Award winning Nigerian Filmmaker, Jeta Amata, is one of the biggest experts in Nollywood, as far as film making is concerned he comes from a family of veteran filmmakers including Ifoghale Amata. Zack Amata and Fred Amata. Growing up in the film Industry, following his family’s passion for film, Jeta produced and directed his first film at age 21. In an interview with City People he spoke about his life and career.
Excerpts below:
Your movie Black November won a lot of awards how do you feel about that?
I don’t really do films because of awards, have attended just an award ceremony in 4 years .i don’t put up my films for awards until feel there are credible ways awards are given, talking about judges, some people can organise anything and decides who wins awards that is not proper.
What inspired the movie ‘Black November’?
Niger Delta’s story inspired the movie.
Why the focus on Niger Delta?
I wanted to send out a message especially to the Americans, I wanted them to know that one out of every 5 Americans uses Nigeria’s oil.
You reportedly got death threats while shooting the movie, what was the experience like?
I got a lot of threats but I didn’t see anyone physically try to threaten me, I was only getting threat text messages but I felt it was just someone playing a prank because I went to the militants to meet with them before shooting the movie so I knew there was no problem proceeding with it.
What were the challenges?
It was easy getting the foreign crew to fly down to Nigeria, then bringing equipment to Nigeria also wasn’t easy. Customs held my equipment for a week before i starting filming.
What was the overall cost of the movie?
7.5 million dollars
It’s believed your marriage packed up because your wife was quite young when she married you, how true is that?
Anything could be a reason for a marriage break up. People marry late and they pack up when they are 60.
No comments:
Post a Comment