Depend less on govt, Fidelis Duker tells filmmakers

Ahead of commencement of this year’s edition of the annual Abuja International film festival, which holds
from September 22 through 25, the festival director, Fidelis Duker has announced that the festival will be focusing on tourism as a major economic boost for the country.

Duker made this disclosure while speaking at the monthly Filmmaker’s forum organized by the Nollywood Studies Center, School of Media and Communication, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos.

He said that tourism sector was chosen as this year’s festival theme, having noticed the huge impact the industry has been making on the nation’s economy.

Fidelis-Duker

The forum, which held last month at Hotel de Island, Victoria Island witnessed a sizeable audience comprising stakeholders of the Nigerian film industry, actors and enthusiasts. It was very engaging as Duker spoke on the topic, “Film Festivals as a viable platform for promoting film distribution: The Abuja experience.”

According to him, the festival that has been running for the past 12 years uninterrupted is a five day events, featuring films, panel of discussants, workshops, film screening and awards. It is a platform for people to network and it also accords film makers who cannot express themselves an opportunity to find an expression.

“This year we are targeting tourism as our main theme. We will be looking at the close relationship between tourism and film. We will also use the festival to see how we can harness the tourism potentials in Nigerian so that we can re-base the industry. ”

Duker, however, regrets that Nigerian film makers do not appreciate the importance of film festivals, stressing that, “They are concerned about making films, hitting the conventional market and dumping them there, without considering the fact that film festivals are major platforms to give their films the needful exposure

Speaking further, teh founder of the Abuja International Film Duker festival said, “I think it’s high time we begin to see the industry from a business perspective. It is a big global business. There’s a need for people to begin to see themselves as businessmen and entrepreneurs. The dependency on government should be limited. Government involvement in films should be less than 30% whereby it provides the infrastructure and enabling environment to practice. With that, the industry will lessen its grip on government assistance.”