Entertainment
EZEKIEL Mutua, the Chief Executive Officer, Kenya Film Classification Board, said on Tuesday that the power of film was big enough to melt some challenges facing the African continent.
Mutua made the remark in an address he presented at the 2019 Nigerian International Film Summit in Lagos.
The theme of the summit is: ‘Bridging the Gap, Challenges, and Future of Film Business and Production Collaborations between Countries in Africa’.
According to him, the power is already being felt even without official recognition by the African governments.
“Africa has its fair share of the challenges in the film industry, but the opportunities should be seen in the new technologies.
“Although the new technologies are posing challenges to regulators, its innovation helps the youths to focus and sell to wider audience.
“However, it calls for regulators to classify films in such a way to protect children from adult contents, and preserve our cultural values,” he said.
Mutua said that the focus should be on how Africans could tap on these potentialities, in a way to still command respect in the global arena.
He said that African regulators should focus more on classification ratings for appropriateness than on censorship.
According to the CEO, the Kenya film industry is committed to forging concrete relationships with Nigeria on film.
He noted that to make this relationship possible, Africans coming to Kenya would no longer be issued visa in their countries, but at the point of entry to Kenya.
Dr Ngozi Okpara, Head of Department, Mass Media and Writing , Pan Atlantic University, Lekki, Victoria Island, said that there was need for synergy between the academia and the film industry, to make researches relevant to the society.
Okpara, while delivering a paper titled: ‘Film Studies, Reflections on Academia and Realities of Film Business’, said there was need for students to have the practicals, to feel the realities of the modern world.
The don said that research helped to bridge the gap between the academia and the industry.
According to her, it is time to de-emphasise on skill-based education and make students to understand the realities of the society.
Okpara said there was need for internships so that the students would go out and have the workplace exposure of whatever theory they had been taught.
Ms Ijeoma Onah, the NIFS Founder, said the summit was organised to help create a platform where film makers, producers, regulators and government officials could network.
She said that the presentation of the Kenyan Film Classification Board team was important, for Africans to work together and boost the continent’s film and television industries.
Onah said the private sector could drive the conservation while waiting for the various governments to have a policy cooperation treaty. (NAN)
– Sept. 3, 2019 @ 16:05 GMT |
Tags: Film power can solve problems in Africa – Mutua
