Wale Adenuga’s Pencil Film and Television Institute (PEFTI), premiered its students’ film projects last week which were impressive. The works were from the three and six months’ professional certificate in acting and presentation, directing, editing, cinematography and music production. From the quality of works that were presented, it was clear that the film industry would radically undergo total overhaul in the next few years with more quality works coming out of the industry.
The graduates presented films on different topics plaguing society. One of the students, Nouke Edgard Leroy’s film, Devine, is on the fight against drug abuse and female violation. Olajombo Ayomide also has Victim; i campaigns against the issue of women abuse. Anita Ivie Akhiwu’s Crack showcases the issue of failed marriage while Azeez Kehinde’s The Dive deals with the issue of sexual and drug abuse, just as Jenifer Owum’s My Memory tackles love and unity while Ayodeji Odunlami’s Circus focuses relationship issues. Also, Wole Popoola’s Suele Adam dwells on loneliness being a state of the mind and not reality while Charles Igwe’s Ogbakiri highlights traditional issues and canvasses contentment as anti-dote against greed and corruption.
However, Godfrey Opkugie’s Manners of Divine Intervention, (episode 1, Umbrella Wealth), attracted thunderous applause from the audience on account of its quality and intelligent storytelling. It deals with the issues of unemployment and how to become self-sufficient through hard work and dependence on God’s intervention.
One of the supervising lecturers, Mr. Abiodun Akinsiku, expressed confidence in the ability of the graduates to produce quality films from the training they had received at PEFTI. According to him, “With every knowledge passed to the students and with what you can see, they are good to go, especially in acting, which is a doing art.
The more you do it the better you get. For now, I know they are ripe enough to be thrown out. Though they need to go and do internship with other production outfits to really know how things work out there before launching out fully because the school can not teach them experience”.
Okpugie who obviously had one of the most impressive presentations said, “The story is a reflection about life, where some people feel that without them you cannot make it and that if you have not attained a certain level of education, you are not qualified to be anything at all”.
The director-in-the-making said, he already had about 30 faith-based scripts on the way God intervenes in people’s lives awaiting production, adding that he would begin to produce them as soon as possible.
