DVWORXS, a pacesetter
in film production – Afolabi Adesanya, NFC boss
By LAWRENCE NWALI
Friday, February 22, 2008
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Pix: Sun News Publishing |
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Having been impressed with the state of the art facilities
at DVWORX, one of Nigeria ’s top flight production outfits,
the Director-General of the Nigerian Film Corporation, Mr.
Afolabi Adesanya recently commended Mr. Femi Odugbemi, the
Chief Executive Officer of the production outfit.
Adesanya made this commendation when he paid a courtesy visit
to the DVWORX studio as part of his reach-out activities to
stakeholders in the film and production sector. Elated by
the high quality production facilities he saw at the company,
the NFC boss thanked Odugbemi for his penchant for high quality
production.
His words: “Mr. Odugbemi has done much for the film
industry. He has been a very good friend of NFC. He has donated
some computers to the Film Institute. Odugbemi has been of
tremendous help to me. The least I can do is to come and express
the same fraternity and urge him to maintain the existing
good relationship. I am also here to strengthen the vision
of the founders of DVWORX.”
Adesanya said that DVWORX has been able to network with some
aspiring young filmmakers in Lagos . “In partnership
with DVWORX, we hope to re-establish filmmaking in Nigeria
and re-launch Nigeria as a filmmaking nation.”
The NFC boss said: “Everybody wants to be a filmmaker
but it is problematic. Our vision is to nurture young graduates
in the league of producers of good quality films. It has been
our objective to grow the filmmaking industry so that it does
look as if it were in the 70s when filmmaking was a highly
regarded sector before the emergence of Nollywood.”
However, he said that nobody is praying for Nollywood to disappear,
but Nollywood has come to be seen by the filmmaking industry
as the starting point of filmmaking.
He said DVWORX has the technical and personnel resources to
produce high quality films and that most of its management
and technical staffers are graduates of the Nigerian Film
Institute in Jos.
The Film Corporation boss also spoke on the need for independent
producers and filmmakers to patronize products of the institute,
adding that in that way, they would help in creating job opportunities.
“The graduates of the Film Institute are making us proud.
Most good producers today are graduates of the Film Institute.
They are useful to those who are making commercials. A lot
of productions are being taken out of Nigeria . We are developing
productions in those countries. We are building capacities
in those countries to the detriment of the industry here in
Nigeria .
It is not doing us any good. The truth is that we need to
look inward and patronize the local talents here in Nigeria.
We have TINAPA Studio. It has a top grade production facility.
Beyond what you see on the television, you need to be there.”
On his part, Odugbemi described Adesanya’s visit as
“emblematic of the kind of relationship which DVWORX
is trying to grow between the film industry and the public
sector operators.” |
