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Is this a good time for a very short story about how I was deprived from Prophetic Bragging Rights in Nollywood about a decade ago?
1. Sometime in 2012 (or was it 2011 or 2013?), I was invited to a small film festival in Lagos, courtesy @tonikan11 and Ugoma Adegoke. The festival was @LCAFilmFest. Travelled all the way from Lafia town.
2. At the festival, I saw Confusion Na Wa and was struck by just how well-written it was. Nothing I had seen in Nollywood prepared me for the film& #39;s dark humour, its philosophy, its worldview. It turned out that the director was a guy chilling opposite my hotel room.
3. I had to interview him. I was writing for Metropole while handling prescriptions at the general hospital in Lafia. I returned to Abuja and had a conversation with my publisher, the great @Waziriadio. I was super-convinced I had seen the future of Nollywood.
4. We had to get this guy on the cover. Mr Adio gave permission and I tracked the man down in Abuja. It was probably at Ishaya Bako& #39;s house. I got the interview and told the director that we would use a grand headline for the story. King of New Nollywood or something as royal.
5. That was where the wahala started. The guy said no. We couldn& #39;t do that. I see now that it was a mistake that I told the subject the headline of a forthcoming piece, but at the time I thought it was not so bad. I got the story. We changed the headline. Big mistake.
6. Since then, I& #39;ve watched this director do fine stuff, get to festivals, judge competitions, receive funding, make some money. With each thing he& #39;s achieved, I feel a bit bad I can& #39;t produce a cover with the headline and say, "Look, I said this guy was great a decade ago!"
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7. With @NetflixNaija announcing that Oloture is coming in October, that feeling worsens. @kennethgyang is effectively the first male director from Nollywood to get a Netflix Original. (He& #39;s second overall, after @GenevieveNnaji1.)
I want to say, "I discovered him!" But no proof.
I want to say, "I discovered him!" But no proof.
8. So I am writing this thread to say congratulations @kennethgyang. But also so that the historical records show that I saw it coming. This is my bid for a footnote in the history of Nigerian filmmaking.
9. The man appears. Congratulations on #OlotureTheMovie https://twitter.com/kennethgyang/status/1308024999345819650?s=20">https://twitter.com/kennethgy...
