Nollywood's 2014 Best 5: Male

THE BEST 5 NOLLYWOOD ACTORS OF 2014 

(As compiled by Charles Novia)

I did promise that my next post will be a review of the Best Actors in Nollywood in 2014. Last year on charlesnoviadaily.com, OC Ukeje won for 2013.  I am sure many read my list for the female counterparts for 2014 and whilst the criteria for judging the actors in 2014 won’t be any different, I have gone the extra mile to add snippets of what I believe were the extra efforts these actors on the list made to merit the mention they have received.

As usual, charlesnoviadaily.com sampled opinions of tested and trusted film professionals and critics who put heads together with me to scrutinize the art of many shortlisted names after which I had to arrive at the five names based on my overall veto. It is important to note too that there were no dissenting opinions amongst my team of experts about the Number One choice.

For the crowd which believes that an actor’s popularity and fan base automatically means that such an actor must be on lists such as this, I say to you; get your heads out of your closets. On this platform, all levels of professionalism are used as universal templates. I do not give a damn about the number of years an actor or actress has spent in the industry when I draw up such lists. I am more concerned with areas of the actors body of work for the year and how impressive such was when placed under an artistic microscope.

Nollywood's 2014 Best 5: Female

THE BEST 5 NOLLYWOOD ACTRESSES OF 2014

(As complied by Charles Novia)

Last year, charlesnoviadaily.com instituted a reward system of sorts which gave to deserving recipients, citations of excellence based on the films released in 2013. Mercy Johnson was the top actress of last year and deservedly so.

As 2014 comes to an end, I and a few professional critics, keeping to the criteria we used last year, have drawn up a list once again for 2014. We watched quite a number of films which were considered outstanding and through a professional process of elimination, shortlisted names were finally arrived at. May I state here that these actresses on this list have been judged on universal  templates for acting and not on what I term ‘perceived popularity’on red carpets, social media or feisty fan clubs. There is a clear difference between being an overt socialite with tepid performances in afterthought movies ‘just to be relevant’ and wholeheartedly taking the business of acting seriously.

"New Nollywood": Raising the Artistic Bar

By his own estimates, Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen has directed somewhere between 150 and 200 movies over the course of his 20-year career — including hits like “Games Women Play,” “Last Burial” and “Behind Closed Doors,” which have made him one of the most prolific directors in the Nigerian film industry, popularly known as Nollywood.

But Imasuen tends to distance himself from his early, mercenary years, when producers would approach him with shoestring budgets and shoddy scripts for movies he might have shot in just four days. Today he produces and directs his own films. “I wouldn’t even have the time to be as prolific as I used to be,” he said recently, while discussing his latest movie, “Invasion 1897.” 

An epic tale about the British Army’s ransacking of the ancient West African kingdom of Benin, “Invasion” was a labor of love that took Imasuen close to four years to produce. Ten years ago, the movie’s million-dollar budget would have been enough to make a movie like “Games Women Play” and 24 sequels. But like many of his peers, who have watched shrinking investments and rampant piracy hobble their industry, Imasuen is gambling that big-budget, big-screen blockbusters will breathe fresh life into Nollywood.

Nollywood and the Evolution of "Marketers"

"Marketers have played an important role in sustaining the brand called Nollywood.” This assertion was made by Mr. Azuka Odunukwe, the CEO of Ulzee Nigeria Ltd. While speaking at the October edition of the Filmmakers’ Forum of the GTBank Nollywood Studies Centre. The theme of the event was ‘The Marketer in the Landscape of the Nigerian Film Industry.” Mr. Odunukwe, a biochemistry graduate that established his marketing company in 1998, explained how the role of the marketer developed in the Nigerian video film industry.

KWASU Plans Center for Nollywood Studies

The Vice-Chancellor, Kwara State University (KWASU), Prof. AbdulRasheed Na’ Allah, has inaugurated a committee to see to the establishment of the Centre for Nollywood Studies at the university.

Prof. Na’ Allah stated this in his opening address recently at the Conference on African Cinema, organized by the university, with the theme: “African Cinema and the Supernatural”.

He said when operational, the centre would be charged with the responsibility of highlighting the role and effects of Nollywood films in the society.

Mr. Na’ Allah added that the planned conference was part of the university’s ambition to build bridges between scholars and those who promote culture outside the university.

He added that the goal was to reach deeply into the soul of the immediate university community and tap into the rich human and material resources of the nation.

The vice-chancellor said the essence of the centre would be to redefine the progress made by the nation in terms of arts and culture for the benefit of all.

“In 2010, the theme of the KWASU Conference on African Cinema was Nollywood: A Natural Cinema”; this year, it is Nollywood and the Supernatural.

He said the themes of both conferences showed the commitment of the institution to the promotion of culture through cinema.

Heaven Can Wait, by Rudolf Okonkwo

I believe in heaven. And I bet you do.

Heaven is located somewhere across the bridge of life. It is a place devoid of the iniquities of this life. In heaven, tranquility abounds. It is a treasure trove where God keeps the best of everything.

All our pursuits in life can be divided into two: the pursuit of heaven and the pursuit of happiness.

Heaven is the only place where happiness is guaranteed. But for some reason, we are determined to pursue happiness here on earth when it has been proven that such is an impossible goal.

We dream of heaven when we face the travails of life on earth. We remember heaven when we lose someone we love. We embrace heaven when we face our own mortality.

Though the vision of heaven varies depending on our religious and cultural upbringing, the central ideas are the same. Heaven is a good place for good people who have a good report card from their stay on earth. We are expected to make sacrifices here on earth in order to get to heaven.

I recently lost a distant cousin. He died a heart-breaking death at a young age. He was such a nice guy that tributes came from far and wide. Everyone agreed he had gone to the bosom of the Lord to rest. One grief-sicken mourner wrote on Facebook, “Stay thee with the Lord, Tony, until we meet again – though not so soon.” 

Superstition and Sorry State of Nigeria's Tertiary Education

Only last month, Western scientists successfully landed a robot on a comet. This feat was accomplished after 25 years of careful planning. The robot travelled 6.4 billion kilometers and took 10 years to reach the comet, which itself was moving at a speed of 56,000 km/hr (or 18km/s).

This is coming at a time when Nigerians are exporting religion and superstitions to the rest of the world; when our so called "men of God" assert that the cures for diseases are to be found in prayer houses rather than laboratories; when our universities have become the birthing places of pastors and imams; when we have become accustomed to pastors making extraordinary claims such as driving cars on empty tanks and resurrecting the dead; when the medieval belief in witchcraft and the practice of witch-hunting are ever so pervasive; when jihadists are engaged in a campaign of terror to spread sharia. I can go on and on.

Killing in the Name of THEIR God

"...[W]ho kills for love of

god kills love, kills god,

Who kills in the name of

god leaves god

without a name..."

Wole Soyinka, Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known

Born-Again Hooliganism

They’ll murder heritage in its timeless crib,

Decree our heroes, heroines out of memory

Obliterate the narratives of clans, names

That bind to roots, reach to heavens, our

Links to ancestral presences. The Born-Agains

Are on rampage, born against all that spells

Life and mystery, legend and innovation.

Imprecations rend the air, song is taboo,

The stride of sun-toned limbs racing wind a sin,

Flesh is vile, wine, the gift of earth, execrated.

These tyrants have usurped the will of God.

How did we fail to learn, that guns and boots

Are not essential to a coup d ‘état?

Shall Ala die? Ahiajoku be anathematised? Does

Oya defile her streams, Ifa obstruct the paths

Of learning and councils of the wise? Praise the Lord

And launch the bulldozer – they’ve razed

The statues of mbari to the ground, these

Christian Talibans. Their brothers in Offa

Murder Moremi in her shrine, shrieking Allah akbar.

Rivals else, behold their bonded zeal that sanctifies
Alien rape of our quiescent Muses, extolling theirs.

                          Wole Soyinka, "Elegy for the Nation" (For Chinua Achebe at 70)

Religion Without God, by T. M. Luhrmann

THIS Christmas our family will go to church. The service is held in a beautiful old church in the charming town of Walpole, N.H., just over the border from Vermont. The Lord’s Prayer hangs on the wall behind the sanctuary. A lectern rises above the nave to let the pastor look down on his flock. The pews and the side stalls have the stern, pure lineaments suited to the Colonial congregation that once came to church to face God.

Except that this church is Unitarian. Unitarianism emerged in early modern Europe from those who rejected a Trinitarian theology in preference for the doctrine that God was one. By the 19th century, however, the Unitarian church had become a place for intellectuals who were skeptical of belief claims but who wanted to hang on to faith in some manner. Charles Darwin, for example, turned to Unitarians as he struggled with his growing doubt. My mother is the daughter of a Baptist pastor and the black sheep, theologically speaking, of her family. She wants to go to church, but she is not quite sure whether she wants God. The modern Unitarian Universalist Association’s statement of principles does not mention God at all.

Nollywood Pays Pres. Jonathan Thank You Visit

President Jonathan in a group photograph with members of Creative Professionals of Nigeria

Nollywood stars, under the aegis of Creative Professionals of Nigeria (CPN), recently paid a courtesy visit to President Jonathan at the State House, Abuja, to thank him for his support of the creative industry in Nigeria. The President, who reiterated his government’s resolve to continue to support the industry, acknowledged that “the creative industry in Nigeria has been a catalyst for change and has been in the forefront of promoting our core values as Nigerians as well as putting our Nation in the world map”. 

CPN President, Segun Arinze, led top stars like Ibinabo Fibresima (President, Actors guild of Nigeria, AGN) and Monalisa Chinda as well as popular journalists, Azuh Amatus and Chris Keyinde Nwandu, on the visit. Other top members of the group in attendance included Abu Yakubu (secretary, AGN), Prince Ifeanyi Dike (chairman, AGN’s BOT), Zeb and Chico Ejiro, Emeka Ossai, Emma Ogugua, Fidelis Duker, Sunny McDon, Teco Benson, Fred Amata, Ralph Nwadike, Keppy Ekpeyong, Chike Bryan, Victor Okhai, Kingsley Ogoro, Lancelot Imasuen, Grace Amah, Kate Okunnu, Toyin Aimakhu, Fathia Balogun, Gideon Okeke, Joseph Benjamin, Charles Novia, and Sammie Okposo.

Beauty, Brian, and Talent, by Stella Damasus

I looked at the clock on the wall. It was already 5pm and I still had one more homework to finish with my 9-year-old daughter. My phone rang a few times and as I saw the name of the caller, I didn’t pick it up.

My daughter noticed my constant glances at the clock and said to me “mummy you can go you know. It’s Friday and I don’t have to submit this in school till Monday”.

I really didn’t want to leave the house but she went into my room and brought the invitation card to me. “Mummy you have to go because this person has been calling for this event for the past one month.” I took the invitation card from her and looked at it again; it was for a movie premiere and a lot of hype had been done about this movie. It was the rave of the moment and everyone who mattered in showbiz was going to be at this movie premiere. Well, everyone but me.

“Mummy I know that look. You have to be there”. So I jumped in the shower, looked through my wardrobe and got the first thing that my hands could grab. A simple but beautiful dress…comfortable for the evening.

As I arrived at the Silverbird Galleria on Victoria Island, the car park was jam-packed and my driver had issues with parking. “This movie must be amazing,” I thought to myself. As I stepped into the atrium at the galleria, I was greeted by a swarm of pressmen. Flashing cameras, microphones and more questions than my brain could process were coming at me like bullets. The red carpet was packed as I saw colleagues, good friends, not-so-good friends, producers and ‘everybody’ looking like a million dollars. “I must have stumbled onto the red carpet at the Oscars,” I thought.

"Thank God Entertainers Lost Their Primaries," Etcetera

My dear entertainers who just lost out in your quest for public office, can you please gbe enu e soun so that we can concentrate on the election at hand? Despite your claims, we all know the reasons why you sought public office in the first place. So many Nigerians have hurt their knees in praying to God to rid this nation of political miscreants and people with selfish motives in seeking public offices. So the fact that you all lost your primaries is a gargantuan sign that the system does not see you as worthy representatives of the Nigerian youths. 

You are the reasons why the youths are only being regarded as the future in a time like this when we are supposed to be the present. Why is it surprising to you that you lost in the primaries? The system has been analytically taking notes of your below the par exploits even within the madhouse we call entertainment industry. Don’t you get it, because you are in the sacred ministry of receiving brown envelopes doesn’t make you qualified to administer or make laws.

Nigeria's Witch Airways and Other Sad Tales

Let me warn you, reader, in advance: If you have a squeamish constitution, please do not read this piece. Just stop here and flee, for the story I’m about to tell is terribly ugly and disturbing. It is bound to leave you horribly unsettled, disturbed. In my career as a columnist I have written few essays that galled and upset me more. It is a piece I wish I didn’t have to write, but one that I feel compelled to write. A grandmother in my novel Arrows of Rain warns her son, “A story that must be told never forgives silence.”

I’m writing this piece in that spirit; it is a story, I believe, that must be told. It must be told despite its ugliness, or, in fact, because of it. Flee now, dear reader, if you can’t handle it.

Rudolf's "Memo To My Fellow Ndi-Igbo"

Igbo drummers

I write you all with great humility. I forgot how much I missed you all and missed engaging in the all-important conversation we need to have within our “mkpuke” (inner chamber) and the ones we need to have in the square.

As a kid, I was once marveled by the sight of a large cart kept in the church premises on which it was written, “Ọ bụ m, ka ọ bụ gị?” I asked my parents what it meant. They explained that the cart was used to push coffins into the church for funeral mass and was simply asking the question, ”Would it be me or you?” In other words, for whom does the bell toll?