The Ferret

I am not a total snub when it comes to Nigerian movies. Most are balderdash. Occasionally one good one slips by and it gives you hope that, like most things Nigerian, there is great untapped potential nestled somewhere in the deep crevice of the seeming half-hearted attempts of Nollywood movies that always falls just short of average.

I found myself drawn to Irapada  (Redemption), mostly because of the hype. We were made to believe it’s the greatest thing fresh out of the Nigerian movie industry. We would be totally blown away because it was filmed in several states and featured the three major tribes of Nigeria.

Needless to say it was another dissapointment. What killed it for me was like twenty minutes into the movie when the wife announced she was pregnant. Lets not even talk about plot, which was good, what really stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb was the bad acting. Most of the actors were either over acting or under acting. The protagonist was so wooden I kept expecting to see strings behind his back whenever he turned around.

It was also more or less around that time that they started speaking English. Maybe that was what really did it in. There’s something about acting in the English language that strips Nigerian actors of their ability to act. As though the borrowed tongue robs them of the ability to plumb the recesses of and truly personify the character. The same actor can act in say, a Yoruba movie, and an English movie and you wonder if it’s the same person. That’s why I mostly watch Yoruba movies, or any other movies whose medium is other than English. Having to contend with the subtitles is a minor inconvinience. The characters are more relatable, and realistic and you can’t help but think, if it were in real life, this is exactly how the scene would play out.

On top of the bad acting they managed to thrown in a few cultural cliches as well, i.e., Igbos are rogues out suck the last kobo out of you.

Really, I give them three out of ten!

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Today I had my Client Measurement Form printed and photocopied. All that’s left to do is bind it. I also hope to have a separate book for my sketches. So far I’ve been doing them here and there and things are starting to get a bit disorganized. I’d love to have a book that I quickly run to sketch down whatever design comes to mind.

I was terrible at drawing before I started this course and I’m still bad. Lately I’ve been getting a lot of compliments about my sketches. My course mates think I’m just being modest when I tell them I never could draw…. which is still true, anyway. All I can sketch are clothes which is still pretty easy. Give a monkey a pen and some sketching pad and it’ll do just as fine, hehe…

I feel there’s so much to do and so little time to accomplish all. Suddenly I crave more than 24 hours in a day. The only time I felt like this was when I was actively writing. I felt inspired, and motivated, consumed by passion. The world was not enough.

I’m still undecided between bridals and children’s outfits. Everyone seems to be into bridals now… whenever I mention that it’s included in my course people go ga ga… as if I’d just said they were spraying my ass cheeks with gold dust.

I’m still undecided, but whatever I do must be novel. It will have to be design with a twist.

Meanwhile, I can shelve any plans of participating in the fashion show. My teacher broached the topic again, a few days before she delivered. She said it involved submitting ten different designs, and it was important to have one’s company name and all that. I thought if it was possible to sew ten different outfits in less than two weeks without any extra hands. For what I would have loved to present, there would  not have been enough time and I would not want to go there feeling I could have done better. If I’m gonig to do something, it’ll have to be a knockout, something never before seen or nothing at all. Thats that!