A director is like a god - Dickson IroegbuBy Daily Champion
Published: March 2, 2006
Print The African Movie Academy Awards tagged AMAA 2005 has since come and gone but leaving at its wake surprises that were never thought of by Nollywood insiders.
One such surprise was the emergence of Dickson Iroegbu who directed the film, The Mayors as "the best director of the year" with one film winning the best-picture as well as best screenplay. The award given to Dickson appeared well-earned. He is the everyday guy, for Nollywood buffs. Simple and good natured such that he would not mind patronizing any nearby eatery where bitter leaf soup is prepared, Iroegbu uses his drama and lifestyle to demonstrate the level of "Nigerianness" in him.
Married to an Isoko lady with two kids, Dickson sees the award as a challenge for greater heights, assuring that he would keep the flag flying. The award winning director came into Nollywood from what some people would call low-ranked position - a production assistant but steadily walked the road of success, despite discouragement from people.
Dickson Iroegbu could just walk on the street and you might just think he is probably the other guy next door. But before you do that, be careful because he is also the director of wave-making film Women's Cot. In this encounter with atim ikpeme. Dickson speaks on his turbulent road to success and fame.
The Man
I'm Dickson Nnamdi Iroegbu from Mbaise in Imo State. I am a poet but the world has made me become a film maker. I had nothing to do with the arts in school. I did Business Administration. I'm married to an Isoko lady and the union is blessed with two kids, a boy and a girl. I'm the acclaimed AMAA Best Director 2005.
How it started
I came into Nollywood as a production assistant and writer. I wrote some scripts and I also functioned as a production assistant. I came in to learn the trade. I knew I had something to offer as a writer but that wasn't my aim, I wanted to be part of the art and I was told I could do that by becoming a director, so I came very low to learn it from professionals like Andy Amenechi who I was incidentally nominated with as AMAA best director, but that I won showed that I learnt from the best.
I went through other stages -continuity, props, production manager and coordinator. I have gone through the basic rudiments of film making and I employ what I have learnt in my daily dealings with people. I came in as a writer, delved into other parts and finally now a director. I started directing in 2002. That was when I called my first shot as a director.
Rising through the ranks
It was my first movie as a director that got me shot into the ranks of directors in Nollywood. You know how it is, nobody would give you a chance if you've not really proved yourself. Nobody is ready to play trial and error with his money. So when I told people that I could direct, it was all "no, no, no" from all angles but my spirit was not dampened.
When I gathered money on my own, I went ahead, became an executive producer, financed my movie on my own and I shot the first film Days of Glory, which everyone now saw and liked. Having seen this movie, Amaco Investments marketed this film and now financed 'my second project Romantic Attraction and it was eventually the magic that made people start believing in me that I could read and understand a script as a director.
Challenges
I have been influenced by this environment to do a quicker job as a director where I probably would have concentrated, taken time to achieve because of the environment not being conducive, especially, economically. One now says let's make do with what we have, though the public appreciates but I wish that the environment had been more conducive, I would have done better.
Another challenge is that of facing the public who expect you to be so wealthy as a director and film maker, families seeing you being celebrated on screen come to you with demands that you can't meet up to at times.
Professionally, my basic challenge has been the desire for unity that will last in Nollywood. I have said often times that if we are united, I think the government that we are calling every day will step into Nollywood to save the only product that is proudly made in Nigeria, that has influenced the world by shooting film on video and today there's a higher video that improves the camcoder that we are now using and this technology came by Nollywood's Commitment to video.
Directing
A director is like a god who sees a formless environment and gives life to it, sees bones and adds flesh to them, gives shape to them. The director perceives something from the point of view of the writer who has expressed his mind by creating something. He is like an Obasanjo who has to effect a change in the economy of Nigeria. I don't have to wait to be president or governor in order to effect a change in my generation.
So, a director owes this generation something good. An actor from the director's point of view must be one who has good facial expressions, good voice modulation. A director is life to scripts that become movies.
When I'm directing, I call my shots. I put the actor who is acting 'Emmanuel' and the actress who is acting 'Angela' and putting them together, making them understand why they must be together.
During directing, I interpret the script technically from the director's point of view to become a motion picture which in turn has a lot of influence on the viewers because it's not only the reading. The director has a lot at stake because everybody understands pictures, even a child.
I owe the artistes an answer to every question they ask me on set, I owe the investor an answer to every question he asks me on how he needs to recover his money.
Awards
Before I started directing, I had an award from Washington D.C, U.S. in 2000 on poetry, then the AMAA award 2005 as the Best director, the movie I directed The Mayors won the best picture, DSTV Awards. AMAA was and is still a shocker for me anyday because I went to AMAA to play along with my colleagues who were attending and because I was told that my movie was nominated.
It came as a shock when I was called to pick up three awards on the same night - best director, best picture, best screen play with the same film in the presence of a Hollywood star and amidst the three people who were on the set, Sam Dede, Segun Arinze, Richard Mofe Damijo.
Stardom
I'm enjoying stardom because nobody knows me. The name is what people know. I'm a different person from the name. I'm just simple, I go to functions and if welcomed its okay if not its still okay. If I have to eat "Akara" on the street, I will. I intend to manage this stardom and not let it manage me. I can't change myself.
Married Life
It's wonderful, it's the best thing that has happened to me. Apart from God, the harbinger of everything that has happened to me is my wife. She has given me two lovely kids and with her around me I've received all this recognitions, with her around me, it is exciting. Being married is good and God is there to make all the ups and downs fun because I have found myself a wife, I have found favour in the sight of God.
Role Model
My role model as a director is James Cameron, the director of Titanic. My role model for an actor is a foreigner, Al Pacino and my best actress is my wife because she acts for me in reality. Her talent is seen only by me.
My Ideal Woman
She must be very intelligent. I need a woman who can discuss intelligently, one who can perceive life from a realistic point of view, not fake. A woman who will not care what the world feels when she is in love, one who understands poetry. If a woman does not appreciate poetry, she is not my kind of woman.
Hobbies
I love driving, I love reading and writing, but one basic thing I enjoy doing is directing.
Sex for roles
Personally as a director, I'll be stupid, how can I face the actress on set and say give me this or give me that when I have said sleep with me before I give you a role."
I will be a weak man to give a woman conditions to why I should sleep with her, I said in Women's Cot through one of the lines delivered by Onyeka Onwenu that "the difference between rape and willful sex is patience, the patience to woo a woman". Any man who is in Nollywood as a director or producer and is intimidating the woman that she must sleep with him before he gives her a role, is a weakling.
Apart from that, that person has no respect for the arts. This job, I don't joke with it, even my wife knows it. I won't say it's a lie or it's true but I haven't done it and I'm aware that there are others who haven't done it too but my sister, even in heaven, there is an evil man, so Nollywood couldn't have been a holy ground, that this bad eggs are here doesn't mean one should conclude that everybody is the same.
Last word
To my fans, if I disappoint you any day, understand that I'm a human being and bound to make mistakes but it won't be intentional. These mistakes come because blood flows through my veins.
To any upcoming actor, first of all, look at yourself and tell yourself what you want, don't come into Nollywood, saying you want to be an R.M.D or a Genevieve. Be patient, don't be desperate.
For an upcoming director, it takes a lot of patience, commitment, perseverance, understanding that as gold goes through fire before coming out to be appreciated, you will face obstacles but don't allow that talent in you to die because you will be asked to give account of it from God.
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