The Persistent Voice in Taiwo Egunjobi’s Films
As he speaks, the commanding ease in Taiwo Egunjobi’s words and manner pitches him as an important custodian of knowledge and insight about Nigerian and world cinema. Egunjobi’s films always cast a permanent residence on viewers’ minds.
By the time we, I and Taiwo Egunjobi, one of Nigeria’s foremost indie filmmakers, would utter our first sentence, the residue of sleep layered on our eyes had vanished. We had both used the night doing different activities: Retracing my nocturnal lifestyle, I watched, overnight, Joel and Ethan Coen’s Hail, Ceasar!, a satirical comedy about an unspecified period in Hollywood history between the end of The Second World War and before 1960. For Egunjobi, the night was used trying to regain access to FilmKaku—a digital platform that archives film reviews, essays, and interviews with Nollywood filmmakers. Thus, when the filmmaker got on a call with me, with his signature Newsboy cap adorning his head, we started our conversation reiterating what we did overnight.
Fittingly, the Coen brothers‘ Hail, Caesar! set the tone of our conversation. Reflecting on hindsight, what I noticed watching the Coen brothers’ masterpiece—the story of Eddie Mannix (played with remarkable gusto by Josh Brolin) layered with Hollywood’s backstage history (the numerous buried scandalous stories, the signing of shoddy deals, and the domineering posture of studio executives), I casually referenced how Hollywood’s history is similar to Nollywood’s. With a fierce and lucid tone that, throughout our hour-long conversation, constantly carries his precise opinions, Egunjobi was quick to make a few remarks about how distinct both industries are. The filmmaker told me that it’s a miracle that the Nigerian film industry exists. One familiar with the industry’s history will see this statement not as an affront but as a well-documented truth. As the director told me, the Nigerian film industry exists due to the relentless efforts of individual film marketers who promoted the birth of the film industry. It wasn’t the pressing demands and desire of film-school-trained filmmakers wanting to make artistic and creative statements with their stories that birthed Nollywood. Thus, in conclusion, the filmmaker mentioned that Hollywood, with its trained filmmakers, structured industry, and the existence of various unions, isn’t a fitting comparison for the Nigerian film industry.
Reiterating his point, Egunjobi mentioned how pioneering filmmakers were required to adopt models and subject matters dictated by film marketers and distributors. With their large distribution networks in Ebinpejo Lane in Lagos, Iweka Road in Onitsha, and Pound Road in Aba, where film distributors selected films to take to video clubs and markets across the country, early filmmakers had to conform to a supposed ‘winning’ formula. This early restriction has affected us in many ways to date. Although still young, the film industry doesn’t have an organized structure for doing things. There are no unions. Rather than a unified attempt at building, the new crop of filmmakers, quite similar to their predecessors, are adopting the individualist approach. Filmmakers and film critics are struggling to develop their craft individually in the absence of structural and institutional support. ‘In this way, Nollywood is unique. But, for it to continually thrive, it needs to improve itself,’ he said in a self-assured tone.
Despite the innate failures that have characterized Nollywood’s history up to this point, it is impressive that the Nigerian film industry still exists. Compared to neighbouring African countries, Nollywood enjoys the availability of thriving profit–driven studios and distribution companies. Films are constantly and relentlessly being churned out in the cinema and streaming platforms. In neighbouring Lesotho, according to Phillip Leteka, a Lesotho–based filmmaker, there are no cinemas, and there are a meagre number of non-Nigerian and non-South African films on streaming platforms (Netflix and Prime Video); Nigeria, on the other hand, boasts about 300 cinema screens out of the 1,651 screens across the continent and an extensive archive of films on Netflix and Prime Video...
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