How on earth can a primary school dropout deceive an entire police force and get away with murder?
By watching movies: Drysham (2015) is a Bollywood movie starring Ajay Devign and Tabu. Movies matter…movies can educate, entertain and inform. The prophetic capacity of cinema can fill up a library. This crystal ball is not the exclusive to Bollywood, Hollywood or any other ‘wood”. Consider this:
A group of residents in an urban neighbourhood who have been victims, individually and collectively, of armed robbers constitute themselves into a vigilante group to defend and protect their life, property and complement the efforts of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF).The robbers audaciously notify the residents of their proposed ‘visit’. The letter spurs the residents to form a vigilante group. The robbers are overwhelmed and some are captured.
This is the story of the “one million boys and their reign of terror in Lagos during the 2020 Covid -19 lock down right? Wrong! This is the story of “Vigilante”. A 1988 film produced by Afolabi Adesanya, directed by his brother Adedeji Adesanya. Late Filmmaker Eddie Ugbomah cannot be left out from the “cinema prophets”. His 1980 movie Oil Doom, is very prophetic. The self-explanatory title beats even Nostradamus in its incredible insight Nigeria’s pathetic condition today. Movies have always had the tendency to predict the future.
Art imitates life and life inspires art. Ranging from Leonardo Da Vinci’s designs of futuristic concepts to early movies predicting everything from space travel to black US presidents. Fritz Lang’s Woman in the Moon (1927) accurately predicted space travel seven years before the birth of the first man in space; Russian Astronaut Yuri Gagarin…2001: A Space Odyssey predicted tablets and visual communications. Darkman (1990) had a hero using a 3 D Printer.
Lawnmower Man (1992) gave a peek into how virtual reality will work. Interestingly a Nigerian Virtual Reality movie Daughters of Chibok won the prize in that category at 2019 Venice Film Festival. As the Covid -19 pandemic gathered steam many believed the 2011 movie Contagion had accurately predicted it. Contagion was not actually prophetic about Covid -19; rather it was inspired by the work of scientist Linda Wang. Actually the virus in Contagion has more in common with the Nipah virus which ravaged parts of Asia in 1999. However the accompanying panic and disinformation featured generously in Contagion, is a cold reality with Covid -19.
Nollywood might find inspiring, the fact that Screenwriter Scott Z Burns consulted World Health Organization WHO about infectious diseases .Actress Kate Winslet actually worked with the Centre for Disease Control CDC Atlanta USA to understand her role as Epidemiologist. Author Laurie Garret was a Consultant to the movie.
Her 1994 book “The Coming Plague “is considered a seminal work. But Contagion is not the only movie that ‘predicted’ a pandemic. Outbreak “(1995) deals with a deadly viral outbreak that originates from Africa. Indeed the virus originated from illegal wildlife trafficking. Another virus originates from Chimpazees in 2002”28 Days Later” and devastates human society.
Society tries to pick up the broken pieces in the sequel “28 Weeks Later”. This movie highlights the role of “asymptomatic “carriers and how a localized infection becomes a pandemic. It is interesting that all these movies have plot lines that deal with diseases that are “zoonotic”; transmitted from animals to man.
So Covid -19 is here and the experts say it will be around for a long time. The shockwaves from the pandemic has launched films literally into the clouds .Major film festivals including Venice, Edinburgh, Sundance and many others have migrated their programs online. Virtual film festivals are here and may be around for a long time.
Netflix, fattened and dizzy from its $196b net worth has repurposed many festivals into a ten day film festival with offerings from the world biggest film festivals like Cannes, Tribeca, Venice, Berlin, London, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, Toronto etc. The easing of the lockdown in many countries has emboldened Cannes Film Festival amongst others to announce their lineup.
Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria reports a staggering two billion naira loss from the pandemic halting Nollywoods rapid cinema expansion rather rudely. Screen expansion had been on a roll ever since Silverbird group launched Nigeria’s first modern Cineplex .The drop in cinema attendance means dwindling tax revenue. Federal and State government hauled in more than three billion from the box office gross between in just 2018 and 2019.Sadly the woes of the cinemas may not be over any time soon.
Despite a brave advertising campaign from CEAN promoting social distancing, a post pandemic world with social distancing might mean remodeling the cinemas to lure patrons back to their plush seats in the cineplexes. Social distancing regulations will definitely affect ticket sales.
A 200 seater hall may end up with about half that number…evens less. They also need to invest in testing equipment to screen out those with obvious symptoms. These measures are in place already. The purchase of testing equipment was however funded by the state in places like China.
In Asaba, Lagos and other production centers, film locations are rousing rather groggily in an atmosphere of tension clouded by the disinformation that painted the pandemic as a Hammer House of Horror. Despite an inspiring migration to virtual censorship and tightening the noose on Producers releasing films without censorship, the correlation between the availability of the product and the need to censor still leaves the Board with a yellow card.
Could this mean a boom for Outdoor cinemas? Leading cinema chain Genesis, has announced the establishment of a Drive In cinema at its Palms Victoria Island location. This is an emerging global trend. France’s Canal + last year announced two new cinema projects, one in Badagry, Lagos and another on the borders of Nassarawa state close to the Federal Capital Territory.
The entertainment group clarified that outskirts were selected because of the need for musical performance space. Such large spaces may well be converted to Drive In cinemas. Like the hunter said; rather than miss the entire animal , I can manage the tail. Can the prophetic powers of film turn the tide? Might be time for Ceasar to ask the witch to make a better prediction.
By Madu C. Chikwendu
