Lagos (AFP) - A prominent
director goes to Nigeria's troubled oil-producing region and recruits 21
youngsters with absolutely no film experience.
He brings them
to one of the country's most expensive hotels for a 10-day filmmaking
crash-course then flies them back home to make movies about positive,
non-violent change.
Picking up the tab are US taxpayers -- red carpet premieres included.
"This
is pretty out there," the US Consul General in Nigeria's economic
capital Lagos, Jeffrey Hawkins, said of a new TV programme which
chronicles the search for new moviemakers.
The United States -- as well as other countries and big oil firms -- is concerned that conflict could return to the Niger Delta, which churns out some two million barrels of oil day -- the highest crude output in Africa and Nigeria's lifeline.
Decades of corruption have long denied Delta residents the benefits of oil revenue while oil-related pollution, including thousands of spills, has ravaged their environment.
This volatile mix fuelled
an insurgency that saw scores of oil workers kidnapped and
infrastructure bombed -- all tempered by a 2009 amnesty deal where, in
effect, militant leaders got massive payouts to stand down.
Critics,
however, say the payouts fostered the perception that wielding a weapon
was the best way for the common man to get rich quick.
- A return to violence? -
The
amnesty's expiration in 2015, when Nigeria also elects a new president
and parliament, has fed fears about a return to the bad old days.
The
poll, too, is expected to inflame tensions, notably in the Niger Delta
whose native son President Goodluck Jonathan will likely face a tough
re-election bid.
A prominent ex-militant has already threatened to take up arms if the presidency changes hands.
With this in mind -- and
the failure of earlier NGO peace-building campaigns after funding dried
up -- US diplomats "wanted to do something really glitzy," Hawkins told
AFP.
So they turned to Nollywood, Nigeria's hugely popular domestic film industry.
First
will come the television reality show about the recruitment drive and
the film academy. Once a student's films are made, they will be shown
during three days of US-sponsored premieres.
Running the artistic side is Jeta Amata, an accomplished director and Niger Delta native now based in Los Angeles.
In a 10-day stay in the region, he found his students at town hall meetings or stopping random people on the street.
- Is this a scam? -
Elina Emeseruome, a
semi-employed interior decorator, said she was getting her hair done at a
roadside stall in the town of Ozoro when Amata stopped to ask her
thoughts on the Delta's future.
Days later, the director, 39, called and told her she'd be going to Lagos to learn scriptwriting.
Her girlfriends were sceptical. "They were like, 'same old story, he's trafficking ladies'," said the 27-year-old.
But her doubts were eased when the film academy began on the manicured lawns of the plush Eko Hotel in Lagos.
Amata himself feels the Delta's future is "dicey" and said he heard multiple reports of militants mobilising to renew fighting.
"I am concerned about the region but I'm hopeful about what I see in these guys," he said of his students
Like
Hawkins, Amata acknowledged that a few feel-good movies cannot undo
decades of resentment and conflict. But he voiced faith that powerful
stories told through film can help steer people away from militancy.
- Lure of violence -
On
day six at the academy, Amata's students were divided into groups of
seven and tasked with producing a five-minute film by 5:00 pm.
Playing
the male lead in a piece about a jaded wife competing for her husband's
affections with a younger woman was Joel Jumbo, a 32-year-old who said
he had served in both the army and been part of a militant group.
Jumbo
said he got nothing from the amnesty, not even a place in job training
programmes Nigeria insists are ongoing but many say have achieved
little.
He was unemployed,
"feeling aggressive and angry and ready to do anything". Only days
before meeting Amata, he said, he was "about to go.. and meet some of my
bad boys... militants".
Though
still tense at the film school, his frustration was more about his
director who showed no signs of getting the shoot done before the
deadline.
It contrasted to the
quiet, understated performance by Jumbo, who said he was just enjoying
being around a "different kind of people".
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