Post-lockdown advice for Nollywood from veteran filmmaker, Simpa

With gradual unlocking of Nigeria’s economic space, a post-lockdown agenda has been canvassed for Nollywood. Speaking on recovery for the creative industry in post-COVID-19 economy, Matthew Simpa, a veteran filmmaker and Head of Ben Auto Entertainment, said collaborations among producers is the way forward towards recovery.

Simpa, whose experience dates back to the pre-digital era, said, as head of the film production department at Ben Auto Entertainment, he hopes to take the company to lead a fresh wave of creativity in the industry.

“Collaboration is the way to go after COVID-19 crisis,” stated Simpa. “It will be unwise for individuals to single-handedly bear the brunt of a movie production, as sharing the burden would result in improved quality and ability to compete on the global scene.”

He disclosed that talks are on going with some Nollywood producers in Lagos, Asaba and Port Harcourt to embark on such projects immediately restrictions are relaxed.

“With Ben Auto Entertainment, I finally got the opportunity to take my dream to the apogee of my career,” said Simpa. “Ben Auto has been in business for decades with its tentacles in the automobile sales business, event and hospitality, music, education and so on.”

Simpa stated that his expertise, combined with experience and business accruement of Managing Director, Prince Ben Ukadike, are enough to energise sustainable collaboration that “will result in yet another revolution in the movie/video production sector.”

In his over 30 years of filmmaking, Simpa has always been in the forefront of the revolution. After his exploits with Meshfilms Ltd in producing celluloid films on reversal film stocks in the mid 1980s to early 1990s, he joined the evangelical home movies train in 1995 and helped create a growing evangelical filmmaking sector. In 2014, he produced, Outside the Box, yet another revolutionary Christian movie that is still widely acclaimed six years later.

In March this year, he joined newly created Ben Auto Entertainments as head of the film production department. The outfit recently acquired state of the arts video production equipment. The company’s main goal now is to enter into collaboration with interested movie/video producers to do joint productions.