“When the door you have been knocking at finally swings open, you don’t ask why. You run through.”
– Diane Lockhart, The Good Wife
Alice Guy-Blache is noted to be the female film director in the world to film a narrative story while Dorothy Arzner happened to be the first woman in her time to consistently be involved in directing of feature length movies in the popular Hollywood in 1927 till she retired in 1943, making her the first woman to become a member of the Directors Guild of America.
In Nigeria and Edo State, Lovebest Ogie, a Nollywood actress, producer and director, became the first woman to be inducted into Directors Guild of Nigeria, Edo State Chapter. She has learnt on the job from way back as an actor, by attending various auditions, worked and still working with so many film directors and producers, which has helped to hone and upskill her creative capacities in filmmaking.
She got into filmmaking just like similar stories from other celebrities – driven by passion and then self-development. She then upskilled herself towards self-actualization in her area of filmmaking, through shared ideas and thoughts on all areas of the creative sector. This woman of many parts when it comes to filmmaking was quick to realize that, in the creative space, everything is workable with the right training in whatever profession you find yourself. She also realised that one needs to be consistent in the pursuit of one’s God-given purpose and leave the rest to TIME. She believes that a mixture of talent as a product and the marketability of same is all the creative person needs to survive in the creative space. Talent alone cannot survive without an intention to create a market for it.
“I started acting while I was still in secondary school, after which I joined a theater group Trinity at Abuja and then become a member of Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN),” said Lovebest Ogie, who is currently the only female in Edo State Chapter of Directors Guild of Nigeria and also the first elected Treasurer of the Benin Zone.
Just like stories off the literary bookshelf, she also mentioned that as an actor, it wasn’t easy back then, especially as an upcoming actor. However, God’s grace, passion and determination to never give up saw her through those difficult moments.
“Even as a producer now, it is not an easy task especially as a woman, wife and mother to cope with the stress of producing in a movie set,” she said.
Madam Lovebest Ogie described the creative industry as something differently unique, that must as a matter of factual principle be sustainable through its own ethics and practitioners. The filmmaking industry, as a whole, is a lovely and noble profession that requires lots of training and retraining to enable anyone venturing into it to arm him/herself enough to be deliberate in using film to drive cultural awareness into the fabric of our society and thereafter develop same through its philosophy for a cultural identity.
As a female film director and one in a male-dominated profession, Madam Ogie stressed that the journey in the apex guild, DGN, is not an easy ride for the untalented as producers are keenly focused on returns on their investments rather than drumming sentiments towards feminism or gender equality. To survive and remain relevant in this industry as a female, she said, simply means that you would need to drop the toga of gender equality and jump into the arena with your talents to survive in that male-dominated space and carve a niche for yourself.
Among the movies that she worked in as an Assistant Director include Rok2 series BLOOD OF ENOGIE, as well as ZARS END and ISSAKABA RETURN. She describes Edo State as “a lovely place with a lovely culture and rich tradition that is well respected anywhere in the world, which has in no small measure inspired me as an Edo filmmaker to further explore the philosophy behind the Edo people, their culture, and approach to life generally”.
“Non-Edo people describe the people as deeply rooted conservatives, but therein lies their strength which has made their arts whether in bronze, wood carvings, music, or movies sought-after in the world. When you remember Lancelot Imasuen, Rema, Sir Victor Uwaifo, the great Waziri and so so many more, one would agree that the Edo people are worth studying like a book to be able to know them as a people as well as their arts,” she said.
The creative industry in Edo State has become a sort of beehive in the Nigeria film space as there has been a huge improvement with the outgoing government of Godwin Obaseki heavily investing into that space. This has attracted the crème de la crème of the industry into Edo State in the last three years via the Sir Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub, Film in Edo Project, the Edo State International Film Festival, and the Enina Theatre Festival which have become models used by other states to re-inject relevance to the creative industry. The fast pace at which the Edo creative sector has moved up the ladder points to the fact that both the professionals in the industry and the up and coming should never give up on their creative works and talents; rather, they must hold on to whatever they can offer, as they continue to upskill, upgrade and update themselves in areas pertaining to their craft.
Recalling her sad moments, Madam Ogie remembers how she almost lost an actor, whom she did not know was asthmatic, on the set of “Okosisi the Great Warrior”.
“This made me to understand the need for contract form because everything one would need to know about his/her actors are all spelt out in the contract form,” she said.
Filmmaking is fun when the rules of engagement are well understood, and defined methods are established to make the actualization of the project easy for both cast and crew.
