Niran Adedokun: We need to celebrate female directors in Nollywood

Niran Adedokun, a public relations expert, says the time has come for the celebration of female film directors in Nollywood.

Speaking during a reading of “Ladies Calling The Shots”, a book he authored, Adedokun said the job of a film director is unsung and underappreciated.

The reading took place at Patabah Books, Surulere, Lagos, on Saturday.

“The thing is, film making is a man’s world. Even though, women have always been involved in production, most of the things women did were essentially back stage; you’ll never see them calling the shots,” he said.

“Another thing is that the work of a director is generally unsung, you only hear about the actors most times unless you’re someone who is conscious of the process of production. I thought about all of these and felt it would be nice to celebrate not just directors but female directors.

“The book is about ladies because these ladies I wrote about are doing significant things. But my target audience is every young person who aspires for greatness. It is essentially an inspirational material for everyone to strive for excellence; whether you’re a boy or a girl and you read each of the stories in the book, you’d see that there is no limit to what you can do.”

Stating the challenges he encountered while writing the book, he said: “To start with, the challenge I had was getting across to some of these ladies; they were suspicious of my motive. I mean you read negative stories about people in the newspapers so they felt this could be one of it.

“The second challenge was fixing a meeting with some. For example, I feel Lola Fani-Kayode is a pioneer and writing the book without mentioning her won’t be okay. But I couldn’t reach her, no one has her contact. At the end of the day, I had to make do with what I had.

“In the long run. I was able to convince them.”

Asked if he has been able to achieve his goal of getting the book across to his target audience, he replied that plans  were underway to get the books across to as many people as possible.

“On how much I have achieved my goal of getting the book across to people, I’d say we are just starting. Its not about the financial gain because I am accomplished, but the plan is to take these books to universities, even secondary schools, get it into as many hands as possible,” he said.

“I’m going to, possibly in the next couple of weeks, engage in charity activities so that I can get the books across to people who I feel will be impacted by its messages.”