BOB TV 2010 - 7TH AFRICAN FILMS AND TELEVISION PROGRAMMES EXPO

BOB TV NEWS & EVENTS

Day Three : Morning Sessions

Day three already, leaving one more day – tomorrow! ( A sob escapes)

B OB TV FILM FESTIVAL like Cannes, Sundance and Berlinale, is … well, a film festival, so there are givens to this kind of event: Film screenings and premieres, courses and workshops on various aspects of the art, debates and discussions on the way forward for the industry, and endless sheets branded with famous autographs while cameras snap fans and their idols into permanence.
But that’s only one half of the given. The other, friendships started and networks made; romantic liaisons initiated and pursued (Some with success, some, otherwise); whispered gossip about ‘that actress’ and her P.A whom she’s dating, and ‘how that actor toasted me,’ and the sheer pleasure of watching small screen giants relate with fans and colleagues.
I’ll miss this event (Another sob escapes).

Very well then, on to today’s business

8:00 UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE:

This event, a staple of the BOB TV FILM FESTIVAL is reaching iconic levels, and is perhaps the most important segment of the festival because it’s about the posterity of filmmaking in Nigeria. The hall is crowded so no sitting space for me, and standing, I have to revert to making notes longhand so my laptop doesn’t take more space than it should. So, it begins. The Theatre and Mass Communication students of Imo State University (IMSU), Delta State University (DELSU) and University of Port Harcourt are competing for the grand prize with their 16 minute shorts. DELSU, defending champions, have stirred the audience to a rousing ovation with their action short, THE PATRIOT, about a returnee soldier who goes in search of his missing family, and eliminates every human obstacle in his path. DELSU appears poised to win but there’s still tomorrow, when every contestant ‘play their joker.’

I steal out as the question-answer segment commences
It’s a few minutes to ten and the Ladi Kwali center is packed. So many events have started or are about to, so let’s meander through the swirling crowds and steal into each for a couple of minutes.

10:00 CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMING

The delightful Norma Shodipe is taking this class. Punctuating each thought with a smile makes her easy to listen to and appealing to learn from, and I just picked a lesson – The ages 1 to 4 in a child’s life are the most sensitive for learning so teach them creativity enhancing lessons then, so that thereafter, their imagination can easily assimilate and process creative thoughts for expression. Hmmm! I’ll get the notes from this course.
Let’s steal out to the next hall

10: 00 DIRECTOR’S MASTERCLASS: THE DIRECTOR PREPARES

I don’t agree that this class is filled because it’s Stephanie Okereke teaching. It’s because many budding filmmakers want to learn from a Director tutored at the New York Film Academy, and with vast experience in Nollywood. And then again, because it’s Stephanie Okereke.
This is a different Stephanie. She’s funny and playful in a sweet tomboyish way. She’s cracking up the class who are responding, happy to be this highly regarded by the A-List actress and seeing her in her natural elements.
No sitting or standing place, even for the blogger so onward we go

10:00 SCREENING: A CLEAN WOMAN

When Ali Baba held down the West with his stand-up prowess in the mid 90’s, Yibo Kiko emerged from and held down the Niger Delta from his Port Harcourt base. That same Yibo Kiko has is the one screening A CLEAN WOMAN which he directed as a student of New York Film Academy. Don’t you just love the move by our actresses for self growth and development?
Okay, there’s an empty front seat and … voila! We’re in. the film is only ten minutes so we can hack this.
I have my misgivings about Nigerian stories shot abroad but this raises the bar with the acting. Yibo Directed using standard practices but that it expected from an NYFA grad so I looked for other strengths and the acting does it. I will review it on another forum but the story, which is about Female Genital Mutilation, is a good job.

10:00 DISTRIBUTOR’S CONVENTION

This is where the money and power of Nollywood comes from, and therefore, an all important stop. Man-at-the-helm of Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) is seated, his face drawn in an introspective expression as he listens to a marketer speak in low but vigorous tones.

David Ibhawoh, an engineer with Intel Corporation (A Fortune 500 company), is at the microphone, and announces that he’s presenting a paper titled SECURE GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY, a suggestion for anti-piracy measures. The major players – marketers, distributors, Producers, actors- are gathered, and from the look on their faces, this will be far from a tame discourse.
The storm … sorry, players, gather. We shall return

12:00 CAN A NIGERIAN FILM WIN AN OSCAR?

This is like a SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE conference because every speaker is making references to the multi-Oscar Bollywood flick. The general opinion so far is that a Nigerian film, like any other, can win an Oscar if done properly and innovatively.
This is a KORA event, and like their famous art discourses, a stampede. Basically, a KORA stampede is a free-for-all discourse, meaning that rude interruptions are permitted. Well, rude interruptions in a forum like this with the cerebral Chris Ihidero at the helm and Sam Dede in the house and more industry personnel is not the barbaric session you might imagine. In fact, it’s crazy fun.

A perfect start to the afternoon sessions

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