It has been encomiums all round from stakeholders in the Nigerian movie industry called Nollywood over the death of one of their own, the iconic filmmaker, Amaka Igwe, who passed last night.
Zik Zulu Okafor
Among those TheNiche spoke with are: Association of Movie Producers (AMP) President, Zik Zulu Okafor; CEO of Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), Peace Anyiam-Osigwe and Actors’ Guild of Nigeria (AGN) Lagos chapter president, Victor Osuagwu. Others are: veteran actor, Nobert Young and actor producer, Ifeanyi Ezekwe (Mr Fix It).
For Okafor, Amaka Igwe will be solely missed by the Nigerian movie industry otherwise called Nollywood.
“It came as a devastating shock for some of us because Amaka Igwe is a pioneer, an amazing writer, director and producer and she will be solely missed,” he said.
He explained that she was a woman of robust ideas so Nollywood has just missed one of the greatest figures in the industry.
“A woman who is a champion of change in nollywood who had an incredible dream for the industry, she was so sure that Nollywood would grow to compete with movie industries around the world and she was looking forward to that in her lifetime. It is a horrendous tragedy that she is not alive to witness the birth of that change,” he stated.
He said that for what she represents, from where she is coming from and what she has done to the film industry “there is no question that Nollywood will sit down to put heads together and see how this woman will not only be celebrated but also be immortalised”.
He vowed that Nollywood will surely do this.
Anyiam-Osigwe said it was with shock that she received the sad news which led to her failure to attend the launch of The Cable Online Newspapers.
“I was in total shock and lost my mental balance. It took me time to recover from the sad reality that our own Auntie Amaka is gone while in Enugu in preparation for a movie project,” she lamented.
She explained that the motion picture industry in Nigeria and Africa will sorely miss this revolutionary, who raised the bar of professionalism and artistic excellence early in Nollywood when it was not fashionable.
“Amaka Igwe gave herself and applied herself to producing films and soaps that are pacesetters. She was a creative entrepreneur of outstanding qualities who came, saw and conquered in her 51 years of existence on earth,” she said.
She recalled that Amaka Igwe worked as a Jury member of AMAA at the early stage of the awards and her contributions were far-reaching and rewarding.
“May God rest the soul of our departed heroine of Nollywood,” she said.
Osuagwu said Amaka Igwe was such a wonderful person.
“Apart from her contribution to the growth of the industry she was too personal to me. I passed through her in her wealth of knowledge about film production and the wellbeing of actors,” he said. He went on to say that this was somebody he studied under, as she taught him a lot, “she is somebody who is so devoted and so dedicated to her work and to the entertainment industry”.
He said that is why her work is different from every other thing in the industry, adding that she never rushed to shoot a film and waiting until everything was on ground and done right.
“An exemplary leader, she is somebody you can always go to learn how to do production, which is not common in this industry,” he said.
Osuagwu said Amaka Igwe’s death is a big loss not only to the Lagos chapter of the AGN or national but also to Nollywood as a whole as well as the entertainment industry at large.
Young said he was numb from the news and could not speak on the death.
“I am numb, I cannot talk, it is a very hard thing to taste,” he said.
Ezekwe said she was not just a filmmaker but also an entrepreneur, a woman of character.
“She had a great strength of character and was one of the women that made women to get involved in film productions. Emem Isong, Lillian Amah Aluko, Funke Akindele and the rest of them. None of them ever ventured into production until Amaka Igwe came along. Who will forget in a hurry the television soap opera, Checkmate? Who is going to forget in a hurry Fuji House of Commotion? And what about the monster movie, Rattle Snake?” he said.
He added that she discovered many talents for the industry and it will be very difficult to forget her.