Stella Damasus and Ebuka Discuss Different Problems With Nollywood Today

Nigerian actress Stella Damasus first broke into the Nigerian movie scene in 1992 in a movie called Abused. Since then, Stella rose to become one of Nigeria's biggest and most successful actresses. She was biggest during the 90s and early 2000s, a pivotal time when Nollywood really grew and begun to blossom.

Now that Nollywood is an internationally recognized phenomenon and we see investors and streaming services coming in now to partner with us, it is a good time to take stock of where we're coming from, what we have now, and what we can improve upon.

During an interview with Rubbin' Minds, host Ebuka sat down with Stella Damasus to discuss glaring problems that still affect the industry. Here's what they said.

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The conversation started with Ebuka asking Stella:

"When you look back on where you started and what the industry is doing today, is there some sort of "I wish this is how things were then," or are you happy enough that you were part of this story and the history of what this industry has become?"

To which Stella responded:

I have mixed feelings about that. I wish we had the kind of information and technology and training when I started. I wish we had all the opportunities that they have now. But now I'm wishing that we are able to tell the kind of stories that we used to tell then. So that we can mix those stories with the technology that we have now and knock it out of the park. Because I feel that we are still struggling with telling authentic stories that people can identify with easily. I see us trying to do what oyibo is doing. You cannot blow up car pass oyibo. You cannot fly pass oyibo. You cannot jump down the helicopter. So now if you notice a lot of people from Hollywood are coming to Africa to tell our stories and I'm like I think it's more authentic when we do it instead of when you force people to try to sound like us. We have history. We have stories that our children don't know about and it's very strong and impactful when we realise the power that we have storytellers.

Then Ebuka asked her: "What do you think is the missing link in Nollywood? Do you think it's the stories? Do you think they're not authentic enough still? " to which Stella said:

For the most part yes. For instance the last Oscars, the Nigerian movie that made it into I think top 10 or so or top 15, Milk Maid, that was a story about terrorism in the North. Very beautiful and a number of our people didn't get to see it and I wish they did for them to understand what the international world is looking for. When they say best International Film they're looking for authentic stories about your culture, they are looking for stories that are done in your language, they are looking for stories to show your costumes, your tradition, your laws, how do you live as a people. What is intriguing about where you're from? And we have so many of those. We have a lot of books that have been written by the best Nigerian writers and I'm wondering why haven't we started optioning books to turn them into movies because they are so many of them that will blow our minds. So I'm just hoping that we get to a point where we start to look at these things instead of I have 100 k write something for me. Just make sure that girl loves the boy. Let us be more intentional about it.

What do you think? Do you agree with Stella about Nigerian stories still not being authentic enough or do you disagree? Let me know what you think by leaving a comment on my Facebook post.

That's All.

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