home
| WITHOUT GRACE Video movie, Lagos 2004 Five actors in search of Grace through Lagos. Who is Grace? Grace is a woman, another actor, an author... the missing link, their hope or just another 419*) *) Nigerian criminal code for fraud |
By and with: Makinde Adeniran (Tooro), Niji Akanni (Twentydos), Niels Bormann (Markus), Matthias Breitenbach (Werner), Ehi Omokhuale (Tule) and with Ted Mukoro (Guest Character), Janvier Sossoy (Bartender) Camera/Sound - Sunday Ogunyemi, Mit support from Maison de France, Lagos and Heinrich
Boell Fundation, Lagos Office. |
 |
 |
| Law and beauty. There are beautification projects all
over the town. They get ready to plant flowers everywhere. Traffic
stops once a months for four hours throughout the whole city and you
see people all over the place cleaning and rearranging their city.
The government made a new law and has launched, related to that law,
a campaign: KAI (Kick Against Indiscipline). They placed signs everywhere
and set up a special police task force with big wooden sticks on brand-new
Chinese motorbikes to enforce the new law. If they get someone on the
spot he could come for three months into prison. In Lagos you have
to knock on next front door and ask for using the toilet. No problem. |
|
 |
 |
| Industry. Every week thirty movies
are on release in Nollywood. They produce, distribute and refinance
movies very much faster than in Bollywood or in Hollywood. You get
a script written in ten days. You rent a house and you shoot a ninety
minutes movie in not more than twelve days with one DV Camera in front
of that house, inside the house and behind the house. You release that
movie into the market another ten days later. You have fourteen days
maximum to sell the copies on videotape or DVD to cover your costs
and make your profit. Then pirates have taken over your movie and start
selling it all over West Africa without paying any copyrights to you.
People really going for these movies and adore the stars. |
|
 |
 |
| Hunger Buster. Werner loves beans and rice with red
pepper stew and meat. He knows very well how to pick the best pieces
of meat out of the pot on the fireplace. Werner loves it to take his
friends out for dinner to a new spot he discovered while walking and
searching for Grace through the backstreets of Ebute Meta or Surylere
on the mainland of Lagos. Usually he orders rice for thirty Nira, Beans
for forty Nira and six pieces of meat for ten Nira each. The hot pepper
stew comes with the rice for free. One Euro is one hundred sixty nine
Nira. Werner is very happy in Lagos. |
|
 |
 |
| Dreamland. Ten minutes by boat from the centre of the
city there is the beach where you can swim in clear blue water and
hang out beneath palm trees. Tarkwa Bay. You get delicious food offered
by beautiful people and tropical drinks for free. On day Tule will
take his whole family there and have a wonderful time. |
|
 |
 |
| Blitzkrieg(er). If you move fast and with the attitude of
being basically smart, friendly and demanding you get what you want.
This city is not made for strolling. You have to move straight on.
Cash and carry. Each corner of the city that reaches a certain density
of people or traffic gets slow turns into a marketplace. You see people
moving around everywhere with little or big thick black plastic bags
filled with bundle of Nira. Even if you buy a car or a house you have
to put the money cash on the table. All the money circulation is real,
direct hand to hand, face to face. No credit given to anyone. No credit
cards or payment by checks accepted. You pay your tax right away every
couple of days direct to the police or to the civil servant who is
on duty for your actual request. There are a lot of banks like in every
other city, but it is not clear to whom they do service. |
|
 |
 |
| Hope. You can read about people’s
character in the faces like nowhere else. You see immediately if your
opposite is good or bad. People do not hide intentions. That gives
you always a great feeling of control and security. Be aware that all
the other people around you have all the same problems you get into. |
|
 Appreciation to: National Association of Nigeria
Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP), Mr. Toyin Fakile, Absolut Jam
Musical Shop, 45,Faloly Road off Akerele, Surylere Lagos,
Jesse-King (JK), Mr.Segun Olowo, Foundry Sculpture Engeneering 23, Mary Street,
Irawo B/Stop, Owode Ajegunle,
Mr. Ted Mukoro International Press Centre Cyber Cafe Ogba Lagos, Mrs. Omiyale,
Okbaba Market,
Chairman & the entire marketwoman of Okobaba Market Agege Lagos, Heinrich
Böll Foundation, 96, Omo Osagie Street, Ikoyi, Miss Juliet John, Tarkwa-Bay,
Tolulope Bradley Oke Waterworld Beachbar & Restaurant, Tarkwa-Bay, Godswill
Nursery & Primary School Abaranje, Ikotun Lagos 08037129414, Optimum International
School Thank you to all the people in Lagos who welcomed us so warmly and gave us so much support to make the project possible. |
|