Ola Balogun
Ola Balogun | |
---|---|
Born | University of Caen (1963–66); Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (1966–68) | 1 August 1945
Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter |
Years active | 1969–84 |
Notable work | Black Goddess (1978) |
Ola Balogun (born 1 August 1945) is a
Balogun studied cinematography at
Early life and education
Balogun was born in 1945 in Aba,
Early career
Balogun returned to Nigeria during the
Balogun's first production was One Nigeria (1969), a documentary about his impression of the Nigerian Civil War. In the midst of the war, Balogun had accompanied a French observer group to the war front, where he witnessed the destruction caused by the war. The documentaries One Nigeria and Eastern Nigeria Revisited were influenced by his impression of the war. A pioneer of Nigerian filmmaking, Balogun produced his first films in the early 1970s. His 1981 film For Freedom! was entered into the 12th Moscow International Film Festival.[7]
In 1973, he founded Afrocult Foundation, an independent film company.
Film career
After producing documentaries, Balogun produced Alpha, a medium-length film about an African émigré in Paris. His follow-up was Vivre, a non-fiction story about his friend who became handicapped as a result of an accident. After Vivre, Balogun was commissioned by the government to produce Nigersteel, a film about Nigeria's industrialization stage. His next movie project dealt with the subject matter of embracing and not discarding African culture and tradition in the search for future goals. This film, Amadi, released in 1975, is an Igbo-language movie about a man moving back to the village after having limited success and little fulfilment in the city of Lagos. In the village, he used the knowledge and skills learned to promote the use of modern agricultural techniques.[8] The film broke new ground in Nigerian cinema as the first feature-length movie in Igbo language.[4] The film found success in Eastern Nigeria but limited success elsewhere.
Ajani Ogun, Balogun's first indigenous Yoruba-language film is a musical released in
In Aiye (1979), Balogun expanded the stage play of one of Hubert Ogunde's popular acts into a feature-length film. The theme of the movie was a classic tale of the struggle between good and evil. The good was a traditional priest or babalawo and the evil characters were the witches in the village.[10] Aiye, which employed many Yoruba stage actors and some technical crew from Black Goddess, was a financial success, although as with Ija Ominira, Balogun and Hubert Ogunde, the lead actor and co-producer, had some disagreements about the movie's direction.[11]
In 1980, Balogun produced Cry Freedom (previously titled Haraka), with Prunella Gee and Albert Hall in the lead roles.[6] The film was shot in Ghana, and Balogun used some technicians, such as Jose Medeiros, who had previously worked with him on A Deusa Negra.[9] Cry Freedom, inspired by Meja Mwangi's Carcase for Hounds, is about an uprising that led to guerrilla warfare in an African country. The movie found fans among Nigerian intellectuals, but it did not appeal to a mass audience.[12]
Balogun's collaboration with Moses Olaiya, also known as Baba Sala, was the big-budget Orun Mooru (Heaven is Hot). Thereafter, Balogun stopped working with lead actors from the Yoruba theatre group. In 1982, he released Money Power.
Political life
Balogun was a member of President Babangida's Political Bureau but resigned due to concerns over the means of achieving the bureau's objectives.[13][self-published source]
Balogun has been a regular attendee at
Filmography
Year | Film | Director | Producer | Writer | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1972 | Alpha | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
1975 | Ajani Ogun | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
1975 | Amadi | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
1976 | Musik Man | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
1978 | Ija Ominira | Yes | Yes | ||
1978 | Black Goddess | Yes | Yes | ||
1979 | Aiye | Yes | Yes | ||
1981 | Cry Freedom | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
1982 | Money Power | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
1982 | Orun Mooru | Yes | Yes | ||
1988 | River Niger, Black Mother | Yes | |||
1993 | Magic of Nigeria | Yes | |||
1994 | Destination Barbados | Yes | |||
1998 | Gods of Africa in Brazil | Yes | Yes |
References
- ^ Mubi Europe.
- ^ a b "Ola Balogun". Modern Ghana. Retrieved 29 September 2009.
- ^ a b c Ukdike 1989, p. 229.
- ^ a b Ukdike 1989, p. 230.
- ^ a b Ukdike 1989, p. 234.
- ^ a b "Balogun: 'I just go from film to film'" (30 August 1980). Screen International (Archive: 1976–2000), 25. Retrieved from Proquest.
- ^ "12th Moscow International Film Festival (1981)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
- ^ "Producer calls for Nigerian film making" (6 September 1975). Afro-American (1893–1988). Retrieved from Proquest.
- ^ a b Pfaff, Françoise (2004). Focus on African films. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University. pp. 255–256.
- ^ Ukdike 1989, p. 236.
- ^ Russell, Sharon. Guide to African Cinema. Greenwood Publishing. p. 32.
- ^ Ukdike 1989, p. 238.
- ^ Elufiede, Babafemi (2010). Labor unions and politics : the experience of Nigerian working class. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris. p. 145.
Sources
- Ukdike, Nwachukwu (1989). Black African cinema (Thesis). New York University.
External links
- Ola Balogun at IMDb
- Ola Balogun at MUBI
- "Ola Balogun, pioneer of Nigerian cinema", Arsenal Cinema, January 2017.