#NECLive8: Dakore Egbuson-Akande Reveals The Only Way Forward for Nollywood
Prolific Nigerian actress, Dakore Egbuson-Akande, has revealed that the only way for Nollywood to expand as a movie industry is for filmmakers and other media stakeholders to emphasise more collaborations, rather than engage in unnecessary and unhealthy competition.
The 42-year-old, who has enjoyed a stellar career in Nollywood for over two decades, stated this while speaking at #NECLive8, the eighth edition of Nigeria’s biggest gathering of entertainment practitioners.
“We need to look at the power of collaborations”, said Egbuson-Akande. “We’ve gotten this far, but we can learn from other industries, get outside our comfort zones, connect the dots a little bit more, I feel like, with COVID-19 and all the other challenges we have now, it’s a prime time to connect. Before COVID, I was fortunate to go to the Cannes International Film Festival. I learned how we (Africa) are not even in the conversation, but they collaborate with themselves. Sometimes you see a film where there’s the French government involved, there’s the American government involved, there’s the Italian government involved. You see three to four countries coming together to shoot films because they know what it takes to make a great movie.”
At the panel session, Egbuson-Akande also stressed the need for Nigerian filmmakers to see things from a pan-African perspective.
“We need to have more intra-African collaborations”, she explained. “It makes no sense that we’re all in our own little corners. There is strength in unity, it sounds like a cliche, but it’s so true. We need to think more pan-African, we need to move from thinking along tribal lines. Let’s open up, let’s connect, there’s no reason why Nigerian films shouldn’t be more popular in South Africa or Kenya.”
To hear more of Dakore Egbuson-Akande’s industry insights at #NECLive8, make sure to watch the video below:
