My Life In Nollywood: Kenneth Gyang

Every week, The Culture Custodian grants you an all-access backstage pass into the lives of Nollywood rock stars. You get to learn about their fascinating backgrounds, the behind-the-scenes stories, and more. This episode features Jos-born filmmaker, Kenneth Gyang.

An alumnus of the National Film Institute in Jos, Gyang began his career producing short films, with one of his works Mummy Lagos getting selected for the 2006 Berlinale Campus Talent. Not only did this moment put him in the spotlight but it also earned him the opportunity to direct the popular BBC HIV/AIDS-themed Wetin Dey drama series that ran from 2007-2008.

Gyang stood out in his early foray into filmmaking because his style did not fit the mainstream Nollywood model. At that time, the Nigerian film market operated on traditional templates. Nollywood stories had linear plots and central characters, explored genres like drama, thriller, and popular comedy, and the notion of nemesis was readily available in the final act to adequately punish evil characters and reward the good. Making any other kind of film that deviated from the convention was believed to be a risky investment for established filmmakers and production companies because they were not sure about how their audience would receive such films. Amidst these uncertainties, Gyang summoned the courage and set out fully as an independent filmmaker, teaming up with British writer-producer Tom Rowlands-Rees and ace Nigerian cinematographer Yinka Edwards in 2010 to form Cinema Kpatakpata. The independent film production network would be responsible for Gyang’s experimental film ideals, best seen in his chef d’oeuvre, Confusion Na Wa (2013).

Actors OC Ukeje as Charles and Ali Nuhu as Bello in Confusion Na Wa
Image Source: Cinema Kpatakpata

In Confusion Na Wa, Gyang uses dark humor to mirror a group of strangers whose lives are interconnected by chance within 24 hours. In the film are characters like Chichi who is unfortunately killed, a noble businessman whose son is feared homosexual, and Bello whose uprightness does not help to salvage his dire economic and marital circumstances. Through their experiences, Gyang depicts the illogicality and meaninglessness of existence, a motif that was rather rare in the Nigerian cinema culture of the time.

2013 African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) winner for Best Film— Confusion Na Wa. Image Source: Cinema Kpatakpata

Confusion Na Wa was well received by the African audience as it won Best Film and Best Nigerian Film categories at the 9th Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA 2013). For his sterling directorial initiative, Gyang won Director of the Year at the 2013 Best of Nollywood Awards. He was developing a multi-national film that underwent development at the inaugural Ouaga Film Lab and EAVE Producers Workshop in 2017 before taking a break to work with EbonyLife to direct the crime thriller film, Òlòtūré (2019). Òlòtūré exposes the murky world of human trafficking through the experience of its titular undercover agent. Gyang’s romance with EbonyLife continued as he returned to co-direct another conventional crime thriller drama series, Blood Sisters (2022). Blood Sisters tells the story of two friends, Sarah and Kemi, who get on the run and try to cover their tracks after accidentally killing the wealthy groom Kola on his wedding day. Unlike his seminal feature-length project where he wields more creative control over film techniques and camera movements, Gyang’s collaborations with EbonyLife conform to the conventional crime thriller genre and linear storytelling in Nollywood.

Kenneth Gyang on the set of THIS IS LAGOS
Image Source: Cinema Kpatakpata

Gyang’s film ideals and penchant for unique storytelling resurface in his latest dark comedy THIS IS LAGOS (2023) and fantasy drama Mojisola (2023), both of which debuted at the 12th Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF 2023). An adaptation of a short story by Crispin Oduobuk-Mfonabasi, THIS IS LAGOS uses a non-linear plot as it explores survival in the cosmopolitan city through a young man in quest of superstardom.

This interview with Kenneth Gyang was conducted ahead of AFRIFF 2023 and has been tweaked for clarity.

In your 2009 interview with Daily Trust, you claimed to have made your directorial debut at 17, which gives the impression that you’ve been passionate about filmmaking for a long time. For how long exactly have you been nursing this flair for filmmaking, and what motivated you from the onset?

I grew up in West of Mines, Jos around where popular Nollywood filmmaker Izu Ojukwu used to live. At the time, the Jos Museum was a makeshift film studio where a lot of  Nollywood films shot in Jos were made there. Think of the first Amina and films like Gazula. There were also international films like Mr Johnson with Pierce Brosnan and a lot of other classic series. Jos was the capital of film in Nigeria at that time. The Nigerian Film Corporation was situated in the city, and whenever filmmakers shot on celluloid, they came to the lab at the NFC to process the raw stock. While growing up, I was interested in studying film and also loved listening to short-wave radio. We [children in the community] used to have a shadow cinema made from carton cutouts, white cloth, and sticks. I also was heavily involved in church drama, but I was not yet in film school when I had access to some early video cameras. 

Back then I did a lot of short films, most of which I can’t remember, including ones shot on celluloid. One was during a school workshop that Afolabi Adesanya, who would later become the MD of the Nigerian Film Corporation, facilitated. During such workshops, we shoot using Betacam and celluloid cameras side by side because we will edit the video faster than when the celluloid version will be processed. Shooting on celluloid was fun and of course more technical than video but my upbringing and early exposure motivated me.

Could you talk about your work with BBC, especially about directing the famous Wetin Dey show?

When I made the experimental short film Mummy Lagos, it got selected as an Official Selection at the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2006. My script was also selected for Script/Doc Station and that was how a script writing mentor from Scripthouse saw the work at the festival and loved it. Out of the blue, he asked me if I wanted to work with the BBC, a lifelong dream from my early days in film school. He gave me their contact, and I met with the producers of Shooting Dogs Film, the UK production company handling the project. The company was co-founded by the cerebral filmmaker John Akomfrah with producers Lina Gapaul and David Lawson. All three are members of the British cinecultural group Black Audio Film Collective. A couple of months later, we met in Abuja, which was about when Wetin Dey was going to start. I worked as a director on the project. I have to also add that the BBC also wanted to work with young people who had not yet been touched by the mainstream philosophy of filmmaking so a lot of us from the National Film Institute in Jos were hired.

In 2010, you founded Cinema Kpatakpata together with Yinka Edwards and Tom Rowlands-Rees. What informed this decision and partnership?

In film school, I made a short film titled Mummy Lagos. Yinka Edward`s aunt had a restaurant in front of their house. She was popularly called “Mummy Lagos.” Not only did she inspire the film, I also used her as the star based on inspiration from indie directors who have shared their experiences working with amateur talents. Before the short was made, I had traveled to Cross River State with Yinka to shoot a documentary produced by Regina Udalor. On our way back, I developed the idea of Mummy Lagos because I wanted to enter it as an Official Selection for Berlin Film Festival`s Talent Campus. Back then, we competed to make films to be selected based on the topics the festival gave. Selected films are screened and also compiled on disc, a prestige thing for talents. The year I entered we were asked to make films based on Food, Taste, and Hunger. I made Mummy Lagos and it was an official selection. I went to Berlin where I met my future collaborator Tom Rowlands-Rees. Tom is  British but he could speak some Hausa words because his parents were expats in Zaria. Tom and I started having conversations about collaborations, and Yinka was also in the picture. Like the Black Audio Film Collective, we all decided to have a film collective called Cinema Kpatakpata. For our first film, we received funding from the Netherlands. We didn’t have people in Nigeria who believed in stories like that. There were specific philosophies guiding mainstream Nigerian films, and independent cinema was not supported. The idea behind Cinema Kpatakpata was to tell authentic African stories that could travel to the world as well. 

L-R, Tunde Aladese, Kenneth Gyang, Ramsey Nouah. Image Source: Cinema Kpatakpata 

Considering both stylistic and thematic relevance, what do you think sets you apart as a filmmaker? 

I see myself as a griot. I grew up with my grandparents and they told great stories. I experienced the whole mythology of our culture because I spent a lot of time in the village during long vacations, which has shaped me. I have also realized that all these stories were led by enigmatic characters. And that also translates to my films. You might not like my characters but you will find them memorable. In Confusion Na Wa, for instance, characters like Ali Nuhu, OC Ukeje, Gold Ikponwosa, and Tunde Aladese are people that will live in your memory long after you have seen the film. In Òlòtūré no one would forget the titular character played by Sharon Ooja. Just as I am particular about character development, I am also mindful of keeping my stories interesting so I layer them with cinematic set pieces that are memorable. I believe that a filmmaker must have a certain level of depth in terms of how an ideology is passed. For instance, Confusion Na Wa deals with morality, while The Lost Café deals with the psychology of love and loss and the isolation we feel as Africans when we leave the continent. These are films based on my lived experiences. 

You have also made imprints in the Hausa Film Industry, with Blood and Henna which you co-produced and directed. What was the production experience like and how does it differ from the usual?

Blood and Henna was my major political cinema but unfortunately, it never got released. I made the film because I was inspired by the Hollywood film The Constant Gardener. I discovered it was loosely based on events that happened in Kano in 1996 regarding an illegal clinical test. I run Masterclass workshops sometimes and whenever  I teach students, I always tell them about the importance of telling quality stories that go in line with an unwritten concept of National Cinema and on that basis, I decided to tell a story about the 1996 Pfizer Clinical Test during a meningitis outbreak. Illegally testing Trovan there resulted in the deaths and deformation of many children. This, in turn, created a notoriety amongst some Northerners who have refused to have their children take the polio vaccine, an action that kept Nigeria in the red list in the fight for polio. A section of the press sometimes says not taking the polio vaccine is due to illiteracy, but it is much deeper than that and that was what I also tried to show in the film. Blood and Henna was part of Nigeria`s showcase film at the 2012 London Olympics, and had an unprecedented six nominations at the 9th Africa Movie Academy Awards. It was the first and, perhaps, the only Hausa film that has ever attained that height. But the film was not released due to reasons known to the executive producer.

Kenneth Gyang on the set of Confusion Na Wa Image Source: Cinema Kpatakpata

 Could you talk us through the vision and production process for Confusion Na Wa (2013)?

Tom [Rowlands-Rees] and I wrote the script, but he led the writing. At some point, Tom was coming to Nigeria to write. We would spend time together and take walks in Jos. We had a great script that Hubert Bals Fund gave us a digital grant for a major feat for the industry. The project was also selected for the 2010 Durban Film Mart, Tom, the producer, also got invited for the Cinemart, a prestige market event at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Our script made a big impression on the indie community. Eventually, when we presented the finished film, what the audience saw was different in structure from how we initially wrote the script. The original story happened in chapters with characters crisscrossing into each other’s stories. In giving us the grant Hubert Bals had the perfect description for it – `a tragic-comical collage film`. Confusion Na Wa was different and stylish for its time, layered with memorable dialogue. The Lion King scene has attained cult status, I remember showing the film at an American University and a Professor asked me to send him the manuscript of the scene. It was also an attempt to tell a deep story about morality and the breakdown of systems in contemporary African society. We wanted something artistic and independent from what everyone else was doing. Our early motto at Cinema Kpatakpata was `standing out and not fitting in`. Our latest film, THIS IS LAGOS, has a similar structure as Confusion Na Wa. 

As a director, how do you handle creative differences within the production team? 

The superior argument wins, especially in the studio system but I have to also say that generally as a director, you must be sure about what you want, and must be able to produce a well-thought-out superior argument that goes in line with the vision of the film you want to make. Film can be collaborative, so when someone else has a superior idea to yours on set, you have to listen. Don`t believe you will be right all the time. What I always advise filmmakers to do on how to navigate this possible knowledge deficiency is through studying. I also study my scripts a lot to work out how I want the scenes to look. Through that, the actors and the crew tend to trust me. 

What was your experience in making Òlòtūré? 

I directed the project, but I still had conversations about the writing, most especially the ending. When a studio hires you as a director, you are not only there to interpret everything written on the paper hook, line, and sinker. You are there to look at the story and who the characters are and help their journey memorable in how the story is structured. I always love that challenge. There were a lot of creative decisions involved in the project, starting from the selection of the lead actor, Sharon [Ooja]. We had to select a lead actor who had the look of naivete and innocence. In terms of shooting style, I brought in some ideas from independent filmmaking of cinema verite. Rather than the use of big fancy cameras, Steadicams, tripods, or tracks which are associated with mainstream filmmaking, Òlòtūré was shot using a small camera, a Gh5 I think. It was a wonderful project and I was surrounded by the best team. It was my first studio project and I did it to prove a point that deep subject matter will have a wide embrace. Òlòtūré was both critically and commercially successful, becoming Nigeria’s first official international breakout film on Netflix.

In what appears to be a trend in Nollywood, successful films are being developed and made into series. News has it that Òlòtūré will be returning as an EbonyLife series. What are we to expect from this comeback?

The last time I saw the online cut, it looked great and I was happy with the outcome. It was tricky going back to that world because a lot of people treat it as a national treasure and it would be disastrous to ruin the great experience they had with the beloved film. The return of Òlòtūré as a series is a purely studio decision. I remember saying that I was not going to be part of any part 2 of the film because the ending was perfect. But the idea was sold to me as a series. The decision at the Executive level was made because of how popular, critically, and commercially successful the film was. It’s normal for film studios to always go back to what has worked for them, we are in an IP-driven age. The spectacle of the series will win more fans for the universe of the film. The series is in post-production and should be out in a couple of months. We filmed in the desert of Mauritania which was quite a challenge but looks gorgeous. 

L-R, Kenneth Gyang and Biyi Bandele
Image Source: Kenneth Gyang

L-R, Daniel Etim-Effiong, Kenneth Gyang and Toke Makinwa on Blood Sisters set.
Image Source: Kenneth Gyang

You also co-directed Blood Sisters with the late Biyi Bandele. Could you recall notable moments from the collaboration?

I received news of his death when I was shooting THIS IS LAGOS, and it was devastating. On Blood Sisters, it was a big collaboration with him. There were things that he wanted; for instance, he wanted superb eye-candy action sequences for the fight scene involving Kola and Blade. That scene sets up how we went on to approach spectacle in the series. We had excellent producers on the project, including Temidayo Makanjuola,  James Amuta,  Judith Audu, and Quinty Pillay with support from Head of Program Heidi Uys and the executive producer Mo Abudu. It was like an all-star producing team and we were given the vision to make a binge-worthy show. James Amuta understood the kinds of stories I love to tell and the sort of Lagos locations I wanted in the series. With Biyi`s bloc (episodes 1&2), sometimes we shared locations and I was coming to direct some story strands from my bloc. By the time it got to my bloc properly, I shot everything within ten days, which was quite insane. It was the point where we shot Adeboye’s beach house, the big funeral, the car chases, the burning of Makoko house, the finale, etc., all big set pieces. Blood Sisters was a great experience and I’m glad I worked on it with Biyi Bandele who grew up in the north. Hausa was our language of private onset communication, but not a lot of people knew that before Blood Sisters, I had met Biyi in 2014 when my film was opening the New York African Film Festival. He was there with his film Half of A Yellow Sun. We had conversations where he was open about the budget he has worked within the industry, a topic many Nigerian filmmakers do not like to talk about. I told him I was interested in working on one of his books, Burma Boy, which he coincidentally intended to adapt. We had other collaborative projects in the works before his death.

How has your cultural and educational background influenced your career? 

As I mentioned earlier, growing up in Jos influenced my passion for filmmaking. I attended a missionary school where we did a lot of reading. We had a very good library and expatriate teachers. I read classics for children like Lamb Tales From Shakespeare, a lot more African literature and the works of Ngugi wa Thiong’O shaped my upbringing and got me interested in the arts. I had missionaries as teachers who made us take on extra-curricular activities such as music and drama with film screenings, and all that shaped me. 

How has technology changed filmmaking recently, and what new technology will you adopt going forward?

The Nigerian film industry doesn’t have that money yet. I remember seeing Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men (2006) in South Africa. There was a scene that caught my attention in that film: people running out of a house and getting into a small car, which was filmed with a small camera that kept panning in the car. The scene also involves a high-speed chase with bad guys coming after the car and shooting after the good guys all in one continuous take. The camera and the technology behind it were specially created for that scene. To do something of that creative magnitude as a Nigerian filmmaker, you need the budget for it.  But at the moment, I am much more interested in the quality of a story and its characters, production design, and practical effects than technology but I am part of the AI arms race and will continue to see what possibilities it offers.

Image Source: Cinema Kpatakpata

Kenneth Gyang and Gabriel Afolayan on the set of THIS IS LAGOS Image Source: Cinema Kpatakpata

How do you marry and define your responsibilities as a screenwriter, producer, and director on any project?

It depends on what you are doing. I can do a lot of development for scripts but when I am going into production, I have to get obsessed with a specific responsibility. The first stage is to write. After writing, you start producing. Producing and directing could happen at the same time, but then you have your team to help you.  I have about five projects I’m working on, three of which I`m currently in financing for, with different directors attached to the projects. One of my projects might take about a year to be financed and could be produced in 2025. Crossing over from independent filmmaking to mainstream and having access to private funding has helped me a lot. I made my first film in 2010 and it came out in 2013. My second film, The Lost Café,  was released in 2018. I didn’t like that it took a while to release another film so I had to think of a strategy that works. This time around, when I raised funding, I decided to make two films back to back, THIS IS LAGOS and Mojisola, to make up for lost ground. Both will also be shown at AFRIFF.

Could you talk about the production, themes, and casting choices for THIS IS LAGOS?

THIS IS LAGOS was written in 2010 based on a short story of the same title by Crispin [Oduobuk-MfonAbasi]. I worked with Crispin who was a writer with BBC World Service Trust while I was directing Wetin Dey. When I read that short story, I told Tom that I would love to adapt it. It captures Lagos in a way that I have heard people discuss its legendary status, a case of ‘shine your eyes’. ‘Shine your eyes’ is a phrase that is a true testament to the sort of individualism city dwellers experience, a deep feature of capitalism. The characters in THIS IS LAGOS are all well-written, fun, and memorable, and that made the filming process fun for everyone. When we got in touch with the actors, they liked the characters. Kate Henshaw was on set for two days, but you would remember her character as Aunty Isidora. Gabriel Afolayan’s Stevo, Ikechukwu Onunaku as the psychotic Kojack, Mike Afolarin paying the mute Emeka, Greg Ojefua`s Omo Dada, David Jones David as Singood and Homsuk Jibril as Wale all felt like the roles were written for them. This is one of the best ensembles I have ever worked with. I have to also mention that this is Laura Pepple’s first feature film appearance and it felt like the role was made for her. My female characters always have some magnetism about them and her role as the smart city girl looks wonderful on screen. We shot the film using a full-frame anamorphic lens and coupled with production design, lighting, sound, and performance, it looks every bit gorgeously cinematic.

What filmmakers inspire you, and why?

In film school, most of us referred to Tarantino’s style and depth, and that drew my attention to the filmmaker. While I was growing up, I fell in love with Izu Ojukwu for his camera movements and his action films which were considered the best at that time in Nigeria. When I kept reading books, I became exposed to filmmakers from other parts of Africa. I also got into the works of Ousmane Sembène. My biggest influence in African cinema is Gaston Kaboré, a director from Burkina Faso. In film school, some of us were selected to go for a workshop in Burkina Faso where I met him for the first time. He opened my eyes to writing and structuring a script. He brought quality facilitators from other parts of the world to teach us at his training center called IMAGINE. He is both a mentor and a great storyteller I admire. I love his films. 

What are some of the best films you’ve seen?

I enjoyed Gaston Kaboré’s Wend Kuuni (1982) and Buud Yam (1997). African films at that time had a sense of rigidity in them, but Kaboré’s Buud Yam is flexible in execution with its camera movement. Nollywood titles from Izu Ojukwu and others like Suicide Misson, Yesterday and Return to Kazondia made an impression on me, the last film was shot in Shere Hills, Jos and it felt surreal seeing my culture in a big Nollywood film. I also love Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941). Welles was young when he made that film. The grandness and production design of the sound stage, the quality of the narrative, and the performance were all spot-on. It’s not surprising that critics credit the film as one of the best that has ever been made. Interestingly, Welles made another film The Other Side of the Wind (2018) which he didn’t finish before he died. The film was co-edited and released in 2018 by Netflix alongside a documentary They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead. The film was shot using a hand-held camera, a filmmaking style that was rare at the time it was initially made. If Welles had finished and released the film back then, it would have been revolutionary and recognized as one of the greatest films ever. 

Patrick Doyle and Kenneth Gyang on the set of Blood Sisters
Image Source: Kenneth Gyang

How do you approach criticism of your films?

If you are ever in film school, your work gets critiqued a lot so you see this as part of the final production process when your work is out. We used to showcase our projects in a hall filled with fellow students because post-mortem was part of film production. And the criticism could be vicious even from from close friends. So, I see criticism as a part of film art but I pay more attention to intellectual critics. 

Could you talk about some of your biggest career challenges?

It’s funding and acceptability. As a passionate artist getting into the film industry, you are likely to have unconventional ideas that will not be accepted. People will feel that your ideas are not going to work, but you have to stick to those ideas. If I had cracked under mainstream industry pressure and thrown away the idea of Confusion Na Wa,  I would not be sitting here and having this conversation with you. It would have been a different career trajectory for me. If you believe you have a gift to share with the world, by all means, stay through to it. I recommend The Alchemist for anyone to read because it talks about the importance of sticking to one’s journey without derailing.