The Man Who Saw Nollywood
For ‘Living in Bondage’ however, Gukas sees a story about Nollywood. He puts it this way: “It’s all about Nollywood going 360. It started with ‘Living in Bondage’. We are showing how far it has come with the sequel. The industry has gone through a lot so this sequel is partly telling that story of Nnamdi Okeke and also how far Nollywood has come. I believe that in scales, the morals and the themes that ‘Living in Bondage’ sought to treat at that era is still with us today and we are addressing it now to a younger generation as dipped in the Yahoo plots.
“That is a strong thing that we can draw to the fact that you can tell a story and hope to bring conversations in the focus of those themes. But also to show that we are telling a story that Nollywood starts with and in telling it, how far we have come,” he said in between shoots. They had been up all night shooting and could only catch little sleep. He was working on several takes for a particular scene before jetting off with the crew to South Africa for another shoot.
He continued: “What we have tried to do is to contemporize it, bringing a telling that will appeal to today’s audience who are cinema enthusiasts. Whilst in the first ‘Living in Bondage’ you talked about how rich they are, this sequel will also show how fabulously rich they are. They are flying in private jets, sailing in yachts, partying in Monaco. You see them living life, visually stunning in all the places that we have shot the film. We really brought those things that are attractive to the younger generation.”
The movie basically is shot in locations across Nigeria and South Africa. The choice of these locations according to Nouah is to give the film its authenticity.
Making a sequel to such an iconic film is not a small feat. Gukas described it as a huge challenge.
“We are not just making the sequel of any kind of film but the film that started Nollywood so it is a huge challenge. You do know that you have taken up something that will make people most critical of what you do. Therefore, you know the bar is already set way high. To up that, you will need a lot of focus on different elements that actually elevate the telling of what you are doing to the sequel, rather than take away from it. It’s a legacy project loved by a lot of people for a lot of reasons and so when you touch it, you better be prepared.”
Gukas whose film career rode on the academic honours gathered at NTA TV College in Jos, University of Jos and London Film School where he studied Television Production, Theatre Arts and Film Production respectively, spoke about Nollywood’s journey in glowing terms. For him, the film industry has done exceptionally well from the days of yore.
“I am very much impressed with Nollywood. If you look at where we started and where we are today, I think we have come a long way in terms of technology; it is a huge leap from where we started. There were no cinemas but we have them springing up everywhere today. Cinemas are an added revenue stream. So every stream that can add to any kobo in your investment is something to be celebrated, so you have the ambition of the kind of film that you can meet, increasing exponentially. Without the cinemas, you wouldn’t have been able to do a film like ‘93 Days’, ‘Wedding Party’, ‘Chief Daddy’, ‘King of Boys’. The fact that the trench of revenue stream exists, it is allowing filmmakers to imagine bigger projects. When we also started there was no Netflix.
“Because these are happening now, the levels of projects that one can imagine are also increasing. I think the kind of players we have in the industry today has also increased. We have lots of young people practising filmmaking; even those in Europe or the US are coming back. That deepened the pool in terms of craft and talent base. That is really interesting,” he stated.
In a way, the timing of the big budget sequel to ‘Living in Bondage’ is peerless, particularly with the rising cases of cyber fraud which is at the pith of the plot. Gukas believes that filmmakers cannot turn a blind eye to the ills in society. Using the Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti as an example, he underscored the importance of films carrying reformative messages.
‘I think Fela said it best during his time when he said that for an African musician, music shouldn’t be just about enjoyment. You should use it to speak about things that are important to your society. And I believe that it is a very strong statement. Because what that says is that when you have a voice, you have a platform, you have a responsibility,” he added.
“Yes, entertainment is important but I think you can mix entertainment with a degree of commentary and tackling of issues that are relevant, especially in our clime where there is the need for that. In more advanced climes, they face fewer problems than we face and therefore can dedicate a lot of their talent to entertainment and creating likeness for the consumer of their products. But while we do have that need, issues like these should be addressed, it should be put in the front burner so that conversations can foster.”
A no stranger to such storylines including his iconic film ‘Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation’ which stars Danny Glover, Gukas reeled out a list of Nollywood movies that are tackling relevant storylines. They include ‘Up North’, ‘Power of One’, ‘Fourth Republic’, and ‘Dry’.
“These films are actually talking about different issues. Sometimes not as directly, but I think that the beauty of storytelling is to leave something capsuled in a statement that doesn’t appear quite didactic when you consume it and that it is only in retrospect that some of the things hit you.”
For a long while, Gukas nurtured a desire to make a film about Jos, the capital of Plateau state. The city is a shadow of what it used to be during his childhood days. One of the things that have kept him back is the raw sensibility that comes with making a film on a religious torn area. But he seemed to have found a way around it. The only obstacle in his way now is if he is to make it a documentary or dramatic feature. It’s a decision the filmmaker is yet to make – at least, until he wraps up his legacy project.