Nnorom Azuonye

Nnorom Azuonye (born July, 1967 in Biafra) is a Nigerian theater director, playwright, and poet. His books include Letter to God and Other Poems (2003), The Bridge Selection: Poems for the Road (2005), Blue Hyacinths (2010. ed with Geoff Stevens), The Magenta Shadow (Short Stories. Forthcoming), and On the Record: Conversations with Writers and Artists 2002 – 2009 (Forthcoming). He also founded the online poetry magazine Sentinel.

In this interview with Nollywoodgossip’s Jeff Unaegbu Today, Nnorom takes you on a pleasant ride through his exciting life. Excerpts:

Please can you tell us a bit about yourself?

How many words am I allowed? I am the youngest of Stephen and Hannah Azuonye’s nine children. From the Isuikwuato stock in what is now Abia State of Nigeria. I was however born at Enugu; six days after the first guns of the Nigeria-Biafra war were fired. So I am one of those Biafran Babies you hear about. I am an interviewer, a publisher, literary editor and an aspiring entrepreneur. I write plays, some fiction and compact narratives I call prosems, which some editors have mistaken as poems and published them as such. Who am I to complain? My books include Letter to God & Other Poems, The Bridge Selection: Poems for the Road,
and Blue Hyacinths (ed. with Geoff Stevens). My collection of short stories; The Magenta Shadow will be published in the last quarter of 2011. What I consider my most important roles in life however are first, husband to the special Thelma Amaka, and father to two wonderful human beings; my son Arinze Chinedum, and daughter Nwachi Ola.

fake prophet

You are synonymous with Sentinel Poetry Movement and its online magazines; Sentinel Literary Quarterly and Sentinel Nigeria, a writer’s and reader’s site, and I am happy to say that I enjoyed the moments I had in the Sentinel Poetry Bar, back in 2004, especially with the likes of Molara Wood and Unoma Azuah. Now what prompted your move to include Nollywood or the Nigerian movie industry as part of your outreach (aside from
the Sentinel niche) to your audience?

Sentinel Poetry Movement has made a life of its own, and since we launched Sentinel Literary Movement of Nigeria, ably administered by Richard Ali, I am now more confident that Sentinel has the required resident talent to make it outlive my dreams. We are now preparing for the 10th Anniversary celebrations of Sentinel to be held when the organization turns ten in December 2012. What many people don’t remember or know, is that I trained as a Dramatic Artist at
the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, that my plays “A Tasty Taboo” and “Return of the Businessman” have been performed on stage and broadcast on TV or that I also co-wrote the screenplay of Obi Emelonye’s 2003 film “Echoes of War” (I was credited as Rommy Azuonye – Script Development). I am also struggling with allowing a production of a “Murder with Applause”, a screenplay I wrote between 1997 and 2004. I find that I now disagree with the contents on a spiritual level. I am also reviewing my recently-completed screenplay “Sword of Justice” before it goes into production. You see I have not been too far away from Nollywood. What it is, as part of my business; Eastern Light EPM International, I run a publishing and
film marketing style known as Nollywood Focus. Over the last few years I have interviewed some Nollywood players including Chucks Mordi, Charles Novia, Obi Emelonye, Don Pedro Obaseki and Teco Benson for Nollywood Focus. In October 2010, Nollywood Focus facilitated the screening rights for “Nnenda” at the British Museum, London, with the kind cooperation of the film’s director, Izu Ojukwu. Nollywood Focus also played a key role in the runaway success of The Mirror Boy Premiere at the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square, London in February 2011. We kept The Mirror Boy in the consciousness of our readers, covering for free, the stories of the movie from auditions to the premiere. We even got involved in selling tickets through our website for the movie. These are the services Nollywood Focus wants to continue to render the Nigerian film industry. We are happy to tell the stories of the industry, all we ask is for film-makers to send us the stories of the films they are working on and we will run them. We are happy to set up and run premieres and facilitate short to medium term cinema runs across the United Kingdom. It is my view that Nollywood, though far from perfect right now, has so much to offer the world, and I am willing to contribute my own quota in making sure that the world embraces Nollywood. Mind you, if I don’t get involved, it will still happen. Nollywood will conquer the world. I don’t want to sit under a tree at Isuikwuato in my twilight years reading about Nollywood in the papers and wondering where I was when it was all
happening.

Nnorom Azuonye

Please can you tell us about your new flick, The Fake Prophet.

OK, my new flick, in the sense of the new film I am marketing? I had no hand in the making of the “The Fake Prophet.” This film was directed by Teco Benson and produced by Gary Foxcroft of Stepping Stones Nigeria – a UK Charity working in Nigeria to save the lives of children who have been falsely branded witches by pastors and other faith leaders. It was made as an advocacy tool by the charity, but the smart thing they did was to use a gifted director like Teco Benson. He managed to create a really good film. Personally, I was never a great fan of Charles Okafor before I saw The Fake Prophet, but he really sparkles in this film. You know the kind of feeling you have when you see an actor in a film and you say ‘This role was written for him’, Charles Okafor gives a good account of himself in this film. There are some inspired performances in this film and I enjoyed Big Fred Ezimmadu. Do I score it 100%? Hell no. I told Teco Benson that for pivotal roles played by Grace Amah and Samuel Ajibola, their characters were
underdeveloped, and it was the overall strong energy of the film that carried their scenes through. But every film has its own sins. 

Give us a synopsis of The Fake Prophet and what message you intend to
pass across with it?

This is from my review of the film, it should do: James Udofia (Charles Okafor) is a courier in a human trafficking racket run by Honourable Igbinosa (Big Fred Ezimmadu). Between Udofia and Igbinosa they ship off girls in rotten situations from Nigeria to Europe, where they are thrown into prostitution. When a run fails and Udofia loses Igbinosa’s cargo, Udofia flees to his village in Akwa Ibom State to hide from Igbinosa’s wrath. Without any known talents, without any education, without any marketable skills, Udofia’s life soon becomes pure drudgery, until his eureka moment, when he gets the idea to start a church. Soon enough he begins to perform miracles with hired actors, and begins to accuse children of witchcraft, taking huge sums of money from their parents in order to deliver them. Despite his inability to successfully deliver any child from witchcraft, he establishes a powerful base on a platform of terror and blackmail. Prophet Udofia is soon responsible for several deaths of children and exile of others, notably Ekaette (Grace Amah) and Inyang (Samuel Ajibola) – the duo accused of killing Ekaette’s
father and banished from the village. It is a gripping story, well-performed and very well-directed by Teco Benson. My message is simple: Go to the cinema and see The Fake Prophet. It is a very good film made by a leading Nollywood director, this film is a good ambassador for Nollywood, and dispenses with unnecessary time-wasting scenes. There is no Parts 1 & 2; this is a complete, gripping story from start to finish. It does not have and is not about juju, which puts off some people from Nollywood films. That’s a breath of fresh air! By supporting this film, you will be supporting African cinema, making it possible for us to bring you more world class entertainment from Africa to the UK. Most importantly, you will be helping Stepping Stones Nigeria prevent the abuse and murder of children in Nigeria and elsewhere.

We learnt that tickets are selling for the screening of this film in Greenwich, South East London. How do people get these tickets and when will the movie be screened?

The Fake Prophet premiered at the Amnesty International Centre, London in May 2010, and received its US premiere in New York March 2011. I attended the London premiere and felt
that the story in the film needed to be told, hence our bringing it to the big screen at the Odeon Cinema on the 24th and 25th of June, 2011. The tickets are sold in advance only through the Nollywood Focus website at www.nollywoodfocus.com or but also Nollywoodgossip readers can support this film by buying tickets at www.nollywoodfocus.com/gossip-thefakeprophet
We are also supported in our marketing by Enugu Old Skoolz group and the Igbo Cultural and Support Network (ICSN).

Thank you Nnorom Azuonye and we do hope to get back to you for another exhilarating interview purely focused on your writing adventures.

Thanks Jeff. It has been my pleasure. Let’s do this again sometime.