Crafting Documentaries That Resonate with Daniel Itegboje

Speaker A: 00:00:00

Foreign.

Speaker B: 00:00:08

Welcome to the Naija Filmmaker, a podcast about Nigerian filmmakers, their films and how it can build a diverse and functional industry. I'm your host, Sele Got. On this episode, my guest is Daniel Itegbije. He's a filmmaker, medical student and historumi fellow.

He directed On Your Own, a short documentary that screened at several festivals. We talk about on your Own, his StoryMi Fellowship and his project. If you're a new listener, you're welcome and I hope you enjoy. Hi Daniel.

You're welcome to The Naija Filmmaker.

Speaker A: 00:00:43

Thank you. S. Thanks for having me.

Speaker B: 00:00:46

Tell us how you started out on your filmmaking journey.

Speaker A: 00:00:50

Okay. Yeah, so I'm, I'm a bit divergent. I've been very divergent for so many years and I've always liked to have a taste of so many different things.

So prior to becoming a filmmaker, I was, I think I was at that point trying to be an engineer and I was chasing a professional guitar career, also playing bands and the rest. But along the line I fell in love with people's stories and there was something about bringing real life stories to life for me that struck me.

So I had my brothers, my older brothers, had my twin, and my other brother were, they are photographers. And my elder brother in particular was a videographer. And sometime seven years down the line I just decided to, you know, let me try this thing out.

Let me try out bringing out people's stories. And that's what really propelled me to documentary filmmaking.

Because documentary filmmaking has, it's, it is the art of bringing the art of realism, bringing people's experiences and real life stories to life through the people themselves. So that filmmaking. So yeah, I, I got into it. I, I, for the first year, I, I learned as fast as I could, picked up stuff from people around.

I got a little bit distracted chasing money from event workflows, music videos and advertisements. Then a couple of years down the line, I decided to refocus and really key into what I really. Yes.

So so far I had, I first made a documentary short film called the Journey to Joy. Then from the Journey to Joy, I made a documentary series called Stories from Benin. It's a five part documentary series.

Then until my most recent documentary project, oio. Apart from that, I've also made a couple of documentaries for NGOs, governments and, and stuff like that.

Yeah, that's really been the synopsis of my journey.

Speaker B: 00:02:50

Okay. I mean, you've already spoke about a lot. How many years ago did this journey start?

Speaker A: 00:02:57

,: 2019

,: 2019

Speaker B: 00:03:15

Yeah. I mean how helpful was it that your, your twin and your elder brother were photographers?

Were you able to like before you actually started on your journey, were you able to pick up some things from how they worked and documented things?

Speaker A: 00:03:31

Yeah.

I've always said I'm, I'm a big sucker for community and I believe that you cannot really grow as much as you would love to without having a very sound community around you. And the same reason why I also chose medicine because it's a very practical course. Same thing with filmmaking.

I believe as a filmmaker your, your, your community and being hands on makes you learn pretty fast.

And what I really loved about my having family as or having my brothers in particular as go as foreign as before me was that before I could really, before I could start shooting or whatnot, they didn't give me a sense of they are developed my artistic eye to see, to find subtext, to find, to look beneath the surface. So I already had a very strong artistic mind for how I would want to approach my project.

The only thing was that when I became a filmmaker fully, I decided to. I now, I now started refining the artistic eye unlike if I had just started off on 00 and just picked out from nowhere.

And the same thing not just for my brother. So a lot of my people around, I always, I see a lot, I sit around a lot of photographers.

So in terms of what I love photography itself is that you're trying to pass so many emotions with one image. So just imagine having you have knowing how to pass a lot of emotions with one image applying to moving images like filmmaking.

So now for photography are confined to an image. But now finally you have a platform where you could have moving images.

So basically it was, it was really, really helpful and it helped me really grow really fast.

Speaker B: 00:05:14

Okay. You also talked about, you know, studying for your medical degree. How do you manage to balance all these aspects of your life?

Speaker A: 00:05:25

Okay. For me personally I, I do not believe in the concept of work life balance.

I just believe in the concept of life and I believe that anything you choose us work should be something that you are comfortable in or it's something that, yes, it can be stressful, but something you find yourself easily easy in. For medicine I do not, I do not see medicine and filmmaking as. Filmmaking is one side, medicine is one side. I find both of them.

I find both of them as one in my mind personally, like I said, I've already drawn the parallel between how both of them are very practical apart from them being very practical with medicine. I get to interact with so many people every day, including sick, healthy, old, young. And I feel apart from the camera effect of filmmaking.

That interaction does a lot to me in terms of how I view life and how I situate stories. Now when it comes to actually the time consumption it's quite tasking like. Like on the filmmaking and like finding time for filmmaking itself.

But I did something earlier on, earlier on when I started, when I and my brother decided we wanted to go pro. I wanted would create something bigger than us. We decided to start up a production company called 3 WM Productions and we started that off in.

I think that was: 2021

So the goal of Freedom production was to allow us exist outside our exist outside or be able to give us an extension of our arms to do more than we normally do. So what we did, we individually brought our networks and we power charged the company the word to use.

And, and what that did for me was that as a filmmaker it gave me focus.

So in terms of random jobs like documentaries, advertisements, the production company handles it, I supervise the production virtually we have on ground producers. Then I.

What I usually do, I dedicate myself to long term film projects that are documentary driven and I try to find those stories that are very close by around me. So that's why for my latest project Oyo I followed my boys for about three months.

But in the midst of following them for that long they were not so far from me. It was literally one like literally a kilometer from the hospital to where the boys stay. And it was literally I could walk from my house to the boys.

So I tried to I that I said it's kind of. I don't really believe in work life like I don't separate it per se.

So some days when I'm back from the hospital I could pick up my camera, I could go with my DOP with. We just go some weekends like that like that. And that's how we made it work then. Yeah, yeah. So yeah for medicine and it doesn't feel like stress.

It doesn't feel. Although it takes if it can become very stressful in quote but it doesn't feel like stress. I believe medicine is life.

I believe medicine is medicine makes me a better filmmaker. Apart from the empathy and the rest, it's, it's. It really brings context to a lot of things I do and it gives me a Sense of order. If.

If I would say so. It's been going great. Yeah. And I will be a doctor soon and they haven't kicked me out of medical school. So I think.

I think everything is going great so far.

Speaker B: 00:08:50

Okay, that's great. You know, like in a country like Nigeria, different people have different ideas of what a documentary is for you. What.

What formed your view on what a documentary should be?

Speaker A: 00:09:05

Documentaries are moving still images, I would say. Or documentaries are motion pictures that uses a real life personal experience to tell a story.

Basically is a moving picture that's depicting realism, simple. Like different people can. Different forms of documentary.

We have cinema variety style documentaries, documentaries that's expository documentaries, descriptive documentaries. We have reenactments. You get different from documentary.

But as long as the motion picture is depicting something that is real and it's putting and is capturing real time events is a documentary.

Speaker B: 00:09:47

So yeah, let's get into on your own. But before we get into that, hunt came first. On your own or the story me fellowship?

Speaker A: 00:09:56

Yeah, the story meet fellowship came before on your own.

Speaker B: 00:10:00

Okay, so let's talk about that. I'm sure that there were lots of applicants, but you made it to the top six that were selected for me. How did you capture your story in the pitch?

Speaker A: 00:10:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If I actually look back, the way the. The process was was actually you submit a cover letter, you'd submit a.

A treatment, a film treatment you would submit and you just give a brief overview of yourself and what you do. Okay. So you submit those and basically they select you. So then I had the project for oio.

In fact, the film then was called Displaced in time and it's kind of why the boys, they like. It was towards the end of the. When it was a week to the film release that the name was changed to on your own.

The first displacement time was too complex. Like they were not simple enough to understand everybody. So I had the idea then for oyu, which was called Inspiration time. Then I had tried to shoot.

I had the idea for OIU in: 2020

I have access to my boys and I really want to tell the story. So I created it. I already created the treatment for. I attempted to one Sundance program earlier that year, but I didn't get accepted to it.

So I just carried the treatment from that. You sent them to the Sundance program? I made A nice cover letter. I created a simple email and put links to my portfolio and my social media.

And I didn't literally. I. The way I literally live my life is I. I submit to a lot of things. Like I submit for the most random of things. So I just randomly submitted.

I'm like, okay, let me just submit if it works, it works.

If it doesn't work, in fact, I haven't expected not to work because at that point in my life, all the application that was submitted, none of them were working. So. And voila. In a month later, I got an email that I've been selected. And why it was quite nice, was that it was the first time I had somebody.

I had people actually looking into my work. You get it was when we went for the fellowship. The first few days they were analyzing my past work and I was like, oh, they even went this detailed.

Yeah. So at that point, OIU didn't have a very strong narrative. It didn't have. It didn't have. It was not. The film was not strong enough.

If I even look back, I'm glad they even selected the film then because the treatment was very vague. But they started the film. We came to Lagos. We had a. We had a really nice one week of very strong work, if that's what I would say.

It really, that one week redefined what I knew about documentary filmmaking. It's. It ironed out my. It ironed out my edges and it put a lot of answers to questions I've had for a very long time.

But I was paired with my Nie Jones, she was a BBC. She was BBC's senior correspondent for West Africa. And she really mentored me over six months of the project into some certain things to look into.

We also had Louis Monla, she was. She's an Emmy nominated documentary filmmaker. And Ike Nabu, he's a renowned documentary film in the country too.

So we could ask a lot of questions, we could get a lot of knowledge on many things. And after that one week, we're able to just go into the air and, and try and shoot out a film. Yeah, I said, so that is, that was the image any.

Speaker B: 00:13:37

Okay, so what were some of these burning questions that, you know, that's opportunity afforded you to kind of clarify?

Speaker A: 00:13:44

Okay, first of all, documentary filmmaking is not, it's not like I, I had that idea in particular about it. But documentary filmmaking, a lot of times people feel it just has to be about someone is going through something. You want to tell it? Yes.

You want to tell a societal issue, fine. But people, people look at documentaries as news reportage. And when I got there, we had another.

I like the fact we had different trainers, we had people from the news background and we had people like Louis Mola, who was, who is an Emmy nominated French documentary filmmaker that had the narrative style to documentary filmmaking, the more filming style to documentary filmmaking. So first of all, and it also did something for me, like, like I said, I'm very committed, driven person.

For years prior, I didn't really have mentorship. I didn't know I was learning on my own and trying what I could do.

But being there and see people that have done this and had passed through this phase and I could interact with gave me a sense of confidence that, okay, yeah, I'm on the right path and I just really need to do this and this. Apart from that, they really tied in terms of our narrative arc, our story arc.

They literally, they really put us into understanding how, how our three acts should go writing our documentary film, the treatment, how to really bring down treatment so that any, any person, globally, locally, internationally, anywhere who you are reaching out to will be able to understand what you are saying in very clear terms. If wanting to be a, if wanting to make film for an ingredient audience. But another thing to make films that everybody globally can resonate to.

And in terms of how you, apart from how you shoot, how you interview and your messaging, it needs to be very direct and clearly even if there's a lot of subtext. So having. And another thing was with. We had Ek from Nigeria, we had Miami was from. I was in actual. From an African country.

I can't remember at this point. Then Louis was French. We also had Sophie boy on that with French.

And we also had some other guests visiting people that came around for the final week.

So having people from different nationalities come together and brainstorm about your film and different films and, you know, it gives you a much, much more global view to how to approach filmmaking. So that was really what stuck out for me and it was just a very enlightening experience. Yeah, okay.

Speaker B: 00:16:18

So yeah, we'll still come back to story me, but let's get back to on your own. So you did this workshop in Lagos and it clarified a lot of things for you.

Now you were equipped with a better understanding of how to, you know, structure this year documentary.

I noticed from the film that, you know, it was just kind of like observational and you just kind of let them, you know, kind of talk about themselves and their experiences. But like how did you trigger them to kind of. I Guess talking that way. And was it also difficult gaining their trust?

Speaker A: 00:17:02

Okay, yes, yes, yes. That's a wonderful question. And that is one of the most common questions I've had for OYU.

Now from the onset, I've always wanted to have a cinema verity style, observational approach to the film. I personally, I don't like reportage films like news reporting, documentaries and the rest. I like documentaries where you don't.

There's a lot of subtext. You allow the audience, you leave a lot of questions in the film for the audience to answer.

And that's why in the full while you won't see any parts where they're saying our government should come and save us, so come and do all those digits. I wanted the boys to be.

To express the boys as humanly as they can be expressed, possibly show different aspects of who they are and allow the audience pick out or don't speak out from the story. So in getting the trust for the boys, I learned another. I still love medicine.

I learned one very strong aspect of life and I learned that every human being wants to be seen.

Now the idea for OIO and why we called it Displaced in Time was that the place in time meant that the boys were everywhere around us, but we can't see them. So like they are in a different reality. That's why we called it initially called it Displaced in Time. All of us are together, but they're not in our.

In our time, in our reality. So the same thing is so but and the same to OIO if.

And that's why at the beginning you could see a kid standing at the middle and people are just passing by in troves and it doesn't really matter.

Speaker B: 00:18:34

You get.

Speaker A: 00:18:35

Because nobody gives it, nobody cares. So I now this I we, the boys really wanted to be seen. So for.

For the first few weeks I found it hard finding them, which was funny because I knew they were at a particular bridge, but I could not find where they were on the bridge. I was taking one side of the bridge, I not seen them.

I was getting worried until one day one of my production team members said ah, she saw tiny heads on the other side of the bridge. And from there we picked it up. We got them, we saw them where they were actually on the bridge. And from there we started. We started connecting.

Before we brought. We didn't just bring cameras. We took some time. We developed a rapport. We met the younger ones first. The younger ones became comfortable with us.

Then they took us to these elder ones like Blackie and the Rest. And it was scary, to be honest, because actually when I saw Blackie for the first time, they carried us into the bush to go and see the elder ones.

So just imagine young kids carrying you in a bushy trail. Ah, my crew, just someone up courage and we met them. And from that day we became very chill.

And in fact it took some days, weeks before I even got to start shooting. And they said, oh, you said, you come and shoot us now. I'm not, I'm not seeing you seeing. So I'm not like, no way. I'll come, I'll come.

I checked them out. We tried as much as possible to how we give them money so that we did an ethical thing between being supportive and buying their story.

So we didn't give them money to come and talk. So we built trust over a while and by the time we brought the cameras in, it was very natural. They didn't need to pretend what they are not.

And in fact, the way I shot it was that it was a conversation between I and them. My DOP was very smart and responsive. So I remember editing, we had room tone.

So points where my voice is going to come in would use the room tone to remove my voice and put your room tone because it'd be like they made a pause. So we made. We kept it very chatty and very communicative. And also I give them a lot of time to, to talk.

Ideally, when you're shooting these kind of films, I'm. I'm talking from an NGO perspective. You want to show how all the struggles are going through in life. Ah, God. God should come and save them.

Yeah, they are suffering. Government should come and help. But we allowed them wonder. And it taught me something very practical.

It taught me something about the big pause where you have people coming for an interview. For the first 20 minutes, they tell you what you want to hear. They tell you how they're suffering, how, hey, God, they know, they chop everything.

Then after the 20, 30 minutes of rambling, what they feel they want to tell you, they make a big pause. And most filmmakers at that point would just off their camera but fire. My team, we learned that practically.

So when you make that big pause, camera is still rolling. But in a way, I don't know, they feel that I have gotten what you want to.

That's when they start talking, that when they start saying what the thing from their hearts, that when they start expressing their raw emotion. So that's what we did. We. We gave them time to ramble. We had a lot. I don't even have any interview interview less than 30 minutes or 40 minutes.

Some of those interviews are an hour long and we just is like five minutes out of it. So they had time to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk. And in. As the more they talked, the more homely they felt, the more thin they felt.

So it was not just, ah, these guys are coming to you and create content or what. Forget even the cameras. Someone is actually someone that is not an element. Boy is sitting down and listening to me. These are.

These are kind of people that you should tell me that I'm a criminal, I'm a thief. You get. It's finally listening to me. So I feel that really sparked something in them.

So that's how we're able to build so much rapport and connection. And some of them confessed some crime they had done on camera. That's how. That's how free, like open they became.

So on the other end, I had to make sure that when we're putting it in, we didn't put things that might get them in trouble in the film. You get. But it was. We developed a very strong bond and connection from the film. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: 00:22:58

Okay. So I'm like. If you ask me, I would say that there wasn't a central character. But he was there a central character in your story?

Speaker A: 00:23:07

No, I didn't want to. So what I did. I didn't. I didn't. Considering that it was a. Is a multifaceted topic affecting different age groups. I didn't.

I. I tried to keep the focus on the topic itself. I used Jalabia Jeffrey, so Rest in peace, who was a younger kid, that late teenager who was chased out because of Milo and the rest.

I was able to get into his philosophies and the rest. But Jeff is always moving with Bozo, which is the other boy that was with him in the film.

So we used the both of them to, you know, both of them were moving together. So we're able to capture their stories kind of together. Then we. Blackie was the one that could give us a full rundown on how the system works.

He was their leader. He was their leader and everything. They also had Scatter. Scatter was a. He's very eclectic, very unpredictable. Very, very.

He's him as a person, always interested me. Do you get. So the day we're shooting Blackie's interview, I just. I just.

I just started having a conversation with him and my DOP was, like I said, was very responsive. So we just picked up from there.

So when we're editing the film, we tried to make sure that as much as we had about three major characters, we didn't want the story to be. As much as wanted to be very personal. We wanted to show different sides to the story.

Now what if you noticed you see Jalabia side now with how he was picked up from home. He still basically left a little aspect of his crime. How he collected somebody's phone and how he was all kind to maingate. Same thing with Scatter.

We showed how we tried to use subliminally show how dysfunctional families bring about some of these boys. For many was young, his mother was his auntie and uncles didn't look out for him. He just started life on his own.

And even how he even got started doing fraud doing Yahoo. And he made so much money then and how. How in a way that they can be self destructive to themselves. And how we ended up on the streets too.

So really wanted to subliminally show different aspects of this story. If you just. We. If you had followed. Let's just see Jarabia for example. There's a lot of context. Would not have seen that Scatter story gave us.

So we just zeroed in on those three stories and every other interview for. We interviewed so many of them. Every other interview we left them out and just you know, zone in on those three guys.

Speaker B: 00:25:36

I mean, well done. It's definitely difficult focusing on a subject sometimes. You know, you might lose the soul but you're able to kind of maintain it.

Speaker A: 00:25:46

Yeah. Thank you.

Speaker B: 00:25:47

Documentary.

Speaker A: 00:25:48

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:25:49

You have completed a bunch of documentaries. How do you decide when the story is over since it's actually like people's lives and you know the story goes on.

When do you decide that you want to like end the story?

Speaker A: 00:26:05

Okay, for me, I. For me I don't need my sound very big. But the point I get when I'm filming, I just feel a bit of fresh air.

It just is like a. I don't know how to explain it. Like it's like an orchestral music playing in my head and the point I'm filming and I just. The music comes to an end, you get so.

But in more practical terms now it depends on the kind of documentary form you are going for.

For people that have a more reportage form of documentary or more expository form, you can write the full documentary scripts prior to when you to shoot. It doesn't mean you follow the script as it is, but you already know your beginning, middle and the end.

But people like me who have a More Cinemat Verity Observatory kind of approach to documentary.

I I have an idea of what I want to tell you get and once I get that idea of what I want to tell and how I want to pass the message and I have all that on camera camera at that point my documentary is over. Then what I can now do following up is or which I do practically is that as I'm shooting, I'm editing, I play Tetris with my interviews.

Even if they know I don't put any B roll on top as I'm shooting the interviews. I. When I get back that day I've watched everything. I've cut out the parts I feel I need. I play Tetris around it.

So in playing Tetris I try to connect to my story arc. Do you get like for O I wanted to at the beginning establish the. The. The system. The system. There's no other journalistic piece on it.

There's nobody talking about it. I really want them to understand what it was then going to enter their philosophies digit and their backstories.

Then towards the end I wanted to show how they a community of friends. But I didn't have everything they, they. They are left to at the end of everything you are your own. Like immediately you are left to yourself.

Do you get so what that you can't do get so once I got all pieces of my film I knew that to end it I needed to end it on a more philosophical approach or the rest. So that came into when I was playing Tetris in my interviews and the rest. So once I got my interviews and saw the key keep things I needed.

I just told myself that good, it's fine. I have all the material I need. So. And that's also key into another aspect which where I feel most documentary should do.

I feel it's very important to be writing me now.

I Even if I wanted an orthodox the standard thing to do is as you get your film or your interview, you keep writing your story, you keep rearranging your story. So at the beginning for. For big portion coming like BBC and Rest they have African Eye, they have a documentary script from A to Z.

But as they get down the field they keep changing it, changing the script as more material is joining and changing it. Then as you keep changing the script it gets to a point where the story has fully matured, are fully formed and you know, okay, good.

I have what the material I need for what I'm trying to create. Me on the other hand because I'm a More visual guy. I don't know how I don't like transcribing my documentary and the rest.

I like watching it and feeling everything. So I watch everything with the parts I feel important.

Once I see that my timeline is getting is fully full enough and the information I need, 33 is passed, I call it a day. Yeah. So that's basically how I approach it. That's how I know I'm meant to end it.

Speaker B: 00:29:32

Okay. You know, as part of story, me, you, you're able to access some grants to help in this documentary. But money is one thing.

Your creative team is another thing. Apart from your brothers. Like what community of people kind of helped in putting this film together.

Speaker A: 00:29:52

Yeah, yeah. In making, in making this film was like a labor of love.

Why I would say that is that we had a small grant from French embassy and Story, but the grant was also shot for three months. The grant was barely enough for the equipment we needed. So what I did, I assembled the team together.

I told them I drew division on them and said this is what we're trying to do. And everybody fell in love with the vision. And we didn't, I didn't pay anybody. I didn't get paid. My editor did not get paid my dop. Nobody was ever.

Nobody was paid. But we made sure that for the money we had, we rented good enough equipment. We're able to provide welfare for people that came around.

And as I just had people that just wanted to be of part. Part of it. They just wanted to be common fat and the rest. So we even had, in fact, in terms of crew, we had a larger chronom.

We even needed some days when I was actually. The days when I was shooting them in the bush. I tried to keep it to just three of us, three crew members.

And I didn't put any females because of security and arrest and you know, but we had so many people that came around to help and, and the same reason why I feel like the Benin community, the Benin creative community community, although it's kind of fitting away, but it's a very small, close knit community where everybody knows everybody. So when things like this happen, people can only come together and push. So like I said, we didn't pay, we didn't, nobody had a fee.

Everybody just came together and we just built the story piece by piece. Although I was very. Still very strong and key on the direction. We'll build the story together piece by piece. And.

Yeah, and that's, that's, that's how we came together.

Speaker B: 00:31:28

Okay. All right. So at this point, let's digress a bit. Can you tell us a film or a documentary that you loved growing up? Like, what's your favorite film?

Speaker A: 00:31:41

Okay. There was, there was this documentary I watched that inspires my new documentary film that I'm going to be creating. The name is For Summer.

It's a documentary film, is literally a documentary film that, that explores the five years of the uprising in Syria. And she, the woman married, she had it, she married a doctor and her name is, I think her name was Wad Al Katiba.

She gave it to the daughter during the, during the war. And she told the story from a very, very raw perspective. Like she was hands on, shaky cameras, hospitals destroying, kind of.

It was very, very intense and very, very raw. And it really drove how I see documentary films and what I should look out for documentary films. So it was, it was very, very, very, very intimate.

Very, very epic. So that was for Summer. It every now and then I go back to it and it really does something to me.

Then I also watched this other film, the film with no U Turn by Ike Nabui. He was also one of our mentors. It was a very wonder. It's a very wonderful film. Still very raw, intimate.

He followed the journey back, his migration journey he had 20 years ago. He followed that same road and recounted his journey, meeting with people and the rest.

Yeah, so yeah, those two, they're still, they feel so much more.

But particularly for Summer, it's really, it really, it really struck something in me and it drives the kind of film that I want to make because I, I, I like document, I like documentary that informational like with you. But I really want people to feel that raw, intense emotions. And that's why even when it comes to filming, I'm not in a rush.

I'm not like for OIU would have shot over you within three, four days. And we just do the random. Get a talking head. Everybody come and see how they're suffering and you just get random bureau.

I really want to express, express that raw emotion.

Like I had a film talk for Sunny in Benin last year and I said that like as a documentary maker, a hunter, you really need to, you position you have, you put patiently for when the time is right to make your catch. You don't. Yeah, you don't, you can't, you can't provision the cuts doing it.

So yeah, so that basically for Summer, for Summer really did something to me. It's, it really changes how I view films. Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:34:12

Okay. So when you're not studying or Attending lectures. And when you're not making films, what else do you do?

Speaker A: 00:34:20

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: 00:34:22

Come alive.

Speaker A: 00:34:26

I'm. I'm basically. I'm kind of this kind of philosophical subjects kind of guy.

So when I'm not studying, when I'm not going for lectures, some days I take random walks. I take very long walks with music, with music in my ear and just try and dissociate for a while. You get like.

I couldn't have very long evening walks and just. Just look at random people, try and think of their stories like when.

I mean okay, see kind of filming but like I film them in my head but like in a more serene way. Like I could just put like a love song. And I'm walking on the street, I can see a young girl or a young guy that is still in the early stages of.

They have not even entered a relationship or something that I can imagine how everything is going. And it just packed my imagination like that. I connect different with emotions you get. Sometimes I just watch.

Not to watch the fun fair like the doing Hollywood films, but I just watch as the golden hour or the blue hour is on the roof and it just packs my ideas. Then some days I read, I read random books. I like reading. I also like reading non fiction so I read some non fiction books, philosophical books.

Then I also play the guitar. So some days I'm on my guitar, I'm doing my stuff. Yeah. So basically I like. I like seeing the.

And it's not just even with film but the rest I just like seeing. I just like exploring the depth of life you get. I like like asking myself questions and that's why I really love another.

What I really try to show in my films, I always want people to ask. I just. I always want people to ask deeper questions. So basically what I do, I. I daydream a lot. Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:36:11

Okay. So when you wrapped post production on on your own, did you show it to the Elema boys?

Speaker A: 00:36:20

Yes, I did. We had a very. It was emotional for a lot of them. We had. What I did, I could not do at that point. The film was still very.

In fact the film has gone for wider than I had dreamed. So when, when I just come back from Lagos from the premiere, I went to where the boys were.

At that point you can only afford a very elaborate screening. But I brought out a device. We had a lot of all of them gathered around and we sat down and we watched the film together. Some of them started crying.

Some of them just felt very. It was. It was a very emotional Thing do you get? We had a very emotional or just a very emotional. It was outdoors. It was not even something.

It was not touching special. You get. It was just very close to the beach there. And they were just very touched. You get. And it was like.

And I feel it still ties down to the fact that they are being. The fact of being thin. I don't think they expected it to be that professional. I feel they still in a way thought it was kind of content creation.

But seeing it come together in that way was very emotional for them. And. And it's what really pains me because of. For the film.

If you ties into one of the issues I have with us as a country in the sense that we hear 200 people died in Borno State or 50 people died in Kanwan. It's just news. We are so desensitized to evils around us.

And the same thing I noticed from the screening they had with Oio now Oyu has had a lot of screenings. It's nice. But we have a lot of people that either. A lot of people find it entertaining you find in knife. But it was funny.

Really hard connecting the audience to making a real change for these boys Bigot. Now I had a colleague of mine, he's also a big documentary filmmaker. He has gone to IDFA and all this big documentary. And he told me something.

He told me when I explained this film that as an artist we. Or as filmmakers or artists we. Our role is to tell the story. Do you get like.

Our role is to present the story in best and allow the society do the best it can to respond to the story you get. And I know yes, ideally it. I've told the story you get. But it still pains me that for many of the boys it is. We can't have that.

We have not been able to have that change in their lives. But the only thing I And that is still the same reason why I still love documentary filmmaking. Because it is. Is. Is a. Is a capturing time.

And my hope is that if even it might not be this year, might not be next year, maybe three years from now, we can find a permanent solution to dilemma system in Benin. Why you also touched me a little is that my main character, one of my main characters, Jalabia, he wished he loved his.

He misses his grandmother so much because she was literally the only woman that loved him. You get. And if she. If he could do it again, he would bury her again and all those.

And it was too heartbreaking to see that he died a few months after that. But only the only relief it gave me was that possibly would have just died without us filming him. And his story is gone for life. Ever gone. The.

The comfort gives me that if Tori leaves through the film and maybe might not be today, maybe might not be tomorrow, but maybe someday one day we might through his story, we might find a way to have a. Creating much better life for many of these other boys.

Speaker B: 00:39:57

Yeah, definitely. I mean I wouldn't have known about him if I didn't watch the documentary.

And sometimes these kind of stories help in humanizing, you know, just I guess random people we see on the streets and we don't know much about them. Yeah, definitely. So how much of you know the story, me community and the feedback that you go. How.

How does feedback play into, you know, the larger creative process, especially with documentaries.

Speaker A: 00:40:27

Yeah, feedback plays a very big play, a very, very big process. A very big, A very big role. Like, I mean I'm. I'm a very huge sucker for having very. Having feedback.

But it's important to know you have feedback from. So what I did when we let me use OYU as a case study when I finished, I had first made the first rock for oio.

So I brought together my team for us to watch it. This was before we. I got to Lagos for the final week of the fellowship. When I brought my team together, everybody was honest.

Now the documentary then had a more talking head approach and everybody was honest about what the documentary lacked and what was missing and how we didn't have that. And that feedback really informed our decision and we decided to go back and get some more physical to show, not tell. That was the concept.

But we didn't show enough. Do you get. So we went back to the street. This time our focus was not getting interviews.

Our focus was just observing them more so that we could show more. So if I had not had that feedback with my crew, an honest feedback.

Because one of the issues I feel most creative have is that we don't have to take criticism. We feel we know it all or we just feel that, you know.

But having my crew sit down and first critique it, we defume took a new look then after the film took a new look at the final week of the. Of the. We had another one week session before the premiere where we tightened up the edits and the rest.

And when I knew the film was when I had a very strong feeling about the film was the first time I previewed it with all my mentors and everybody there. Miami Jones, the journalist that men mentored me she. She started.

She let out a tear and I just knew that, okay, I've been able to express this language the way that different people can feel it. So they all love the film. Everything was there. But they now started. They were still a second wave of criticism.

So that's where we changed the name from the Place in Time to OIO Now. I was crushed because I had fallen in love with this. Just imagine your project for years, like I've called Declarative time for like four years.

And they just came and said, this name is not passing information as much as it should. So.

Speaker B: 00:42:53

But philosophical as you like to be. Yes, yes.

Speaker A: 00:42:58

But I had to, I had to, I had to take it up. And I found, in fact I found a new name that evening and it was even. I think one of the persons I even inspired him was Sophie Boyon.

She runs the Academy. So she just said, have you thought of on your own? And I just thought of it and I said, okay, this is still kind of philosophical.

It works, it's catchy. So we moved into that. Then when we're shooting the film, like when I presented the film to them, they loved everything.

In fact, the film initially what I. What we're meant to create was a 10 minute film. What I created there for them was a 25 minute film.

But they said because of the screening and we could not show it in, it would take up too much time. They said I should cut it down to 15 minutes it. So we started doing some cuts and trying to make it shorter.

And David also told me about there are some part that I miss some crime on camera. And he said, okay, let's try and protect our character. Let's remove this. It might put them in trouble. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Move that.

So after the.

The fellowship that when I decided to take it as a personal journey to using the mantra we have to make a 40 minute cut that I can feel on YouTube and the rest of the. But initially the film was meant to be 10ft and I made a 40 minute record as a task to myself because that was my vision for the film.

You get like, that was my goal for the film. It was not just about let me just make a film for story me. So there's a. That's why up to today OIU has an 8 minute cut.

It had a 15 minute cut, it had a 25 minute cut and had a 40 minute cut. All of them.

Speaker B: 00:44:27

And all those cuts are completing themselves.

Speaker A: 00:44:29

All of them are completing in themselves. They said the story from beginning, middle and End. The only difference is in the 40 minutes court, you can soak into the characters.

You can feel the characters more. There's more in the. But in the eight minutes cut, for example, now we go straight to the core central spots of the story.

But there are some things that are very similar that they parallel or there are some basics in everything. You get just a little more about the context. So we. They criticize the name, they criticize. They removed some parts and I didn't have everything.

If I look back, it really tied into the film. But there's also some parts that I left as I wanted that I said there are some. There's a point, there's a criticism you want.

Now for some people, they would say there's some parts of the film. They said I should have used an afrobeat song for Gates. But the context of them me.

Of them as asking me to be an afrobeat song was the fact that they, you know, the global wave of Afrobeats you get. But as an artist, the emotion I wanted to pass there, if not approbiate. So at that, at that point I decided I had to say, okay, no, I don't.

This is what I want. I don't want that. Then we tightened it there. Even in terms of the coloring, we're very, very intentional.

I had my crew members coming with booting eyes. If the film does not. The film have a. Doesn't have a very dark look, but you don't see bright greens.

You don't see very bright greens and very bright blues. We try to make it very. Try some muted tones. And if you want if.

If you look at it with a much deeper eye, you see that the tones become much, much, much, much more muted towards the end when we have the crescendo and we have the ending. So like I said, I'm a sucker for criticism. I like. I'm a community guy and I like everybody bring coming together to, you know, really craft.

There's only so much you can know and see and there's still so much that you can get from random things around you. So, yeah.

Speaker B: 00:46:24

Let's talk about on your own on the festival circuit. How, you know, was the global reception. It got into a lot of festivals.

Speaker A: 00:46:33

Yeah, the global reception was very, very, very, very wonderful. Now when I was at finish film, I had a dream of maybe I just to like five film festivals. I will rent. I gather my guys.

We'll go to one film house close to my house. We just rent out the hall, do a small screening that would. That Would truly that was really my dream.

I didn't imagine it as such but these are nothing about me. Like I said, I applied for the most randomness of things. So I had applied I started applying to first of all I used to be free.

We applied to all the free free film festivals. Then I started categorizing the film festival that paid that I want to apply to. So and I developed the toxic scheme for rejections.

I think I received like like 200 rejection emails in the last three years.

So rejection was not the I didn't really care about rejection so much so I started putting it in there and surprisingly I was just getting selected for different film festivals. We had, we have done I think we did 25 over 25 film festivals. Then we had some special screenings like we had classics in the parks in Ghana.

We had like two special screenings in Benin. We had some other screenings. We had different place spaces. Then we did which version made it.

Speaker B: 00:47:49

To the festival 15 now what I.

Speaker A: 00:47:52

Did was that I I, I, I layered out I based on each film festival study I decided the version to put forward.

Now I for some film festivals I temporary 40 minutes version because I knew that they would have a much more they have much larger programming time and they have more they will have a much they have a larger specific need for those kind of films based on the kind of film that selected before. So for some I put the 40 minute versions there. Then for some film festivals for example we got into Dorban.

Now Doran was a whole it was crazy because of I got into Durban but I didn't get into afri.

But I, I, I think I know why I didn't get into afri but I once I got into Durban I didn't, I didn't really care for much of Africa anymore but for Durban I didn't expect, I didn't expect to get selected but I just said okay, I have a film, let me put it together.

And I noticed from their film from their submissions that they do not they are feature length or let's say 40 minutes and above films they are very selected.

They should be probably done a world premiere at maybe IDFE or Canes or whatnot or they have a buzz around them then and I decided that okay, if I want to have a fighting chance of being shown I think the 15 minute version will work better here. So I sometimes did the 15 minute version.

In fact at that point I did not had not come to full animation that that category was the is an Oscar qualifying is actually the Oscar qualifying Category. Yeah. So I just submitted 15 minutes version and I think it was the same day I got the rejection from AFRIF that I got the.

I got accepted from to Durban. So it was very, it was, it was a very out of the pockets and very, very eye opening. Yeah. So that was for Durban.

So we had, for different film festival we had, we looked at it, we said okay, this one, the 40 minute version work based on what they program and their programming times and and for this one 15min work for much bigger film festivals we use the 15 minute version because obviously we don't have. Usually from what I learned from all my trips to different film festivals and the rest of the.

The global community ready for documentary film, even feature films and the balls you get the, the as much as the film is good sometimes the people you co produce with your international co production partners, your, the people your, your people who fund your film, they all play play a role into getting your film into 13 film festivals. So from the bigger ones I didn't go for the 40 minutes version but for the bigger ones I went for the 15 minute version.

Where did the larger chance of me getting selected then for the smaller ones the ones are more Nigerian African I went for the 40 minute version. So that way we're able to optimize our submission spree. So yeah, we did couple quite. Couple of film festivals had some really nice screenings.

We had a very nice reception for different. Many of those screenings. Very, very nice reception.

We had people cry, we had people smile, we had people, vital ranges of emotions and I don't know everything I feel even if some of them are still desensitized, we're able to really have the, the audience connect with the boys. And why I also loved our film festival route was that we had some unorthodox places.

For example, we got into a film, it was a film school film festival in India and to have people from India to have people from. In fact I haven't had another journalism school that screened the film in Indonesia.

To have people from all these extremes of the world connect to a film about young boys that are staying close by to my house was very uplifting and it kind of reiterated the fact that okay, maybe we are doing something the right.

Speaker B: 00:51:57

Yeah. So your story journey continues.

Can you tell us more about you know, some of the opportunities that story keeps kind of bringing your way and maybe you can also tell us on what you're working on next.

Speaker A: 00:52:14

Okay, yes. So story me has really been a very strong blessing. Now the means like as much as they will give you so much to do.

And I would look at it as apart from the mentorship, the tutorship, it's an access card. And what I mean by an access card is that above you have access to your mentors, e.g. louis Ek.

Now we have Chiki Odua that has worked as a correspondent for Jazeera and Vice News and the rest, you have access to those people to ask questions, to brainstorm with as much as they would mentor you. Well all of us, we're all professionals.

So it's really left to you to find to push on what you want do you get as much as they will mentor you Every nobody's going to spoon feed you everything do you get. So if you really want to push on, you push on what you want.

The second why so see it as an asset card is they have sponsored me to two different film forums. One was Super Docking Br it's a film festival. Then Sunny side of Doc in Rochelle which is the film market.

And from all this sponsorship as much as yes, they will take you there, they will give you, they will correct you with some basic network they, they you have access to. They give you a full expense page. They you have festival accreditation. Literally they just gave you a full access door.

You get and you have on the festival platforms everybody's contact is there. Their email, their face, their role. You can literally connect from the biggest to the lowest in documentary film space globally.

You can send, you can literally code, you have emails of over a thousand people that can top your films and the rest. So I would say for soy media that is really what stands out for me that assess. So we literally we went for the first film.

For the film it was kind of new, new to us basically. It was our first time being in that kind of space. We learned a lot. I created a lot of contacts, built some network.

But then we went again this, that was last month. We went for the sunny side of document.

So first of all we're able to connect with some of people who connected back then we saw them again in Sunny side So like films place globally is a very small community. So usually the same people you'll be seeing over and over again made some network. I'm working on a new film called beyond the Horizon.

In this film I am actually in the film.

It is exploring Theory of Iron, my friends, that we navigate our fathers in medical school and the choice we will decide to make if we are going to move abroad to the global north for a better life.

If we are going to Stay back and fight at the front lines of our dying health care system or if we leave medicine and chase our other passions, that does not give us strength. So that is new for my mom. So we each of us had our new projects. We're working on feature length projects. So we got there.

I was able to, I prior to the film festival I called, emailed a lot of people, set up meetings. At the meeting we're able to discuss the film, discuss what they want to see.

There you meet different producers and different people with different things they are looking for. You see some producers are looking for more content, current affairs, talking head documentaries.

You see archive producers with archival footage that they can give you, they can license to you. You see the people are looking for science, looking for art. Some people are looking for, for more character driven documentaries.

You see distributors. So like I said, it's like a buffet.

It really then at that point it's not left to say, okay, this is my film and what I'm trying to create, you have to do the back end study and see, okay, this person, would this person be a nice fit? Would this producer be able to carry the idea of my film?

You get, they can also get advice real time from some really senior people in the film ecosystem. You get and that and the advice is really very uplifting.

A lot of times people make applications for film teams but you will be able to see at the back end what they look out for globally.

Like if I'm to highlight something they look out for globally, one thing they are really, they are really concerned about is your connection to the story. Why do you want to tell the story?

Like a lot of times we, we especially in the creative system here, we like showing poverty and it's just about ah, this person is suffering. But in the global documentary ecosystem is way bigger than that. Why? What's your connection to this story?

If you think someone like Ikea Nabue, he had gone through that journey to, through this desert and everything to Europe before. So he's con, he has lived that life and he wants to re express it, you guys.

So before they even get into your narrative arc and start reading your dossier, your script, they really want to know what is your connection to this story? Why should you, why, why are you the chosen one to tell the story?

For example, I watched a pitching session where a white lady was telling a story about, I think it was about albinos in an African country. And did you want to do that? Would you consider getting a co director?

Because you know, I don't understand somehow but you're a white lady telling African story. So all those. All those synergies they. They take a role to play. What's your connection to story?

Why should you tell the story before it even comes to even your technical stuff about the story?

And if you're able to show how you are really connected to the story and that connection to the story is much easier to get funds then secondly everybody is also looking for why is your your story globally relevant?

You get like let's say I want to give money shoot your film now about something happening Benin City did somebody why should somebody in the United States why should somebody in in UK why should somebody in France watch your film? And if your film cannot answer that question it's not if I'm not a very good friend film had a nice story is not I can't.

They can't give you money because they can't distribute it. So when you are crafting your film your distribution plan should be clear. You get and it should also nuance why you are making that film.

And that's a lot of times a lot of documentary from Africa that get licensed is their migration stories because it's a global team. You get it's a team that connects. Same reason why you see a lot of ques too find it easy to get licensing because it's a global topic.

And same thing with war films. Every war film, every new war film that comes easier to get funding too.

But when you start doing hyper niched films like you you want to tell a film about a woman that sells in your streets. Okay, yes he has trained mother motherhood. But why I've seen this story before. Why should we why the global appeal to it. So all those things matter.

And with the remain being there and seeing the pitching sessions and communicating with talking with producers talking with different people it really gave me a stronger idea of why and how I should craft my film. And it is I should be I should save for my applications now with with my three mentorship project.

Up to now I think you see a lot of rejection email but my registration emails are getting fewer. So at the very least you show that okay. They are fine tuning my process figures.

Speaker B: 00:59:29

Yeah.

Speaker A: 00:59:29

So yeah that's basically it.

Speaker B: 00:59:32

Nice.

Speaker A: 00:59:32

Nice.

Speaker B: 00:59:34

So what would this say you'd like to see as an improvement in the documentary space in Nigeria?

Speaker A: 00:59:42

Okay this is not even just a documentary space with I would say it's in Nollywood generally. First of all there's an issue with this knowledge is not democrat demo there's no democracy to knowledge.

Like, everybody always communicates in hush tones when it comes to their filming process, their distribution process and whatnot. And it's very, very, it's very, very stressful. And I feel it hinders growth.

For example, I, I reached out to some distribution partners in Nigeria and they replied on LinkedIn. They didn't reply via email. They just go send me their email.

But in the European film space, I reached out to some of the biggest, like some of really, some of the really biggest people in the European documentary film space and they replied my emails and if they cannot help, they will tell you they cannot help or they would even recommend who you should email or how to approach. Who do you get? Like, they've. If, if you are growing up, if you are a filmmaker growing up as a documentary whatnot, in the film space, you.

You needed to find resource and material either to find direction. You get compared to Nollywood, where you just wake up, you're passionate about films, but everybody's just quiet. Everybody. Nobody wants to review.

Okay, how, how do I do this? How do I get my film to this? How do I present this film to this? You haven't as much. You don't get the emails.

You haven't seen the emails to reach out to. So I feel it's very, very. I feel it's very, very terrible. I feel it's very. I feel that is a very big.

And it's holding back the film industry because a lot of people with very great talents, there are a lot of people with even access to resources through these films, but they don't know where to start. They don't know who to meet in terms of even our film festival. Okay, AFRI is doing a good job.

We also have digital life events, I realized, but even in that, there's no. Still enough information out there to how to approach these things. Now. People say, okay, your film should have a clear global standpoint.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, who do I meet? Where do I start from? Nobody. It's not clear there.

So I feel that one major issue with the ecosystem, secondly, for documentary film ecosystem, it's a small ecosystem, it's a body ecosystem.

And that's why I like Story Me, for example, because Story Me has really come in and they have been able to, through us and through their other programs, I've been able to really bring this community together. And I believe that over the next few years it will grow. The only problem I have, or I wish I.

The only issue I have is that which Is my first issue is that for documentary distribution in Nigeria, it's kind of a problem because first of all, in European film space, the documentaries even go to cinema, but we don't have a cinema culture for documentaries here. And secondly, like I said, it's so much questions in the European film space. You can literally see a clear chart from. For how you.

You would market your documentary, whether it be a documentary, documentary film, feature film, even a documentary, short film. But here we can't, we don't have that. So a lot of times, filmmaker, you have to look for how to connect to that European film space from Nigeria.

So you see a lot of the great documentaries that come out from Nigeria, you don't even see them because Nigerians are not watching them. The people who are enjoying the fruit of this great documentaries are Europeans because everybody's thinking of how to get their.

That, that is their distribution plan, people that would enjoy their films. I had a really big senior colleague of mine where I respect Omoro. He has done a lot of nice do.

I have done a couple of documentary films, even entered VR documentaries.

He recently released a documentary VR film called Retrigger Name in Hodstones about how families of migrants have died in the fire desert and the rest are left in limbo and how they don't know if I don't like talking names of their family members because it brings up a lot of memories. And on the VR project, I went for the exhibition. It was really nice.

And you know, but if you look at it, the exhibition in Benin was, it was more of a symbolic gesture than a distribution gesture. The distribution is still mainly European and us based on.

So I feel that we really need to, as a film, as a film body, as a community, come together to see how we can really look into the distribution of documentary films within the country. The only documentary documentary place you can only watch documentary films right now is on YouTube.

You get your belly seat on TV station, the baby seat, attach TV stations or platforms, and I think it's a very easy, very problematic thing. So, yeah, so that's very cool. Those are my reservations. Yeah.

Speaker B: 01:04:43

And I mean, in addition with what you said, you know, like, these are the times that, you know, it's important for Nigerians to tell their own stories and also create these opportunities because, I mean, I've also applied for documentary grants and because you're not, you're probably not going to get all the money from one financier. They tell you that. Okay. Because your country, there's hardly anywhere to get grants.

So Chances are that if they give you this money, you won't find money to complete it. So they basically just push it to the side.

So I think it's also, yeah, very important for, I mean, everybody in the Nigerian ecosystem to kind of come if they need to finance documentaries. Again, you have a distribution plan, but I think having a space where all these things can coexist kind of opens up more opportunities.

So people might look at it now and say, oh, there's no business there, there's no money there. But, you know, things tend to open up as opportunities.

Speaker A: 01:05:50

Yeah. To even add. To even add to that. Yes. Like in terms of film agreements, you get. I feel recently I thought we made.

They made a film agreement with Brazil, a production agreement, which Nigerian. Brazil, which was really nice because it's a global F country too. It's open, it's opening up a lot of space, but I feel we need more of that.

And even when it comes to funding, what you did is actually very correct. A lot of times they want to see that your film has support from, let's say, a national film body.

And it's, for example, South Africa is so easy to get funding from your country. You get even, let's say your film is like, your budget is a hundred thousand dollars.

Even if it's $10,000 you get from your country or $20,000, it gives other people that are going to fund your film the confidence that, okay, they have been. There is support or there is government backing. So this team will actually be made because I don't know my colleagues in that followed us to France.

He met a really nice person that founded the film. But one of the problems was, okay, as much as I want to fund this film, we have not really seen any strong funding from your country.

Do you get, like, apart from story, me and French embassy, which is different. Yeah, they know Nigerian body, NGO government, nothing like sponsoring the film.

What is the guarantee that will not give you money and you run away with it or something. You get. So all the. This is something that. And I feel it still ties down to the government.

If, if when it comes to film, another, like documentary film space, nobody's going to give you. Nobody. Nobody's going to give you your full budget. Even if it is okay.

The government starts giving out, even if it's 5,000 or $10,000 as the development funds to finish the early development of the film, it will go a long way in finding so much funding for the film.

Speaker B: 01:07:45

There's all these things, like, I think there's just a role that government needs to play. In most countries, there's government involvement.

And so for, for a country like South Africa, they have a fund that filmmakers can apply for to attend festivals. And just think of a festival like Bali. Part of, you know, the criteria for them to choose you is how you're going to pay for your travel.

And, you know, so they look at the country like Nigeria and they say, like, oh, yeah, there's no support, so let's select less Nigerians. So I mean, it's just a cyclical thing that keeps coming back to affect us, you know.

Speaker A: 01:08:27

Yeah.

Speaker B: 01:08:28

But yeah, hopefully things open up and, you know, I guess government on the, on site can ramp up a bit of support for the industry rather than just, you know, kind of taking, taking credit like, oh, in Nigerian got selected to this festival. They can also do a lot more work in the, A lot more early stages. Yeah.

Speaker A: 01:08:53

Yes.

Speaker B: 01:08:53

Nice, Nice. Yeah.

Speaker A: 01:08:56

For anybody listening, I think it's very important to first of all make films that you would like to see. That is one. And secondly, I feel it's also very important as a filmmaker to make films that's, to really put in to do your best work.

And now I say this, is that there's a problem with funding. A lot of people see filmless and I, I also saw this in, I went for a film festival and he's a big Nigerian police and see the same issue.

A lot of people get funding and they feel that their life has changed. And let's say you get a temperance for a phone fund, you use $8,000 and change your life, then use $2,000 and do papa.

So I feel as a filmmaker and at any opportunity I give you, try and do your best because your current work is going to determine your next work.

Speaker B: 01:09:47

And it also affects people from your country.

Speaker A: 01:09:50

Yes. And you also assist me from your country.

So if you, if you keep being photo lens or if you keep, if you keep cutting corners, it shows where the film is done. Well, it shows when a film is done, it shows.

So I feel when you are giving any opportunity to film, put your best work out there, your best work will lead to your next work. So, yeah, I think.

Speaker B: 01:10:17

Nice, nice. Thank you, Daniel, for, you know, sharing all this information with us.

Speaker A: 01:10:23

Thank you, thank you. Thank you for having me. I greatly appreciate.

Speaker B: 01:10:28

We have come to the end of this episode. Remember to rate and review the podcast. You can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook and X @selegotfilm and the podcast @thenaijafilmpod.

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