MTAALAMU wa masuala ya filamu anayefundisha chuo kikuu cha Australia cha Murdoch, Profesa Martin Mhando ameishauri serikali ya Tanzania kuch...
MTAALAMU wa masuala ya filamu anayefundisha chuo kikuu cha Australia cha Murdoch, Profesa Martin Mhando ameishauri serikali ya Tanzania kuchukua hatua za madhubuti kusaidia sekta ya filamu ambayo mchango wake katika burdani na kuondoa umaskini ni mkubwa.
Kauli hiyo aliitoa jana usiku wakati akitoa mada kuhusu filamu za kitanzania katika ukumbi wa utamaduni wa balozi wa Ufaransa mjini Dar es salaam
Profesa Mhando alisema katika kongamano hilo kuwa tasnia ya filamu inahitaji kupata msaada mkubwa kutoka serikalini ili kuweza kwenda vyema.
Katika mada yake ya msingi alizungumzia ukuaji wa filamu za Tanzania na kusema pamoja na kukienzi kiswahili sinema za Tanzania zimechukua mwelekeo wa sinema za Nigeria zikizungumzia zaidi hadithi za watu wa mijini na madhila ya usasa wao.
Kongamano hilo la siku moja la kujadili filamu za Tanzania, Bongo Movie, pia lilitaka wasanii kuungana na kuunda kundi la kushawishi wabunge kuitafadhalisha serikali kusaidia na kuimarisha ukuaji wa tasnia ya sinema nchini.
Kwa ufupi haya ndio maazimio ya mwisho:
Conclusion ilkuwa kuwa
1. Serikali lazima itambue umuhimu wa tasnia hii kwa utramaduni wa
tanzania and kwa uchumi pia.
2. lazima tuwe na lobby group ya kuwasukuma wabunge na serikali waone
umuhimu wa biashara ya filamu na tatizo la piracy.
3. Serikali ianzishe mfuko maalum wa kusaidia utengenezaji wa filamu
ili kuondoa kushikiliwa kwa biasahara hii na wafanya wabiashara
wachache. Film commission ni lazima ili kutoa misaada kwa watengeneza
filamu na wakati huo huo kusaidia kuongoza ufundi wa kuandika na
kutayarisha filam (producing).
4. Serikali itoe saada kwa njia ya msamaha wa kodi ili kuwaondolea
wafanyabiashara ya muziki na filamu kero za piracy- maana wanajitahidi
kukuza biashara ili kuipatia tija nchi lakini pirates wanawavunja
nguvu. Hivyo ni muhimu serikali kutafuta mbinu za kusolve tatizo hilo.
5. lobby group lazima iwe ya wasanii, wadau na wafanya biashara kwa pamoja.
NA HII NDIYO MADA YAKE
BONGO MOVIES:
A CONTEMPORARY ANALYSIS
SEMINAR PURPOSE
• A diagnostic evaluation of the implications of this phenomenon for production and marketing video film in Tanzania,
• Examine the structure of the industry in Tanzania (Panel Discussion)
• Assess the problems encountered by the emerging video film industry, proffer solutions, and assess its prospects. (Discussion)
What’s a Bongo Movie?
• A perception- includes widely perceived factors – Swahili, cheaply made, melodramatic stories, star based, loosely structured genre-based stories.
• Copycats to Nollywood films
• Films that liberates the discussion of African cinema from concerns with decolonization, identity, authenticity, and the construction of film criticism around national models
• The visual dimension, compared with dialog and narrative, is less important than it is in other cinema cultures (Obaseki, 2005)
NOLLYWOOD-The Video Film
• The video film is the most vibrant form of popular art in contemporary Africa.
• The video-films cut across technical medium, class, social sector, and national boundaries.
• The video film in Africa is seen as a hybrid of television and cinema
• Uniquely poignant is the presence of originality that epitomizes this “film genre”
Why Nollywood succeeds
• “Nollywood directly faces the social problems that make life so hellish, operating with an unusual freedom of expression that arises from the structure of an industry in which the only regulatory authority that counts is the actual consumer and films are watched in unregulated domestic spaces.” (Jonathan Haynes, 2010)
• democratization of image production and the emergence of young filmmakers and film technicians in Nigeria.
• They are uniquely aware that they have struck a lucrative and long-neglected market - movies that offer audiences characters they can identify with in stories that relate to their everyday lives.
• Provide stories that are relevant to life in African urban settings, slums and rural areas
Nollywood Genres
• Nollywood plots epitomize themes and situations that Africans easily recognise and probably confront daily; romance, comedy, horror, the occult/religion, Urbanity, and HIV/AIDS.
• Show- “Huba”
DEFINING THEMES
• violence;
• witchcraft and sorcery;
• prostitution/urban inequity
• tradition versus modernity;
• religious fundamentalism;
• debilitating poverty.
CRITICISM OF NOLLYWOOD • Trite plots, poor dialogue, and poor production values.
• Stereotypes about Africans.
• Allied to piracy
• Follows “Lowest Common Factor” (money) without any ethical or cultural concerns
• BUT the question still remains – how come these films outsell well established Hollywood, European and Bollywood products?
• The answer lies in MARKETING not PRODUCTION
MARKETING • Aggressive marketing techniques using posters, trailers, grassroot urban markets and television advertising (Munis, 2004).
• Uniquely structured MERCHANT distribution systems-
• Use of languages of audiences
Industry analysis
• Unlike African art films, which appear on the global film circuit and are commonly financed by European investors, Nollywood films are completely financed by African merchants.
• Utilise the Wamachinga phenomenon in developing countries- RESOURCEFULNESS and ADAPTABILITY
• Many African immigrants consume the Nigerian movies because the movie themes and content make it possible for them to RECOGNISE and cling to small cultural nuances, (Gray, 2003).
VIDEO DISTRIBUTION CULTURE • Enrolled with piracy, works within not outside the piracy structures
• Take advantage of novel local conditions- Wamachinga
• Not just a Nigerian phenomenon. – It is home entertainment mainstay for the world's developing countries (Aderinokun, 2004).
• Utilise “appropriate socially inclusive technologies”
BRANDING AND THE FUTURE OF BONGO FILMS
• http://www.filamucentral.co.tz/
• promotional methods, include
• poster campaigns, trailers, specialist magazine coverage, radio and television coverage, online site like filamucentral, michuziblog etc.
• selling methods (which are truly in touch with their audiences) street stalls, hawkers, links with hair salons, promotional events – use of mobile phone and blogs
• Sponsorship growing
• When developing a new product, branding is an important decision. The brand can add significant value when it is well recognized and has positive associations in the mind of the consumer. This concept is referred to as brand equity. Brand equity is an intangible asset that depends on associations made by the consumer
Bongo star system? • The organized star system means that the actors are a real promotional asset for the movies. This is fuelled by the sensationalist media coverage (UDAKU) that may well be superficial (often focusing on the stars private lives), but which is also very effective
INTERPRETIVE READINGS • The films are and expression of the “ African urban apocalypse“ -the ultimate expression of anarchic urban catastrophe, environmental destruction, and human misery; its "crime, pollution, and overcrowding make it the cliché par excellence of Third World urban dysfunction" (Kaplan 2000:15).
• Enunciation of social coping mechanisms and creative forms of self-expression of a population whose ability to survive defies common sense,
• An argument about the inability of conventional modes of understanding to explain what permits this survival.
4. These shows emphasize the ingenuity of people struggling to survive in the slums and informal economic sector of African cities, the manic energy that pervades city life, and urban artists' creativity Gandy 2005).1
5. The films are about the main problems with African cities.
6. The images reveal the viewpoints and aspirations of the key urban players ie politicians, technocrats, the middle class on the one hand and ordinary people on the other.
7. The films are made so fast, on minuscule budgets and under such unrelenting commercial pressures, that filmmakers have few resources and little time to realize a distinctive vision.
Melodramas and society • Melodramatic plots (Haynes 2000:22-29). This is an aesthetic of immediate impact, plunging us into each moment and milking it for everything it is worth, rather than subordinating every element in the film to an overall sense of design (Barber 1987:46-48; Barrot 2005).
• The films respond to anxieties about violent crime. Some films in this genre convey the terror of urbanity with gritty realism; others sympathetically-and melodramatically-explore the social pressures that produce criminals
• The films frequently involves the occult. As Meyer argues, [this] making of spiritual forces visible is a crucial function of the video films where social inequity is perceived as unsolvable
POSITIVE OUTCOMES 1. The industry has also saved the poor the cost of procuring expensive films from the West (the price per film ranges from N200 to N400-about $2.50- Kuna nafasi ya kupunguza bei
Social criticism and fears
• The films also have significant influence on the way that others see us, and hence on the way they relate to us. We cannot but be concerned, therefore, about what they are saying, what attitudes they are promoting, and what image of us they are projecting.
• Worse, some productions seem to celebrate the evil inherent in the themes, with no serious effort to highlight their moral message.
Bongo movies and cinema
• its reception invite consideration of home video cinema, the nature of its productions, its rapport with the audience, its impact and reception, and the fundamental question of films’ participation in representing national /social experiences.
ADVANTAGES OF NOLLY-CINEMAS
• Filmmakers have responded to the audience's demand for creations that favour local representations and focus on familiar socio-political performances and situations
• Films offer low cost of serial productions, as well as the creative individual freedom
• The low cost of serial production, as well as the creative individual freedom, rather than foreign funds puts filmmakers might turn to television by default.
• In a sense, the success Nolly-African cinema is perhaps a strong signal sent by audiences to filmmakers of a certain impatience with the representations of society that have been purveyed by African cinema until now.
ZIFF’S ROLE
• Embrace changing perspectives of the industry
• Encourage growth and sustained development of Tanzanian cinema
• Project the tensions of the industry
• Represent the various projections and articulations
• Articulate role of cinema in society through festival
COMMENTS