film making. Do you have something like a school or a link for people who want to get into film making production or drama?
ANSWER
Well I think you should ask my brother here- Tunde Adegbola because we actually attempted to start what we called the Mainframe institute to our shock, the response was so overwhelming that we could attempt it once before we now shelve the idea. And we thought that we would be able to do it as an NGO if we are able to register an NGO and perhaps we should do it with affiliation with a university or a polytechnic and let them do the administrative part of it and we would take it up but what I still desire is to set up some kind of film clinic which will be residential and where we can take all the young people, old and really motivate them and go along that line or start new series of T.V series, maybe the Yoruba language and culture, get young people and show them what to do and then get them going, these are dreams I really have but I want it to be in such a way that am still very active, am on the field, I don’t want it to disturb that, but am willing to do it in collaboration with people who of course we have a stake in this and maybe ideally, I would within the next 2 or 3 years I will see this into reality with the support and help of everybody including mine whether Tunde Adegbola who has absconded temporarily.
Fifth Person
I feel very privileged b'cos I actually know the celebrity, I have seen him many times and each time I saw him, am almost like being with Mandela, really really inspiring. What really inspire me about TK is that you watch his film and he is using that platform to give out his message. It is not like all these Nollywoods stories that they just slapped at and just make quick money. And I think for us all what I have learnt from him and people like him is whatever platform we have, whatever position we are in we can use it to make a difference and like that guy, we have to stop and think, your life must count for something. You must believe in something you know. If you don’t stand for anything, you will fall for everything and I think as young people, and this is the time to dream big dreams and to change the world. And I think each one of us must leave this place with a choice, life is about choices, am making a choice that I am going to make a difference. Nobody is going to improve Nigeria for us, each one of us can make a difference and Nigeria will be grateful. Thanks TK
Sixth Person:
I feel so shaky standing and asking this question but I will ask, like few years back, that was what I was saying when you were coming in, I said from what I have seen, marketers in Nigeria are actually the people that are cutting the shot to making films, when you go to them, they would want to tell you who and who must be in the movie, they want to tell you what the story has to be like because they are the ones that want to fund it. Sir from where we are taking it from, standing to believing in something for those of us that are just coming up into the film industry, Sir how will the state that Nigeria is in – how do we start, what is our hope? Am encouraged, am not saying boasting because I said that years ago that I will never join these marketers, am not going to compromise my stories and thank God we’ve run 2 seasons of my own stories on Africa magic and it was actually what I believed in that we have done, but my fear now is recently like I sent a text to pastor that am depressed I don’t feel like continuing, I feel like giving up because the fear of if we this, how are we going to go about it. The fear of pushing on/forward, it’s actually what is bothering me. How are we going to do it, we are young, we are coming up, of course when you come in you said you have come to hand over, am proud am number one of the people you are handing over to. I really want to know how we are going to put our feet down and there will be strength to really stay there.
Coordinator: can I add one more question? How do you balance bringing out a message like this and serving in a country like this?
ANSWER
Well, let me tell you my relationship with markers, of course we needed marketers at the beginning but it wasn’t long I realized that marketers are like devils and since then we, from day one, we never took funds from marketers so they are not in the position to dictate to us. We did not send creative control because we did not take the fund from marketers and then we are bargaing for strength, there was a time is we are going to relaease a movie, we will ask them to apply to be our distributors/marketers and they would apply. And then I had a consultant and he would interview them and after interviewing them he will now short list them to maybe like 2 and we would ask them whoever is going to deposit certain amount of money. And it went on like that. Of course you know that we didn’t believe in the star system, in Mainframe we were able to shift attention from the so called star actually to the producers, I told them we had an intelligent audience who know what is good and what is not good and have not only continue to support but they have complimented us on occasion. I think the greatest compliment that we received was from a man who said if he bought Mainframe new film and he took it home and after dinner he called the whole family together and they put it in the machine and they started playing it for 15mins, if it was just blank, they will continue to watch it and after 30mins it it was still blank, they will watch it for maybe 1hr then they will decide this is the new style from Mainframe. He might have exaggerated it but it meant a lot to me, what it meant to me is that people are actually responding to these things, forget about now, at the beginning, we had consultant who prepare the cash flow and all these things apparently after a few years, it wasn’t looking right- something was wrong here and he was also complaining that you are not thinking like business people. in order words, you should have bored the others, you have the capacity to make this film like them. You can make this film on a monthly basis because you have the resources to do so but for me, it want possible because I have thought about the same, about artist who just have their canvas and their colours why don’t they paint these masterpiece every week or month? It means there is a lot of responsibility attached to this that if we wanted. If we are concerned truly and then money would probably not be your motivation first. But I envy you today, especially the new generation because; you have everything that you need. Because when we were starting out, and to start a new business, you probably need more than a hundred pounds sterling to get into business. But its so interesting because am going to tip you and see if you know about Rodd……. Who made it…… I think you should go and learn from him. Not only that he went as far as to say he can teach you to make film in 10 minutes, infact, he runs regular courses. Because you have this wonderful technology you can make a film, edit it, add your grapgics, animations sound. Then you can put it on You Tube. That means today you can share what you have done to the world. I think that you can define, you’ve to carve and nook for yourself. You have to determine this is what I like to do and I am willing to be patient, I am going to work hard at it, I am going to get better and better b'cos I have everything that I need.
I have the stories, my culture, my people. I have something to say, I have a story to tell, and its quite interesting when you get going. I can share some of my experiences with you because like Tunde Adegbola said that some of the films that were made nobody gets to see them because thay are not yet commercialized in any sense, they are very short film and nobody want to buy short films. But I give you an example- when you mention African magic, there was a time it didn’t have any outlet. Outside our Nigerian market, there was no where our films got seen, until they started African Magic. And previously we were making for Mnet. Mnet were doing new directorate in Africa and when they extended this to Nigeria, they sent two rolls of films to be tested and immediately attacked Bayo Adegbola’s book- the again and again I worked for adoption b'cos I believe in literature. Of course I found a connection between literature and cinema. And I’ve been fascinated by our writers literary resource. So I ask Akinbisola to quickly write an 8 manuscript from this book b'cos we had the chance to do it. And all of us went on vacation for 3 or 4 days. My wife, family…. Everybody I could gather to shot this film. I have spent everybody’s salary on this Mainframe. b'cos at that time I belive we spent about 300 thousand and we didn’t have a clue on when we are going to make the money back. But the lesson about it is of course they shipped it to South Africa to process this film. And they were shoked that it was meant to be a camera test. How comes it’s a film. They talked to me about it and asked me how I planned to finish the film and I said I had no idea. I can afford it, so they said listen, So the consulting producer brought out a contract he just drafted and said this is this and in 2 years, this film will be reverted to and all that. In all case, I didn’t care. O the film now was called the “white handkerchief” and it was a success. It was put on Mnet and everybody saw it. And we made a couple more- twice of the rain forest a place called home, baba’s wisdom, mama put and all that. But it’s interesting because suddenly after 2 years and I thought the right to this film be reverted to me and I consulted Mnet South Africa. And (44:35) told me verbally and now the film is yours you can do what you like with it. Then suddenly there was a request internationally for the film. But they wanted to clear the copy right issue and they said Mnet should commit themselves. And suddenly Mnet started another negotiation with me. And what they now proposed is that well we will like to retain the right to this film in Africa and adjacent ocean. Then I wrote back where the hell is adjacent ocean. The only ocean I knew is Lagos, and they quickly told me the geography. Adjacent oceans are those oceans that are somewhere in Africa. And they said anyway you can have the right to rest of everywhere Europe. And I said I don’t know anyone there. And so the lesson is that they own the right in perperity.
So the meaning is that you have enthusiastic to go on, so please go on. Like when Fela was alive and they question him and he said I can’t ask you to do the same thing that I do because when everybody was pirating me, I turned a blind eye. So it will be interesting, first of all get pirated and then you will know when time is right. When they want to own what you have is perpetuity and you know you don’t have the right to it in Nigeria. Anyway, all I just want to do is encourage people on. If you feel like, you can ignore the marketers; if it is important for you to bread and butter when the time is ripe you can believe that I’m raising the stake a bit. I don’t care about marketers or anyone of them. But now that we’ve made another film, they are back. And I have developed thick skin. I’m numb, so there is nothing. They can do to me again. But you have a whole life time ahead of you. What are you doing lazy man, just go and do your work. Get on with it.
QUESTION
1. I found out that every person that has done well through him- His family and community will always have a secret, will always have something he so badly wants to share with your people. you know you look at them and say oh, I wish they knew and I knew you have looked at us. There is this joke that I can tell them “I will love you to give us a joker”
ANSWER
The joker is just have a passion in what you are doing and really get smart by getting skill. So you have a passion, you have skill, and then you must have good character & integrity. There is no short cut to it. That is wealth as far as am concerned. I cant tell you my bank balance b'cos you wont believe me, even if I tell people that right now that I don’t have a car will you believe it or not? But I can tell you that I have the resources to do my work well. What I mean by that is that you have passion, you get skill and you have good character and integrity. Making films is about responsibility every thing is about responsibility cos I can spend 40milliom naira within a month on a project just like that. I can tell you that other people, if they have access to that kind of Money, they’ll divide it in 2 and they’ll rush to buy 1 car and somewhere and they’ll change cars of then they ‘ll buy those things. But I don’t believe in any of those things. But I don’t believe in any of those things. So you have passion, skill, integrity and character, then everything will be added sooner or later. So, that’s the sent. There is nothing more. Add hard work add some spirituality, you need God in all these things.
Questions
I’m sure most of us here would like to know what you wanted to become before and what it took for you to become what you are today. The other question is I believe you’re a fulfilled person. And I was glad when you said you’ve got the resource, you can buy what you want to buy but maybe a car is not the principal thing for now. But if you have to go by helicopter tonight from here, it is possible so I’ll like you to tell us, we young folks what should be our life value.
Answer
I’ll start by telling you what I wanted to be but what my father wanted me to be. My father wanted me to do certain things. First of all, he wanted me to attend the Government college Ibadan which infact delayed me for one year so I could pass the exams. Infact, I’m not sure if I took the exams, but I disappointed him: I did not attend the Government college Ibadan, I attended the Abeokuta Grammar School which celebrated its 100 years anniversary. He also wanted me also to attend U.I, and somehow my road did not go near that place. Infact I’m seriously romancing the U.I. I reminded then that somehow if they oblige me with a diploma certificate as honorary, my father will be happy in his grave, Anyway, what to me is that in my primary school, there’s somewhat I just came across a plastic camera and I was fascinated about what it said it could do. Because that camera, I bought it for seven pence. I never took a photograph with it because it was just happy to own it, and then by the time I got to Abeokuta Grammer School, I was on UAC scholar, I could just take a list of books to the library and I’ll be supplied without any question. So I suspected that I was over supplied and with the money I made, I bought my first camera- Koda 127. So, from that point, I started photograph, so I got more and more fascinated. And by the time I left secondary school, I was a photographer basically. And then what happen again was that I saw almost all the American films that came into Nigeria because I was just going from one theathre to the other. By the time I left secondary school, because UAC funded my secondary education I had to work for them, I wanted to work for them. But after working for a while, I became an apprentice as a photographer and all along I was fascinated by photography, I was fascinated by the fact that the image can mope and talk and all that. So I just changed to motion pictures and I was trained by the former Western Nigeria TV. The point is, from the time I was in secondary school, I could mention KODA 127,ZOKI 4,5,ROLLY FLUX . . . and all those cameras. And then suddenly by been trained by former Western Nigeria TV as a camera man. All those big cameras were just there and I was just happy to be there among these things, infact if they didn’t pay me, they didn’t know I’ll be happy. It’s just something that came from my heart and later I now realized that to tell our stories, all those wonderful books I’ve read, by the way we haven’t gotten round to attempt all those. And I’m just waiting for and I needed a medium to tell the stories and I found that this is what I wanted to do with my life. As a young person, anybody who was doing photography around the time I started photography was regarded as a drop out, a nobody and I can tell you I lost few girlfriends who were really embarrassed to introduce me as an apprentice photographer. In fact I knew some of the ladies who wanted to be doctors and all thathere was no way they could understand it. But my parents were understanding because I’ve managed to convert our home to develop the films, I’ll wait till everybody go to bed and will take their pan from their kitchen and put my film in it and ask one of my sister to put her hand in the developer. Before day break, I would have finished all I wanted to do I thanks my love,that’s my passion. I do it everyday, I live it. I’m lucky and fortunate to be surrounded by people who indulge me, who have supported me all along. So I ‘m not all by myself. I’ve fallen down many times. But each time I fall down, there are people who will pull me up again. Of course I’ve had inspirations from about everybody else, the great Nigerians that we have. More importantly I have 2 or 3 friends who I look at them and I say if you can continue doing what you’re doing, I think I have no excuse. I just have to continue to do the same.
When I said that I have the resources to do my work,I didn’t mean that I had the money. But somehow it happens, I suppose that God has been really helpful by giving me people who believe in what I’m doing. It’s amazing that if you wanted to do some things people will just share and believe in it. I tell people don’t copy me, don’t imitate me, don’t, don’t even worry about me because I might not have money right now in my pocket or in my bank account. I’ve managed to have some bits of reputation and I have a lot of good Will so that tomorrow somebody might just call me and say TK come, what are you doing? Okay, is that what you need? Take this 5 million naira. It has happen to me many times and I believe it’ll still happen. If you do what you’re doing very well and people knew you’re genuine and they know what you do. They’ll be willing to do things for you.
Suggestion for TK
1. ROBBERT has started his sundant festival in America and he encourages young film makers to come up. I want to suggest if there’s a way and instead of going straight into the institute, if you could start a festival and allow some of this young and coming, and maybe in many ways force them to use adaptations. This standard of an production because right now we’ve trying to respond to the situation in Tanzania over the albinos that were been killed, they claimed it’s as a result of the Nigerians films that they watched and they were looking form spiritual powers. So we’re trying to respond that by producing a movie that’ll counter that thought and also talk to the Nigeria movie producers to let them know that these things are having few reaching impacts. And unless we start to raise the standard we’ve gonna be in trouble. And for the rest of us, especially the young people among us.
Response
While the discussions were going on something kept coming to my mind. Something that my father told me many years ago that there is notting that works like an idea whose time has come, you’ll find a lot of confirmations, there’re three things that form the cause for what he’s doing . First is knowledge, second is skill and third is the value system. He said he looking around for knowledge, having gotten the knowledge, he converts the knowledge into skill to develop techniques, all that is irrigated by a particular value system that makes this knowledge work. And it’s the same thing we’ve been told tonight. He talked about skill, knowledge and values and I think this just continue to re-echo and when things like this re-echo, then you better know that something is happening and better. And I think that’s the main message tonight. That we have to deal with the issue of knowledge, we have to acquire knowledge,we need to acquire skills of we must ensure we have a proper, a value system to irrigate our knowledge and skill to produce the desired result.
Thank You.
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