Lionheart: A Movie for Business and Film Schools

(By Toni Kan) - Three years after her first award winning feature film, Road to Yesterday, Nollywood screen goddess, Genevieve Nnaji has returned with her sophomore feature, Lionheart starring a slew of Nollywood greats – Pete Edochie, Onyeka Onwenu, Nkem owoh, Chika Okpala aka Zebrudaya, Kanayo O Kanayo as well as music star Phyno and award winning young actress, Jemima Osunde.

The film which was rejected by a section of film distributors in Nigeria made its worldwide debut on Netflix on Friday January 4, 2019.
My friend and brother, Wilfred Okiche has described Lionheart as “the feel good movie of the year” and he is correct but there is a lot he did not say.
            Genevieve Nnaji teaming up with Ishaya Bako (who directed Road to Yesterday) and Chinny Onwugbuenu has given us a very important movie. Lionheart, as its title suggests, is that rare and brave thing, a stereotype defying movie, a business primer and a very, very wise movie.
            Kudos must be given to the writers – Genevieve Nnaji, Chinny Onwugbuenu, CJ Obasi, Ishaya Bako and Emil Garba – for providing a unifying vision around the original idea.
            I have described Lionheart as an important movie because it speaks to the future in an eloquent voice.

Journalists and Making of Nollywood Stars

Toni Kan

(By Toni Kan) - Celebrating Nigerian Entertainment Icons: A Tribute 

“That night the King could not sleep: so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him.” Esther 6: 1 (NIV)

In ancient times, before Martin Luther and Gothenburg, there existed a select group of individuals whose duties were to record, dutifully and in painstaking detail, significant events that were taking place.

Their writings were called Chronicles or Annals.

Those men were called Scribes and they were an essential part of a King’s court. In today’s world, a Scribe would approximate to a personal lawyer who would prepare a man’s last will and testament or a Confidential Secretary who is privy to all that concerns his principal.

But above all, in the more democratic times that we live in, the modern day Scribe is the journalist, the man or woman who through his writings, records (almost always in a hurry) for posterity, the doings of the people.

Funding Nollywood, Ali Baba's Analysis

When I look at the growth of entertainment in Nigeria, I very often come to the sad realization that some of my colleagues DONT GET IT, CANT GET IT & WONT GET IT. I say this with the backing of what I have observed in the over 25 years that I have been in this industry. Though it's not the years you have been in the industry that counts. It's the years that you have made to count in the industry.

When I started performing as a stand up comedian in 1988, I did not know anything about the business of showbizness, I just wanted to perform and get paid. I was pleased with fame and the little allowances I got. I saw indications of prosperity and I decided to prove my dad wrong about choosing to be a stand up comedian (he wanted me to read law) and there were no precedent. It was a green field. It was a tough task, but thanks to the likes of Mohammed Danjuma, Yibo Koko, ALLAM Bloo, Tee-A... And many others, the rest is history.

Stand Up was new. The appreciation of it as an art form was either low or non existent. It was not even a sector of entertainment. The real sectors had stage actors, television actors, dancers, choreographers, singers, producers, slapstick comics, clowns, storytellers, radio/TV broadcasters... Etc. I tried to blend into the existing structures to find form, purpose and a launch pad. I even started appearing on radio and television shows to gain relevance.