The filmmaker of ‘La Femme Anjola,’ Mildred Okwo, has spoken out about the lack of professionalism in the Nigerian film business.
The filmmaker addressed the issue in a recent interview, arguing that more practitioners needed to be educated on filmmaking and business operations.
Mildred Okwo on the set of ‘The Meeting’;
“I want the level of professionalism among practitioners to increase a hundredfold. We are now dealing with global companies such as Netflix and Amazon. Those companies will need to work with people who understand the art and science of filmmaking.
“Mediocrity won’t get us to the top of the film-making food chain, and it will take everyone working to increase their knowledge to reach this goal.
“People who invest money in films want to know how to get that money back. For now, cinema distribution in Nigeria is at a primitive stage, in my humble opinion. Not only do we not have enough cinemas, the ones we even have, our film distributors are unable to aggressively market to them or even monitor sales and promotions.
“That means if figures come in from Jos, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, Benin or Enugu, there is no one working for your film distributor to authenticate these figures. They are relying solely on what the cinema owners say and that doesn’t sit well with any sane producer.”
Remember that the filmmaker made headlines in 2021 when she accused a big film distribution business of withdrawing her picture ‘La Femme Anjola’ from theaters.
Mildred Okwo is most recognized for her work on films such as ‘The Meeting,’ ‘La Femme Anjola,’ and ‘Suru Lere.’