Supple Magazine

SYNOPSIS
Upon the death of the village Chief Priest, Obidike gets struck by a strange sickness, leaving his mother in doubts that he has been poisoned by his step-mother. Dike, Obidike’s father and his elder brother Amadi, embarks on a quest to discover the root of such illness, after consulting the oracle through AKIKA the native doctor, it’s reveal that Obidike has been chosen by the gods as the next Chief Priest of Umuaka Village in the eastern part of Nigeria.
A sunny afternoon by the village river-side, after Obidike’s recovery from the strange sickness, Obidike sights the arrival of strangers on two canoes into their community, “Mr White” a British colonial/ slave master, “Ogoni” his Interpreter and his armed bodyguards. Obidike takes to his heel, running home to inform his father about the arrival of the strangers. the village town crier raises alarm, leading to the arrest of Mr white by the village vigilante group.
Ogoni negotiates for Mr. White’s freedom with the village elders and in the process offers them various gift items of mirror, matches, wrappers, gun powder etc, he capitalizes on their ignorance and amazement at these strange gift items to deceive them into believing that MR WHITE is God’s representative on earth. As Mr.White regains his freedom, he takes advantage of his new conviviality accorded him to perpetrate evil and destabilise Umuaka village community’s system of government. Mr. White appoints Amadi, to be the Warrant Chief of Umuaka village after a show of loyalty, out of greed and quest for power, Amadi uses his position as the village Warrant Chief to secretly eliminate opposition group, using his brother Dike as a scapegoat.

MG TEASER HD from UBAKA JOSEPH UGOCHUKWU on Vimeo.

Mr. White later defied the gods when he took to captivity the chief priest to be OBIDIKE and looted some sacred idols of the village. This he did with the special connivance of AMADI, who has been jealous of young OBIDIKE’S rising profile as the new Chief Priest to be. This affront on the traditional religion of Umuaka did not however go unchallenged by the gods of the land. Subsequently, the ghost of the late Chief Priest appears many times to Mr. White, demanding the return of the stolen deity and the release of Obidike together with other slaves from Umuaka village, but Mr. White men remains adamant. Severally Obidike has been questioned by Mr. White, to tell him who’s the Old man that visits him most night demanding for his release, but Obidike’s lack of responses triggers the evil spirit in Mr White, making him instruct his guards to double Obidike’s punishment there in the slave camp.
The gods of Umuaka village decides to strike after the arrival of two british slave traders, Mr Jackson and Duncan to Umuaka village courtesy of Governor Wilberforce to assist Mr White in expanding her majesty’s business on the coast, by killing the slave masters and their local collaborators with strange ailments.
In the confusion that trailed the deaths, OBIDIKE uses the opportunity to mobilize other captives in a revolt that marked the killing of Mr White, the recovery of the stolen sacred mask and the total destruction of the slave camp. Obidike returns home from the slave camp and goes to Amadi’s house, to show him the sacred mask, after which, he goes to restore the sacred mask in Umuaka village shrine where he assumes his rightful position as the village Chief Priest, out of shame Amadi secretly commits suicide.

The International Committee of AFRIMA and the African Union Commission, AUC, on Monday October 5, unveiled Lagos, Nigeria, as the Host City for the 2015 All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, putting to rest high expectations among AFRIMA stakeholders about the Nigerian city to capture hosting rights.

Announcing the host city, the Director of Communication and Sponsorship, AFRIMA, Ms. Matlou Tsotsetsi said: “Following the recce and inspection of facilities and infrastructure of four states in Nigeria namely: Akwa Ibom State, Cross Rivers State, Lagos State and Rivers State by the African Union Commission, AUC and AFRIMA production team, Lagos has been chosen to host the continental awards ceremony this year”.

Ms. Tsotetsi further said: “It is worth mentioning that Nigeria won the rights to host AFRIMA for three years – 2014 to 2016 – as announced at a world media conference by the International Committee of AFRIMA on October 6, 2013. Nigeria vied for the hosting rights alongside 13 other African countries eventually winning the competitive bid. As a result of this, the 2014 edition held in Lagos, while AFRIMA 2015 holds at the Eko Convention Centre, Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos on Sunday, November 15.

The most populous city in Nigeria, Lagos is renowned as the hub of music, entertainment and commerce in Western Africa. Lagos is also globally recognised as an African megacity for business and tourism. The state is famous for her aquatic splendour and vibrant festivals/events such as Eyo Festival, Badagry Festival, Lagos Black Heritage Carnival, Lagos Carnival, Eko International Film Festival, Lagos Seafood Festival, Lagos Photo Festival and the Lagos Jazz Series.

The 2015 edition of AFRIMA is geared to increase the tourism and entertainment equity of the state as the International Committee prepares to receive an influx of international and Africa dignitaries, AFRIMA 2015 nominees, music stars and executives who are attending the events.

AFRIMA 2015 will go further to offer benefits that would help in raising the continental and international profile of the city, including an opportunity to tap into the millions of participants and followers of the growing African music.

According to Miss Mary Umeh, an enthusiastic African music fans and an undergraduate of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, “We have been privileged to witness so many special moments through entertainment and music over the years in Lagos. However, having African music superstars under one roof at AFRIMA 2015 in Lagos will leave us with wonderful memories remembered with pride in years to come.

It will be truly inspiring.”

Stating the International Committee`s position on Lagos as the host city for AFRIMA 2015, the Executive Producer/President of AFRIMA, Mike Dada, said: “The International Committee is honoured to have a state that is rich in culture and tourism and shares in AFRIMA`s vision of creating a deep brand equity for Africa and Africans. This is in line with our objective of promoting Africa’s cultural wealth and producing a world-class, live performance and television broadcast show that portrays the best of Africa to the rest of the world”.

Preceding the main awards ceremony on Sunday, November 15, will be the “Africa Music Summit” on Friday, November 13. Themed “Reviving the Business of Music in Africa”, the Summit is a platform for the African music industry stakeholders to engage and deliberate on how the music industry in Africa can be nurtured in a way that adds to the GDP of the continent.

The 2015 awards ceremony is expected to be broadcast live to 84 countries on 109 television stations across the world with the support of AFRIMA media partners.

Eko International Film Festival has an operational office.
We want to draw your attention to an article ‘The best film festivals in Nigeria’ where the Eko International Film Festival which was misrepresented by www.nigeriansreport.com and was republished by http://www.indiewire.com/ as not having operational office and many other libelous and defamation comments against the platform was a fraudulent and a malicious  report.

PRESENT OPERATIONAL ADDRESS
Eko International Film Festival
Supple Communications Limited,
No.17 Modupe Johnson Crescent
Surulere Lagos, Nigeria.
And you can reach us with the following email addresses.

president@ekoiff.org
contact@ekoiff.org
submissions@ekoiff.org
press@ekoiff.org
marketing@ekoiff.org
Our telephone numbers are
+234 803 303 6171
+234 818 315 1753

Eko International Film Festival was registered under the Ministry of Trade and commerce of Nigeria and also registered under the copyright laws of Federal republic of Nigeria.
Eko International Film Festival currently on her 6th edition attracted 3.114 films from over 118 countries around the globe and the committee are working round the clock over these films and the festival date remain November 16-21,2015. The festival official selection will soon be announced.
In 2013 Lagos State Government endorsed the Eko International Film Festival.
The mission of Eko International Film Festival is to promote the appreciation of Arts and Culture through the motion picture arts and sciences and increase tourism in the global village.
Eko International Film Festival currently on her 6th edition have partnered with several multinational like Heineken International, Nexim bank of the federal republic of Nigeria, Multichoice the biggest tv cable network in Africa,African Magic Mnet Africa.
The festival have also partnered with some reputable media houses in Nigeria ie, Silverbird TV, Rhyme Fm stations, NTA which has the biggest reach in all the 36 states in Nigeria including the Federal Capital Territory, Galaxy TV, Guardian newspaper, Sun newspaper, National Mirror, The Nich, Daily Independent, Vanguard Newspapers, This Day Newspaper, Tribune newspaper and many blogs, like Bellanaija.com, onobello.com.etc.

We are not competing with any film festival in Nigeria but open to collaboration with others for a better film industry in Nigeria.

The President/Founder of Eko International Film Festival Hope Obioma Opara has the following academic qualifications, National Dip, Higher National Dip (Finance & Banking) Post Graduate , MBA (Finance) and also Membership of the following Professional Bodies :
Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM)
Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (ARPA)
Independent Television Producers Associations of Nigeria (ITPAN)
He is also the Publisher of Supple Magazine an on line film festival and movie magazine. www.supplemagazine.org
He is the Managing Director/CEO of Supple Communications Limited & Flonnal limited.
Owner and Organizer of the annual Eko International Film Festival. www.ekoiff.org which her 6th edition is coming up November 16-21,2015. Venue prestigious Silverbird Galleria (Silverbird Cinemas) Victoria Island Lagos Nigeria.

The Film Festival president have earned press accreditation on www.supplemagazine.org platform to Festival de 3 continent in France in 2008, Cannes Film Festival 3 times, Berlin Film Festival in Germany, Rotterdam Film Festival and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: Oscars.org in 2014, he was also invited by University of Southern California as a panelist for their 9th annual cultural diplomacy country in Los Angeles United States. see link
http://www.ekoiff.org/2014/03/14/cpd-9th-annual-research-conference-on-cultural-diplomacy-university-of-south-california/

We encourage and appreciate any genuine organization to partner /collaborate with our annual Eko International Film Festival in Lagos Nigeria.
Looking forward having you during the 6th edition of our annual Eko International Film Festival.

Ekoiff Press Release:

Mr Hope Obioma Opara is the President and Founder Eko International Film Festival.  In this interview with‘Wale Olapade, of Tribune Newspaper  he speaks on the Eko Film Festival, the need to invest in the industry, how it will boost tourism, among sundry issues. Excerpts:

Mr Opara

What informed the idea of launching Eko Film festival?

From inception, I started a magazine named Supple Magazine currently online that is based on films and film festival which also included movie celebrities. I actually interviewed the former Audio Visual Attaché of the French Embassy in 2008, after going through my magazine, he advised me to write on film and film festival, this actually spurred me to get interested in the film festival.  Ever since, I have attended different international festivals. The first film festival I attended was Festival of Three Continents in Nantes France in 2008 and it was a very great experience. That push aroused my interest in organising a film festival.

Do you think it has achieved its full potential?

Yes, because this film festival is an area of the film business that the Nigerian industry (Nollywood) needs to key into, to  attract major stakeholders coming to Nigeria. It has also encouraged new entrants into the Nollywood industry for better exposure of other filmmakers’ projects from other countries.

Six years on the line, how has it positively grown the film industry in Nigeria?

Every film you watch during the film festival has a story line which always reflects what is going on in other parts of the world. For instance in the last edition, we screened a film from Uganda titled, ‘The Clan’s wife’ the story about a tradition of marriage where a father must sleep with the son’s bride a night before marriage and the film is being used as a soft power to change the harsh traditions.

What were the challenges you faced growing the festival?

The major challenge we are having here in Nigeria is the issue of sponsorship among organisers except for one of the festivals that have really secured a state government’s support. There is always the Nigerian factor of, ‘who is this guy, where is he coming from’ and such unhealthy assumptions which hinder the growth of the Nigerian film industry. But we must continue to move on because Eko International Film Festival is not a dream, but a vision.

As an allied tourism event, how have you been able to develop innovative content to attract participants and patronage?

The platform is already established as an international film festival. Honestly, the government is yet to recognise the importance of film festival is in Nigeria. In one of the interviews I granted last year, I stated that tourism is not complete without film festivals in Nigeria. I have been to Italy, Berlin, International Film Festival in Germany,  Rotterdam International Film Festival in Holland, and Cannes Film Festival in France, including the 2014 Oscar awards in Hollywood, California, USA. For those of us who have been privileged to attend such big events outside, you will know why the western world gives massive support to their film festivals. Cannes attracts 45,000 visitors or more every year and Hollywood in California attract 10 million visitors every year and California as a state in America export only IT and entertainment and the annual budget of the state is more than the whole African countries put together. You can imagine what those in the hospitality business are making within that period, taxi drivers, telecommunication companies and the financial institutions in terms of exchange including other economic indexes that trickle down to even the woman selling groundnut on the street.

Compared with other international film festivals, what are you doing differently to give you an edge over others?

We are still a very young film festival. We are working hard to replicate those major film festivals we have been attending across the globe and see how filmmakers from other countries will also start coming to us. There are no basis for comparison because Cannes Film Festival is 68 years old, Venice in Italy is 72 years, Durban film festival in South Africa is 36 years, FESPACO takes place every two years, in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso since its inception in 1969, now 46 years and Eko International Film Festival is just six years. I think film festival should have started many years ago to add value to the Nigeria film industry. In any case, we are succeeding.

Benedict Johnon .Akeem Rahman, Madu C Chikwendu, Amayo Uzo Philip Move To Save Ibo Culture In Nkuma
August 19, 2015Umuahia, Southeast Nigeria –Five years after he initiated a conference for the revival of Ibo language films, frontline Filmmaker and Activist Madu C Chikwendu has finally redeemed his pledge to the Ibo nation. His shingle Kraftman Production has completed Principal Photography on the highly anticipated Ibo Language film “Nkuma“.

Filmed on High Definition in the highlands of Abia state, Nkuma goes behind the myth to unearth the realities of being a warrior amongst the Abiriba people of Abia state .Starring Benedict Johnson, Akeem Rahman, Ben Onuegbu and Hajiya Abubakar the movie assembles a glittering cast whose mastery of Ibo language and culture will surely propel the language and culture of the Ibo’s to new heights.
The Abiriba, Ada, Abam Ohafioa peoples ofAbia State alongside the Ashanti of Ghana and the ancient Romans are amongst the world’s earliest professional soldiers. They were soldiers for hire used mainly by the Aro’s for slave raiding operations. But amongst these tribes a precondition for fullmanhood isthe provision of a specified number of humanheads. This was the ultimate test of Manhood. Some of the warriors never return from this mission.Okwute’s(Benedict Johnson) father never returnedfrom hismission. Now he must embark on a similar mission and raid a distant clan.
For Executive Producer / Producer Madu C Chikwendu:
Making this movie has always been one of my ambitions in life. Growing up in South Eastern Nigeria it is still difficult to say whether “Ndi Ogbuisi “ ( Head Hunters ) were heroes or villains but they were a bit like bogey men used to scare children…..they were supposedly lurking somewhere in the Bamboo thicket. As a Filmmaker it was quite interesting to research this phenomenon and unravel why they existed in the first instance.
Nkuma is helmed by Amayo Uzor Philip (DGN) starring Benedict Johnson, AkeemRahman, BenOnuegbuand HajiyaAbubaker aka Dambaru.Movie is helmed by fast rising DOP Chukwudi Madu with Phil Collins and Fred Amakom as Line Producer and Associate Producer respectively.
Director Amayo Uzor Philip declared that it was a breathtaking experience:
First Madu and I have been very concerned since the revelation that the Igbo language is dying. So for me it was also a mission…to save the language of my people. So we had to be careful to cast people with the necessary mastery of the language plus the physique hence the choice of BJ (Benedict Johnson as the warrior Okwute.
The movie will go on a global tour after a World Premiere in November 2015. You can watch the trailer on YouTube via this link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH_dRrmHnPg or directly from our web site here: http://mcmng.org/kraftman-production.html
ABOUT KRAFTMAN PRODUCTION
Founded by Filmmaker Madu C.Chikwendu Kraftman Production is the Lifestyle, Audio Visual distribution and Production powerhouse of Madu’s MCM group ( www.mcmng.org.) Other units include Thud Worldwide Consultants Ltd and Lagos Film Institute.Notable brands include Miss Safety International Beauty Pageant, Lagos International Film Festival, and Leap International Film Festival.
-End-

This year’s edition of the Eko International Film Festival billed to rally film stars, directors, producers, script writers, film makers among other allied tourism sectors is billed for November 16 to 21, 2015 in Lagos.
According to the Founder/President of Eko International Film Festival, Mr Hope Obioma Opara, “The film festival has already attracted 3,114 entries from 118 countries cut across the continents.
Opara said that the festival’s focus during this edition will be on contributions of the media to the growth of the film industry.
He added that with the encouraging numbers of entry received, there is strong hope that the film festival will continue to be bigger.
Opara said that the film submission for the festival, which was opened till June 30, 2015, has been extended to July 15, 2015 to avail those who are yet to put in for the festival.
“Film submissions must be in one of the seven categories; feature, short fiction and documentaries, short documentaries, horror, student film and one minute.
“Other activities during this week-long event include workshops and seminars with brand platform and support for corporate organizations to be part of the event.”

Written by: ‘Wale Olapade

  LOS ANGELES—
The 2012 film “Last Flight to Abuja” from Nigerian director Obi Emelonye was a disaster thriller based on the true tale of an air crash.
“30 Days in Atlanta,” a 2014 film from Nigerian comic Ayo Makun, was the top-earning Nigerian feature ever. It chronicles the adventures of a Nigerian man and his cousin on a monthlong trip to America.
Cinema professors and movie professionals recently met with 30 Nigerian producers at the University of California-Los Angeles film school, where the Nollywood moviemakers heard tips on promoting their burgeoning industry — the world’s second largest by number of films produced, trailing India’s Bollywood but ahead of Hollywood.

FIDELIS DUKER

(Film Maker/Founder Abuja International Film  Festival)

“It is an industry that employs close to a million people, either directly or indirectly, and has close to about $500 million a year in revenues annually,” said filmmaker Fidelis Duker.
It could have billions in revenue if not for piracy. Pirated DVDs are sold openly in markets, and the Nigerian government has promised to crack down.
Nigeria produces more than 1,000 feature films each year. Most are quickly shot on inexpensive digital equipment. They are typically direct-to-DVD productions, with budgets in the tens of thousands of dollars. Major Hollywood movies can cost $200 million or more.
In two weeks of seminars at UCLA, these producers heard about the art and business of moviemaking. Hollywood actress Diane Ladd, a three-time Oscar nominee, spoke about the importance of collaboration.
“When we in the arts work together, we are promoting culture,” Ladd said. “And remember, if this civilization loses its culture, you lose the civilization.”
The 2014 film “Half of a Yellow Sun,” starring British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, was an adaptation of an award-winning African novel, set against the backdrop of the Biafran civil war in Nigeria of the 1960s. Nigerian producers say there are more like these to come.

August 06, 2015 4:57 PM