Filmmakers worried about cheap Naija movies, soaps

Nollywood actors from Nigeria in a meeting at Safari Park hotel in Nairobi. The creative industry, which includes the performing arts, festivals, visual arts and film, television, radio, video, photography and new media, is a driver of economic growth. PHOTO/FILE

What you need to know:

  • Representatives of five film groups have constituted the National Film Council (NFC) to deal with the threats facing the industry.
  • Film marketers are also divided, leaving their Nigerian competitors to saturate the market with Nollywood movies and Filipino and Mexican soaps.

Sierra Leonean filmmakers are calling for regulation of prices of films to cushion the local industry from unfair competition.

Foreign film marketers, mainly from Nigeria and Asia, are alleged to be behind the illegal trade in cheap movies. Now, the Freetown-based Nigerian marketers behind their importation are in the firing line.

Representatives of five film groups have constituted the National Film Council (NFC) to deal with the threats facing the industry.

The NFC will be responsible for all film groups in the country, said Arthur Pratt, the interim president of the Sierra Leone Union of Filmmakers (Sunvalley), one of the two biggest unions in the industry.

The failure by the government to recognise the industry’s potential is partly to blame for its slow growth.

While the movie industry falls under the Information Ministry, the authorities have done little to promote it. And, because of disunity among the industry players, efforts to meet with the officials have been unsuccessful, said Pratt, who is also the executive director of We Yon TV.

Film marketers are also divided, leaving their Nigerian competitors to saturate the market with Nollywood movies and Filipino and Mexican soaps.

For less than a dollar, one can buy a DVD with at least four Nigerian movies, while a single copy of a locally made film costs $2.

“If Sierra Leoneans can get five films in one disc, they will go for it,” said veteran actor and producer Desmond Finney. His production company, Supdee Movies, is among the few that have managed to market their productions across the country’s borders.

Officials of the new union say they will seek to regulate the market to ensure that foreign films cost the same as local films.

The article first appeared in The East African.