By Olaitan Ganiu
Popular Nigerian filmmaker, Chico Ejiro, has been confirmed died on Christmas Day.
Ejiro who started movie production in the 90s passed on at age of 57.
The Delta state-born filmmaker is well known for block-buster films including Deadly Affair, Blood Money, Silent Night, and several other.
In a long tribute posted on Facebook by a screenwriter and journalist, Muritala Sule, said Chico’s fast movie production is what attracted the world to Nigeria — thus acknowledged as the world’s third-highest producing film country.
According to Sule, he noticed the bold and brilliant work of the late producer when he directed a movie titled “Ayemale” about 1994 for the Yoruba sector of the industry.
“Perhaps, destiny was what was at work when Chico was churning out movies in a hurry like pure water in those days so much he was nicknamed “Mr. Prolific” and “Kpakpakpa director,” he said.
Continuing, Sule said, “Movie-making seemed such second nature to him. I’d wager his output outnumbers that of his elder brother Zeb, the patriarch of the Ejiro dynasty in moviedom. It was under Zeb that Chico learned the trade, just as Peter Red, their other brother. Together, they’ve all gone on to build a legendary filmmaking family almost in the class of the great Korda family patriarched by the great Alexander.”
Read Also: Six things to know about Nollywood producer, Chico Ejiro
Sule explained that Chico’s reputation in his heyday was mixed as there were those professionals who considered him a sort of vermin desecrating the holy temple of filmmaking with his often haphazard style.
“There was little regard for fanciful art in Chico’s movies. His concern was to supply the industry with movies on the go to feed the humongous appetite of Nigerian – and, with time, African – film audiences in those early days when the so-called Nollywood became the authentic African story to replace western and mostly polluting imports. Soon, Hollywood, Bollywood, and “Chinawood” were to learn of the new kid on the block that Nigeria’s – and, soon enough, Africa’s – film industry was.
“Quickly, Nigeria got acknowledged as the world’s third-highest producing film country. It remains so till today. Nigeria went on to inspire other African countries to produce on the video technology, which, before then, was regarded as anathema to the film art. That is no more! Nigerian filmmakers have made it on to the juries of the Academy Award in the US and other major film-producing countries around the world. Nigerian films, too, now get nominations for the US Academy Awards. What turned the spotlight on Nigeria early on was the sheer energy and innovation of its practitioners. The sheer number of its output! That’s where Chico, along with a few others, including Alade Aromire of blessed memory, are important to Africa’s history of filmmaking.”
He, however, compare Chico’s quality to Hollywood filmmaker Roger Corman.
“People of Chico’s quality come once in a civilization. And they are needed in all civilizations, in all spheres of life. Hollywood had its own in the legendary Roger Corman (Valentine’s Day Massacre) who, like Chico, milled out movies like fast food.”
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