Nigerian & African Video Films Forum - 30 Days, An African Story - Mildred Okwo

30 Days, An African Story - Mildred Okwo
By Prince Osuagwu & Benjamin Njoku
Published: October 28, 2005

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Much as the African story has been told either on screen or in the theatre world, Nigerian-born but California trained lawyer, Ms. Mildred Okwo, still expresses reservation that a lot have not been done in the area of putting what she describes as "the traditional African story" in proper perspective. During a recent visit to the Vanguard newspapers office, Mildred narrated how her journey into the movie world started as well as the making of her debut production, 30 Days, a political thriller which stars some of the renowned actors and actresses in Nollywood. Read… WHAT is your ambition in opting to join the Nigerian movie industry after your studies in Law in the United States? In fact, everything about the arts, is my first love. So doing movie now is a sort of natural progression to whatever I have been doing in life. Being in Nollywood, basically, is to help propagate the African story. A lot of stories have been told, yet many lacked the in-depth of African story.
So have you come to re-tell or modify the African story? Oh yes, my version of it. At least, I am an African woman, purely of Igbo descent. A lot of images have been created out of the African life on the CNN and other international media. But I think, I have a duty as a human being and an African woman, to add to it and possibly correct some impressions about Africa. That is why the name of my company is Native Lingua Films.
Did we hear you say that art was initially your first love? Why then did you abandon it in the first instance to study law? I studied Theatre Arts at the University of Benin in 1986. I travelled to the States after my youth service and never returned to the country. There, I studied law as a second degree in California. While I was a law student, I was also involved in certain things that have relationship with the arts. But when this Nollywood industry started to grow, I knew I was going to come back to my first love. One thing I considered most was how to be relevant in the industry despite the financial involvement. And, it will delight you to note that it is only when you are financially balanced that you can determine what next to do. I decided then that I was returning to the arts to tell the true African story. Most of the stories coming from Nollywood depict the women of the 90s. I didn’t want Nollywood to wait too long to bring the true story of an African woman to an end.
Does it mean that you’re a feminist? Well, I am not a feminist. I am just a humanist. And, as a human being, I am also from that part of the world where people grew up in poverty.
Now that you are back home, how do you expect to make your mark in the industry? I do wish to work with anybody who wants to work with me to produce quality works and tell the real African story. It is my hope to do a thorough job, and to work with experts in the film industry. Before my entry into the film industry, I was committed to identifying a Nigerian producer who has knack for producing quality films. I was lucky to have run into Ego Boyo who is collaborating with me in producing my maiden film; 30 Days. We are now getting into the post-production of the film. In the movie, there is a sort of paradigm shift from the talking-talking syndrome. A film is supposed to be a moving picture. Scenes and events are supposed to be moving.
Back home, your dream is to give more impetus to the African story. While some people are already telling the story, whether to your taste or not, would there be a feeling of threat, in a situation where you exhibit more professionalism than what is presently on parade in the industry? I don’t think so, if you endeavour to carry along the people you are working with. I am not a tyrant. It’s not only about criticizing the quality of the films, but it is also a matter of getting it right. I will still need to work with the people who are already on ground. That is why I had to partner with Ego Boyo to produce the story. That’s why Genevieve Nnaji, Segun Arinze and other notable actors/actresses are starring in the movie. And that is why both the make-up artiste, cameramen and other crew members are selected on merit. I allowed them to make inputs. I also allowed everbody to contribute to the general success of the production. Movie-making is about collaboration and that is what I have done with the production of 30 Days.
Politics, like in every other sector, is played in the movie industry. The tendency is that they may allow you to express yourself, then lure you to some political blocs or you get easily eased out. How are you ready to face such challenges? That is why I worked very hard to raise money. You can’t easily ease me out of the system if I am financially balanced. I totally agree with you. In the movie industry, there is politics anyway, but I don’t intend to belong to any caucus. That is why I chose to work with Ego Boyo to produce 30 Days, because of her sense of purpose and erasing of tribal sentiments. The cast of the movie is the most diverse and the crew also most diverse.
What was your experience like in making the movie particularly since you appeared to be new in the industry? Well, making a movie is always very stressful but I enjoyed it. Though Nigeria has a peculiar production setting. One thing I noticed was that people were not being serious and quick as I have experienced in the USA. There, in the States, things are done faster. You have to show your stuff or you get fired right away. But here, it was different. However, people started arriving on location lately.
Location designer We also had problems with location. Here in Nigeria, everywhere you go to, you have white walls and this is not good for lighting in a black movie. Location was a very tough job. Anyway, we had a location designer who put touches to where there are white walls.
You have come to tell the real African story, not of the 90s. But like you pointed out, traffic situation, civilization which had almost all the walls painted white, have become part of Africa. How are you still going to go back to the good old days when these were not there? Do you know one funny thing that happened to me? Within a week, the crew got to know my state of mind, what I wanted and the way I wanted it and things changed. Now, the African story, like I said, this is a political movie. I know that things have changed. For instance, I am not going to show that there is no traffic situation in Nigeria; it's ridiculous. My aim is to prove that there is traffic which is not our original heritage and thereby sensitize the leaders on how to do away with the influence of foreign cultures. That is my view of telling the real African story. What informed the story of 30 Days? The story was written by me, about a year ago. It was inspired by a newspaper editorial I read in 2003. After reading the editorial, the story started coming into my head and I started writing it down. In fact, I wrote about four of the lead characters. Genevieve was one of them. Joke Silva was another, Ebele Okaro also was another. So when I finished writing the story, I decided on who was going to oversee the production of the film. That was how I contacted Ego Boyo.

The story was written by me, about a year ago. It was inspired by a newspaper editorial I read in 2003. After reading the editorial, the story started coming into my head and I started writing it down. In fact, I wrote about four of the lead characters. Genevieve was one of them. Joke Silva was another, Ebele Okaro also was another. So when I finished writing the story, I decided on who was going to oversee the production of the film. That was how I contacted Ego Boyo.

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