For over 20 years, Uche Agbo has been working behind the scenes as a consummate movie director. However, he is now the current president of the Directors Guild of Nigeria (DGN). Just a few months into his administration, Agbo has hit the ground running, executing projects and initiatives. In this chat with SAM ANOKAM, the unassuming professional who is almost done with his doctoral thesis, speaks about a whole lot of issues bordering on the guild and many more.
Which one came first, acting or directing?
Acting came first. Growing up, it has always been an acting thing. The first thing that drew us into the world of film was acting, and then we discovered our love for writing. Ultimately, we discovered that real love is actually about storytelling. That was how we figured that the best way to tell the story is to tell it from behind the scenes.
Which one is most tasking?
I wouldn’t want to segregate. It is an ensemble art. It is a collective, but then directing the film is the most important, man or woman, as the case may be, in the course of filmmaking, because you never really know how tasking directing is until 10 people ask you why a trash basket should be blue, why not yellow, why not red? That is how you know how tasking directing is because you have to answer that question; you have to make it make sense first to your crew, then the cast. If you give an actor blocking that you have to move from this place to that place, and the actor asks you why, that is when you know how difficult directing is. Yes, the director sits as the chef, which means every other thing is an ingredient in the food, but somebody has to put them together, make sure there is not too much salt or seasoning in it. It is the director who must make sure that the costume, makeup, and actor come correct. Technically, the director has to make the creative decision. That could be the hardest part of filmmaking. The producers can claim they are the ones bringing the money, but money doesn’t make the film. The actors can say they embody the character, yes, but without the rest of the cast and crew, it is useless. The costume may say we are the ones bringing the costume, but it is the director who articulates all of these to make it make sense to the audience. I would say the most tasking part of filmmaking is the directing job.
You are almost done with your doctoral thesis; do you hope to become a lecturer at the end of the day?
I love teaching. Currently, I founded and own two film schools – Abuja Film Academy and Enugu Film Academy. Enugu Film Academy was founded in 2015, and Abuja Film Academy in 2018. I have trained close to 1,000 people put together across northern and eastern part of the country, The idea was that I noticed that Lagos has a lot of film schools, a lot of training centres but we didn’t have much in the northern part so I established Abuja Film Academy to cater for people from the northern part of the country and the Enugu Film Academy to cater for the eastern part of the country, I have always love to teach, I have always done a lot of classes, workshops both free and paid ones. I might see myself doing visiting lecturing here and there; I don’t think I will be retiring fully into full-time lecturing. The inspiration is drawn from the fact that growing up in this business, we didn’t really have close mentors or teachers. It will interest you to know that my first training centre was established when I was still in the university, and it was a reaction to the fact that I wanted to get into Nollywood, but I wasn’t finding the pathway. Being a theatre student, I established what I called Go For Gold Creative College. What I did was that in the morning and afternoon hours, I was in school. In the evening, I would go and teach others what I had learnt from school. I just enjoy transferring knowledge.
Is it because of your experience and success in your academies that you decided to replicate it by having a DGN studio and academy?
I have been in the DGN executive for close to 10 years now at different levels. I started as Assistant national secretary, later became acting when my national secretary resigned and then became the substantive national secretary and vice president before I became the president. All this while, I have always thought that if the bulk stops at the desk of the director, then the director needs constant training and retraining, and we must institutionalise it.
Beyond the success of my other film academy that I have run, I feel that DGN Academy brings to bear an opportunity to institutionalise training. The primary leadership the guild is supposed to give is training and retraining. After that, they can talk about the welfare package, advocacy, etc. Training is key, DGN academy will not only cater for members but intending filmmakers, up and coming filmmakers, female filmmakers, emerging voices, etc. There is so much that we can do with that. I could say that my other film academies’ success could have influenced my resolve, but most importantly, I think that a guild like DGN deserves to have a training arm where we can be an authority. We have so many experiences in DGN. The likes of Andy Amenechi, who directed Igodo, Obi Rakpo, who directed Living in Bondage, Dr Chika Onu, who directed Living in Bondage 2, Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen, 30 years of constant filmmaking, even Kunle Afolayan is a member of DGN, name them. We have a mixture of the old, the middle, and the younger, and they are all doing very well. Imagine using them as resource persons for the next generation of filmmakers. I feel we needed it to groom people. Sometimes we lack that structural, systematic pipeline to help usher in new talents in Africa as a whole. For example, how do we know the directing style of Lancelot if he doesn’t teach it? We have read a lot about the styles of foreign practitioners, but we have never read about our styles. This is our opportunity to develop educational content that proper universities can borrow from.
Could you tell us more about your plans for DGN?
We campaigned on the basis of systems and structures. During the campaign, I told them that DGN should be tired of a personality-driven guild; we should start looking at systems and structures, which means we are looking at how we can put structures in place that can outlive us. Some of the things that we wanted to do immediately were first to revamp our website and create an app, both of which have been done, then we moved to what we have launched, and next is the residency programme for females, young talents. We are starting with a 4-week residency programme (2 weeks online, 2 weeks physical); the idea is to build the next generation.
We are also looking at running workshops across all the zones, which is not just under the academy as a whole. It is training, training and training. That is our key goal. We are also looking at pursuing some policies in terms of minimum guarantee fees for directors because a lot of our directors are complaining that, in comparison with actors, they are not fairly remunerated. We are also looking at the current earnings. For instance, if a director has made a film, he should be able to earn royalties. This administration is delving into royalties, residual income for the director. Ultimately, we want to move to a bigger space, which means we are looking at a permanent secretariat, maybe in the next two years, but we will set the ball rolling. The plans are ongoing, and of course, there are plans for foreign trips. We are looking at taking our directors to do an exchange programme. We are already talking with the DOHA Film Institute, which is in Qatar, a film school in Germany, and a training institution in Italy. Italian cinema is a massive industry. We also have a relationship with the U.S.
This December, we are going to be doing the DGN TV investment summit in Abuja during the Zuma International Film Festival. We have so much in the pipeline.
You talked about female filmmakers, is a filmmaker not a filmmaker?
A filmmaker is a filmmaker, but let us be honest with ourselves, a politician is a politician, but currently, we have in the House of Assembly a bill that is called, Reserved Seat for Women, where they are saying that some number of seats should be compulsorily reserved for women. No matter how you look at it, the interesting thing is that perspective matters. As a man, no matter how you want to tell a story and be objective, your perspective as a man would come to play. First, it is an emotional act. You tell stories from the way you look at life. Until we have more females telling stories as well, we will not have a balanced media when it comes to film. Yes, we have some successful female filmmakers already, but we must encourage more because there are not many. When the Nigerian film industry started, it was always a man’s thing, but now the women are doing great. If you checked well, the female filmmakers, directors have done a lot more successful films in recent times. Imagine when you have more of such. For me, some say I am a feminist, but I don’t know about that; I just feel that there is a need for balance. When I was running for office, I was looking for a female vice president. I wanted to encourage somebody. Eventually, I got a female VP, but it was a task. It was difficult to find one because there are not many, and the few that are there were not even interested in the leadership of the guild in the first place. We need to get more of them. Before now, females were restricted to acting, costume and makeup, but these days we are beginning to see females pick up cameras as DPs, sound, etc. We should have more female directors.
There have been complaints of sexual harassment by directors. What are you doing about that?
Like I always say, there are two sides to every coin in every story. What you refer to as sexual harassment, until it is sometimes proven, could be a mere accusation. What I will not get involved in is if a man asks a woman out and the woman agrees, and they do whatever they do, that is within confinement because they are both adults. What we will not do, and we have been vocal about it, and ensure the law takes its course when somebody is sexually harassed on set. I have, in fact, released several statements within the few months that I have been in office about the safety of film sets. If you asked me what we would do about it, we are already doing something about it. Sometimes it is out of desperation for both parties. We have a code of conduct and ethics. They are currently reviewing it. I had to get the Vice President, who is also a woman, to take charge of that review committee so that they can anticipate some of these issues. We are already putting structures in place to discourage that. Another way is that we are also sensitising. We tell our members that you are an adult. If you see somebody you like and you tell her you like her and she agrees, whatever both of you do as adults is fine. What is not right is to use it as a leverage or bargaining chip. As long as it is not consenting, we don’t buy that.
Please, can you talk about the Coal City Festival?
I founded Coal City Festival in 2020, but we did our first three editions in 2021, just like every other vision that I have been at the helm of affairs. At that time, there were no film festivals in Southeast and there were so many filmmakers down there that didn’t know what film festivals were. There was this film festival, Enugu Film Festival, that was held in 2006. It was held once and never held again. I tried reaching the founder to see if we could reactivate it, but I wasn’t getting the response that I needed. And so, I had to take the bull by the horns, and we are heading towards the 6th edition. It happens every March. The theme is Local Stories, Global Scales – the idea is to promote more of our local stories.
We have a homecoming conversation that will happen this December, and we are talking about how to use film to solve societal issues. This year is Nollywood and security are using local creative solutions to tackle the insecurities in the south east. We are looking at how the film industry can get involved using our films. I remember back in the day when Lancelot did Isakaba. It was during the time of the Bakassi Boys; you were scared of even going to take meat from the pot of your mother because you didn’t know whether the Bakassi Boys were coming.
These are the powerful means that can really subconsciously, especially in this age and time, when the digital media has made information so porous that kidnappers now advertise their money and make it look alluring. You need a counter-narrative, which you use film for. These are some of the discussions that we will be having. We will be inviting the army, police, EFCC, and every agency in this country. By January or February, we usually do what we call the Nollywood Campus Storm. What we do is we go to universities and try to conscientize them about the actual practice and prepare them for the creative market. Our target is film, television, mass communication, and theatre arts students. Some of us were never told in school that when you come out civil engineering student who has graduated but is talented can take you out of the market. Basically, to me, the vision of Coal City Festival is to open the doors of the southeast to the rest of the world using film.
Luckily for us now, from Enugu we have like four films on NETFLIX made in Enugu-by-Enugu filmmakers. Today, I have like four filmmakers from Enugu who are based abroad and are doing just film.
How do you usually feel being on set?
Being on set is always invigorating. It gives me life. Knowing the kind of power I wield makes it exciting and, at the same time, gives me a sense of responsibility. I don’t just tell stories; I need to be sure that this story is not damaging but progressive. Every filmmaker should be a member of the nation-building team. Yes, we must reflect on our society but we should do so with a positive mindset for the betterment of society. America is not a haven, but through its films, they have made us believe that it is the safest place on earth. But it is the way that they were able to tell their stories that made it a land of dreams for everybody, and it is the power of the film.
What are your thoughts on filmmakers making content on YouTube?
YouTube audience is audience. Like I always tell people, anywhere you find an audience, tell a story to them. I make a lot of films for YouTube. There are a billion audiences on YouTube. That is a massive number. Before now, big filmmakers were not seeing YouTube as a veritable market, but today, with the amount of funds coming out of YouTube, a lot of them are having a reconsideration. The thing is, there must be a story for everybody. There is a story for people who want to go to the cinema to experience that communal watch. You must also give those who wish to stay on their phones, because if you don’t give them, the skit industry will take them away, as they have already done that. Film must be accessible. Even DVD, VCD still exist today. The YouTube audience is very smart, they know what they want. If what you have done is not right, you will see it in the comment section. There is immediate feedback. I encourage directors to make use of that opportunity.
