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I came into the movie industry as an angry young man
In 1959 they were premiering the film Ben Hur by Charlton Heston and he was invited to Nigeria to premiere the film
Surprisingly enough he stood up afterwards and said that it was a shame Nigeria did not have a movie industry
I was a very little boy so I shouted at the top of the wall from where we were peeping at the show
I said: Listen, I will become a filmmaker and nobody is gonna invite you to Africa to premiere your film
And before the police could come and catch me, I jumped down and me and my friends ran away
And since then I made up my mind, as a little boy, that I'm gonna be a filmmaker
The killling of Murtala Muhammed, he was a personal friend
That was why I shot the film on his killing
The film has been banned five times by different governments. When I appeal to them, they release it
It was hell to make the film, nobody wanted to help, nobody wanted to support the film
I wanted to use the authentic place where he was killed. His house
What I did was that I gave some uniformed boys drinks and some money, so they close down the street
And I was able to shoot the film at the exact spot where he was killed.
Cause that was where I shot this 35mm picture, while everyone was running away
This poster is made from the authentic picture of his execution
This film was a very big success commercially and historically
That is what I am after. I want people to identify themselves with contemporary stories. I base my movies on contemporary events where you can see through
Here was Murtala, he devoted Nigeria stepping toes on the cruel, greedy corrupted people, and they wanted him out. And that's how they did it
Most of these film were shot in 1983, 1979. From 1975 I started shooting. This one is called The Mask
When the Nigerian Government asked the British to get the mask back that the British has stolen, they said no
So I recorded the film The Mask where a Nigerian James Bond went to Britain blows up the museum and bring back the mask
When the film was released in Britain, the British Government said
That I should not encourage people to blow up the museum
After this movie the British Government wanted to negoiate about how the mask could come back to Nigeria
but with their arrogance they did not let that exact mask come back .
They said it was to fragile to come back to where it was stolen from
But they started to send us back artifacts that were stolen in the 18th. and 17th. centuries
I have been able to use my films to make a lot of good statements and I have changed things
They done a lot for this nation. They have given this country a good name, whether we like it or not. That is why I am sad to see
That after the beauty they have done, they are watching it die
After shooting one or two films they start to use the same characters in all their films
They are not trained. If you are trained, you read the character instead of using the same
That is my fight. They got to train, they got to train, they got to train
They have the future. The world is waiting for African Cinema
Nollywood must not die. Our football team do not win any matches, and our athlets did not win any medals at the olympics
So they only good name Nigeria has left is Nollywood
And we can use Nollywood to tell the white countries that we are not all 419 pushers (scammers)