Redefining Women in Nollywood

Redefining Women in Nollywood by BENJAMIN NJOKU/Vanguard20 October 2011. Republished from vanguardngr.com

What is the place of women in the Nigerian film industry? How much has the industry helped in the empowerment of the womenfolk? Is it that the women have been portrayed in a bad light or that, they are made to be victims of systematic discrimination and stereotypes in Nollywood?

These are some of the questions, Dr. Akin Alao of the History Department, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, attempted to answer last week, while delivering a position paper at the just concluded 5th edition of the Festival of Indigenous African Language Films,(FIAF), held in Akure, the capital city of Ondo State.

His paper titled “Women Empowerment in Nigerian Film industry”, basically attempted to redefine the place of women in the nation’s movie industry. He acknowledged the fact that the film industry performs dual functions as it concerns the image of women. First, the industry mirrors the society as it is, showing the sex role division and secondly, reflects the roles which are believed to be appropriate for women.

For the university don, taking a holistic look at the industry, admitted that the Nigerian film industry has been reinforcing the social reality of stereotyping women, which he blamed on the media.

According to him, this stereotypical depiction of women in the media is a common phenomenon in Nigeria and such that reinforces dis-empowerment status in the society.

Alao, therefore advocated the need for the film industry to activate a considerable amount of attitudinal change favourable to women by attempting to set agenda or new roles women for women in other for them to effectively play their part in the twenty first century development agenda.

While calling for a greater valuation and esteem for the female gender, the lecturer stressed the need for women to move from just being actresses to moving into the more technical areas of film making which include; directing and production among other things.

“This is what communication scholars refers to as Agenda setting function of the media. The whole idea of agenda setting in the media centres on media directing the opinion of the public along the socially accepted or approved lines. Since the 1975 UN conference on women, the world has come to recognise officially women as vital development partners in the world economy.”

“That a woman could occupy central role in development agenda has been accepted at least on paper. Using the film industry, we could promote this expected role of our women until we achieve the set objective for women empowerment in our society.”he argued.

Continuing he added that “Since the whole concept of empowerment is dependent upon self-actualisation and confidence to independently take decisions without recourse to men as masters, if women are portrayed in a new light through home videos. It would have a profound implication for their status in society.”

‘In his own paper,Professor Onookome Okome of the Department of English and Film Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, who delivered the guest lecture, reinforced the need to pay more attention to the context and content of film practice in contemporary Nigeria.

In his lecture titled “Language and Indigeneity in Nigerian Cinema”, Okome drew attention to the need to properly interrogate the phenomenon of “culture” with a view to coming to terms with its complexity, dynamism and pluralism especially when viewed against the backdrop of its enduring manifestations in Nigerian Cinema.

He also called for attention on the role of the travelling theatre tradition, the celluloid films and tele-drama for the development of contemporary Nigerian video film industry. Regardless of the language of its expression and cultural background, Nigerian films,he argued, have contributed remarkably to the world cinema and the economy of Nigeria and perception of Nigeria by the outside world. There is, therefore, the need to build upon this success and address various challenges in the industry, some of which came to the fore during the question and answer session.

The Festival, which ran from October 2nd through 5th, was declared open by Dr Olusegun Mimiko, the Executive Governor of Ondo State, accompanied by his wife, Mrs Olukemi Mimiko, and members of his Cabinet.

In his remarks, Mimiko noted that the film medium is a key propagator of indigenous languages and cultural values which needs to be cultivated towards achieving meaningful development.

According to him, for development to be meaningful and sustainable, it needs to be grafted upon cultural values of the people, drawing examples from Asian countries like Malaysia, Japan, Korea and Singapore. Such values include honesty, hard work, unity and a sense of the community as against individualism being glorified by liberalisation and globalisation.

Redefining Women in Nollywood by BENJAMIN NJOKU/Vanguard 20 October 2011. Republished from vanguardngr.com

Yasmina Adi: Ici, on noie les Algériens/Here we drown Algerians

Yasmina Adi: Ici, on noie les Algériens / Here we drown Algerians by Elisabeth Lequeret. Republished from RFI (Radio France Internationale), translation from French to English by Beti Ellerson

It was exactly fifty years ago, the 17th of October 1961 in Paris, the National Liberation Front (FNL) organized a rally for the independence of Algeria. Maurice Papon, the chief of police of Paris at the time, gave orders to quell the demonstration, and dozens of bodies were found in the Seine. To commemorate this event, two films are released this week, including Yasmina Adi’s Here, we drown Algerians. A film that mixes eyewitness accounts and unpublished archives, and stories and memories—past and present.

Interview with the filmmaker:

RFI: You are 36, an Algerian of the younger generation. What does 17 October 1961 represents for you?

Yasmina Adi: In Grenoble, before becoming a filmmaker I heard about this date. In the 1990s in Grenoble we started having marches and throwing flowers in the Isère. And gradually during my professional career—as I'm very interested in the Algeria war—I heard more and more about this date, but in a rather vague way. And I knew that something terrible had happened. And for many years it remained hidden. 

RFI: At the same time you say it’s a taboo, which is surprising since there is a lot of literature and films about the 17th of October 61. There are seven full-length films—fiction and documentary, on the subject. It is also surprising since it is not one of the major events of the Algeria war. How do you explain the focus of so much literature and films about the 17th of October rather than about the Sétif massacres and the battle of Algiers, for example? 

YA: I think in terms of the 17th of October there was a taboo for a long time around the facts, the number of deaths, which attracts a certain interest. 

RFI: At the end of the film, you state about sixty dead. Actually, we do not know the exact number.

YA: Well sixty corpses were found in the Seine, actually. But we do not know the number of deaths. And I think this is what stirs the public’s interest, but also it provokes the interest of filmmakers. People want to know what happened. Unfortunately, it will never be known since at the Prefecture of Police archives, there are many gaps. Gradually with the work of Jean-Luc Einaudi, the Papon trial, and the revival of this event in the 1990s, many filmmakers have addressed the issue. 

RFI: In the film, you show very well the extremely violent context of the time. In October 61 in Paris, a film by Jacques Panigel, made in 1961-62 but unseen until now—which is being released in theaters on the same day as your film—the filmmaker also shows this: he too goes in the slums of Nanterre and talks to Algerians. He asks about those who were not beaten by the police, and in fact, there are none: everyone got beat up.

YA: Yes, because the violence was so extreme during this repression! At the same time it is difficult, because you show these abuses in the images—there are images that were found and those that were not. At the same time the eyewitnesses tell you about these violent acts. So we have to measure things, between the image and the words of the witness. And that's what is complicated in violent acts of repression. Of course, I saw Panigel’s film. This film is a tremendous archive of images and testimonies. I thought nonetheless, that it was necessary to measure things, these archives, which also represent the past, and the testimony of witnesses. But also find a way to not enter into the spectacular nor make it into something severe. Because this film must be seen by all generations. So it's a balancing act, a bit complicated.

Yasmina Adi: Ici, on noie les Algériens / Here we drown Algerians by Elisabeth Lequeret. Republished from RFI (Radio France Internationale), translation from French to English by Beti Ellerson

African women, be careful of sexual predators on the Web! - Les Africaines, faites attention aux prédateurs sexuels sur la Toile!

Scenarios from Africa is a community mobilization, education and media process about HIV/AIDS carried out with and for young people and directed by the continent's leading filmmakers. 

Scénarios d’Afrique est un projet de mobilisation communautaire, d'éducation et de médias sur le VIH/SIDA mis en oeuvre avec et pour les jeunes et realisé par les réalisateurs les plus célèbres d’Afrique.

"The Web": Sexual Predators on the Internet.

THE WEB Synopsis: The story of three young African women, each seeking the man of her dreams on the Web. But danger lurks, as things aren't always as they appear on the Internet. Behind the photo of a potential prince charming one might find a sexual predator or the kingpin of an international prostitution ring. However, by following some simple guidelines, one can avoid such hazards. Directed by Nigerian director Newton I. Aduaka. Based on an original idea by El Hadj Alle Niang, age 24, Senegal.

Prédateurs sexuels sur Internet : « La Toile »

LA TOILE Synopsis: Une histoire de trois jeunes femmes africaines, chacune à la recherche de son bonheur sur le Web. Mais attention, car les apparences sont parfois trompeuses sur l'Internet ; derrière la photo de profil du prince charmant peut se cacher un prédateur sexuel, voir un trafiquant de femmes. Pourtant, en suivant de simples consignes, on peut éviter de tels dangers. Un court métrage de la collection Scénarios d'Afrique, tourné par le réalisateur nigérian Newton I. Aduaka. Basé sur une idée originale de El Hadj Alle Niang, age 24, de Sénégal.

IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH CAPTIONS

VOIR AUSSI/Also see: Les Filières Africaines de Prostitution/The African Prostitution Network.  Extrait du documentaire sur la prostitution africaine en Europe. Excerpt from the documentary on African prostitution in Europe. Reportage Agence Enogo. En Français/IN FRENCH

Les Filières Africaines de Prostitution (2007)

Zulfah Otto Sallies: Filming the Bo-Kaap Culture of South Africa

Zulfah Otto Sallies

Filming the Bo-Kaap Culture of South Africa

 

Zulfah Otto Sallies, filmmaker, writer, playwright, reflects on the cultural and artistic influences of Bo-Kaap, the South African Cape Town community where she grew up, lives and works.

Image: Osman Khan

Zulfah, you are a filmmaker, writer and playwright—among other talents! Please talk a bit about yourself.

I grew up in a society that was culturally very strong. The Cape Malay identity was engrained into our psyche it gave us a sense of belonging and assurance that our culture was an important one.  It was a case of having a thousand mothers. Where every mother in the neighbourhood could reprimand you, check that you toe the line.  Neighbours played an important role in our upbringing.  Every home in the neighborhood was one that you could frequent as your own.  A place to hide when your parents were angry with you, a place where lending a cup of sugar, a tomato was a common phenomenon. Religion is the backbone of the culture and forms the basis of the moral values of the Malay culture.  The Cape Malay culture for me meant very much there is a time and place for everything.  New Year's Eve meant standing in Wale Street watching the Malay choir's parade. 2nd New Year saw the Cape Minstrels parade.  These cultural events shaped the Bo-Kaap, that still boast as one of the safest areas in Cape Town.  I started to read the works of Rumi as a teenager and could then not understand much.  These works inspired me so much that I resorted to writing poetry at a very young age. Mystical poets began to shape my love for literature.  I would later venture into various art forms, writing of novels, short stories, film scripts, plays and later resort to making my own films.  It is my passion for Bo-Kaap, a place where I still reside that makes waking up in the morning pure bliss when you have the privilege of waking up to Table Mountains greetings of the day.

Your work shows the multicultural character of South Africa, especially the complexity of Malay and Muslim identities in Bo-Kaap. What is the background and history of this community?

The Bo-Kaap is one of the oldest communities in South Africa.  It is the first established communities where free slaves settled in.  Particularly the slaves from Java, Sumatra, etc. The Muslim identity is the first basis that is formed and laid as a foundation for the children of Bo-Kaap.  The manner in which religion was taught to us as kids was not in Arabic but very much in Afrikaans.  Afrikaans was written in Arabic letters.  This difference in religious teaching saw the growth of Afrikaans as a medium of communication for the Bo-Kaap people.  When apartheid was at its height Bo-Kaap resorted to a boycott of the Afrikaans language that led to most kids in Bo-Kaap today speaking English.  I am of the belief that language and culture are strongly connected hence with the loss of Afrikaans we have lost a lot of our culture.  In the case of the Afrikaans language it should be noted that the people of Bo-Kaap have their own rhythm and dialect of Afrikaans that they speak.  The mosques on a Friday would give their sermon solely in Afrikaans, today that is not to be found.  So it is this freedom of a time and place for everything that makes being multicultural an old hat that Bo-Kaap residents has worn for over 300 years. The tolerance of each one to its own, and the respect that comes between.

Your first short film, Raya (2000), which is part of the Mama Africa series, is multi-layered, dealing with issues of generational differences, traditional versus contemporary views among Muslims, and the lure of drugs and its consequences. We also see the world of the tight-knit community of the Bo-Kaap. How was the story conceived and why did you want to tell it in this way?

Raya to me was about three generations that have to cope with the ever-changing society they live in.  The society of Bo-Kaap that is rapidly changing. The world of Raya that is so different to that of her mother’s where the evils of society like drugs is available on almost every street corner. The world of Raya also speaks about cultural resentment and expectations of society where being a tight-knit society that can also be the noose that chokes you, as everybody knows everybody’s business.  Raya is a story I wanted to tell this way to also portray the relationship between mother and daughter and also showcase its complexities within a society of Bo-Kaap that is culturally strong.

In your documentary film, Through the Eyes of My Daughter (2004) you discover your own daughter and aspects of yourself during the filmmaking process. Of course, now eight years later, Muneera is a young woman. What was that process like? Perhaps talking about it in retrospect and relaying it to the present.

Through the Eyes of My Daughter was a phenomenal experience. It turned the lights onto my daughter and me, and zoomed into our world for one year.  My daughter at the time was 15; today she is 23 and always threatens to turn the camera on me now. She herself completed her degree in filmmaking at AFDA and is in the process of producing my next feature “Diekie Vannie Bo-Kaap”.  Through the Eyes of My Daughter gave us the foundation to work together and that to me as a mother is a great honour as today we still are able to work together.  Sometimes it is really hard and complex but both of us know the professionalism required to deliver a quality product and hence we are able to put emotions aside, get our hands dirty and do the job.

Your feature film Don’t Touch continues your focus on family, generational differences, and Muslim identities and the youth of South Africa. Why did you want to explore these themes?

The theme of generational difference is a strong interest of mine as with every generation we lose more and more of who we are.  What society perceives as technological advancement is also the regression of moral and cultural values with each generation thinking they are more advanced than the older generation.  Perhaps we can simplify this with an example of the current generation that is magnificent with technology but unable to read, let alone spell properly. So the older generation may not have been the best of readers but they were effective and useful citizens that were in the service of humanity. I have strong views on today’s society that is technologically savvy but so individualistic that they become almost useless citizens of a society.  They serve only their own needs and not that of the greater society. It is here that I feel culture plays a big role that keeps one as a contributor to society, that builds the character of individuals.  Don’t Touch looks at the modern teenager in Bo-Kaap that is confronted with living in the new South Africa with many cultural diversities and exposures.  This is played off against the cultural background of Bo-Kaap.

The daughter as rebel, confronting traditional values in her contemporary world, has been the point of departure of your films. Where do you situate yourself within this?

I am very aware of tradition vs. the contemporary world. I believe that some things we have to retain from tradition, as it shapes our identity and forms our basis of being. In the contemporary world we shape who we want to be, whether we stay clear from culture or not, we have a basis to fall back on if we so desire.  The teenager all over the world is a rebel, confrontational and fighting to be heard and seen. Added to that, the religious basis confronts this rebellion and questions moral character. Teenagers will always question, confront and rebel and this we should perceive as a big part of growing up and have the room to let them express themselves.  In Through the Eyes of My Daughter, sports, i.e touch rugby, was a means of expression for my daughter, hence the teen years were not so bottled up, but still it was confrontational and difficult.

Your current film project is Diekie Vannie Bo-Kaap. Please tell us about it—from the theatre production, to the book and now to film—where you are in the production process and plans for the film.

Diekie Vannie Bo-Kaap is a very successful teen book in schools. It is used as a high school set workbook and is very popular. Currently we are at the fundraising stage of this project with the script and all other paperwork in order. We hope to shoot next year around September 2012 if we manage to secure funding.  This will be the first film that I do with my daughter as my producer so I am really looking forward to it.

Interview with Zulfah Otto Sallies by Beti Ellerson, October 2011.


Links:

Raya, Mama Africa
Through the Eyes of My Daughter
Diekie Vannie Bo-Kaap the Movie (On Facebook)

A Conversation with Vigil Chimé

Nigerian-American Vigil Chimé, filmmaker, producer and writer, takes full advantage of the networking resources on the Internet. She speaks about her transnational identity and her desire to show realistic images of the African immigrant experience in the United States.

Vigil, you came from Nigeria to the United States with your family as a child. Reflecting on the current debates on multiculturalism, hybridity, and transnational identity, as you talk about yourself, also explore how you position yourself in the context of this discourse.

In all honesty, I wonder why I still retain a sense of identity to my Nigerian roots. Think about it – I arrived to the US at age 10, going on 11. This is over 30 years ago! I have younger brothers who came at the same time, and today, none of them identifies to Africa as strongly as I do. In fact, for all intents and purposes, my brothers identify themselves as “African-American” more than African.

On any given day, people still ask me where I come from. I say Nigeria even though I’ve spent three-quarters of my life in America and only one-quarter in Africa. As I respond to this question, I wonder why. What was it about spending the formative years of my life on African soil that made such an impression on me that I cannot, for the life of me, seem to let it go? It could be that I found the American landscape and culture, upon arrival, stunning and jarring.

My experiences as a child growing up in a mostly black and Latino neighborhood in Houston, TX were not positive. My brothers and I were routinely ridiculed for coming from Africa, and chased by black kids who wanted to beat us up after school for the very same reason. I could not understand why our arrival incited such violence in these kids, and so my idea of America was marked as an identity I wanted nothing to do with. No one wanted to beat us up in Nigeria! And given my parents somewhat elite status in Africa, we were prized and never ridiculed. And so I learned to cling to my “Africanness” as something wholly positive and never to be shed. To this day, I subscribe to the same notion – not only in the way I carry myself, but in my work as well.

What was your experience with cinema when growing up and how did you become interested in filmmaking?

My experience with cinema as a child was nothing out of the ordinary. I was mostly glued to the TV as something to do after homework was completed. Jaunts to the movies were rare, but my brothers and I occasionally went. In fact, I had no more sense I would become a filmmaker as I would become a nurse. These ideas never entered my head as a child. What I did spend my time doing was reading literature. I spent all my allowance buying books and was a regular staple at the local library checking out books, which I then spent much of my free time consuming. In this way, childhood passed in relative peace and harmony. 

The idea of cinema as a profession came around when I got to college, the University of Houston. There, a dear friend and classmate by the name of David Rogers, first mentioned going further in school to study film at USC. We were at our final year at undergrad, where I had majored in Writing. I wanted to go further to graduate school and study, I don’t know what, perhaps Literature and become an English Professor. Or maybe Law School as my mother wanted though I really had no interest in Law. Maybe be a doctor? These are all proven and expected paths of the African child who is good in school. My love of literature, however, pretty much assured I would not find happiness down these roads – although the English Professor route was more appealing than the others.

In any case, Rogers said to me that he was going to California to study film. I said, film? I had no idea people “studied” it. The idea intrigued me a great deal. I was also going to New York City after undergrad, a city I had fallen in love with my last year in high school after attending my uncle’s wedding. I rushed back to Houston, intent on finishing college immediately then relocating to New York City. Rogers knew of these plans and mentioned that New York City is home to two of the greatest film schools in the country, Columbia University and NYU. I became even more intrigued by the idea of film because the notion seemed novel to me. It would combine my love of stories and be something entirely different.

After school ended on a Tuesday, I boarded a plane on Thursday and got to NYC – this was in 1990. I took the year off to think what to do. My spirit returned again and again to the idea of studying film in NYC, so I applied to both NYU and Columbia’s graduate film programs, and ended up being accepted in both schools. I chose Columbia for the simple reason the campus had a lawn, whereas NYU did not. One can say that after growing up with space in Texas, I sort of craved grass anywhere I could find it in NYC.

I did well as a film student even though I was wholly unprepared after graduation. You see, film is such an expensive path to take after school that on hindsight, that English Professor thing might have been a more sure thing had I pursued it and later earned a Ph.D. Ah well …

Your first films, African Dilemma, African Youth and Manchester Bound, focus on the daily experiences of the African immigrant. As you talk about the films, discuss how you came up with the story, the intended audience and their reception.

Since I was unable to run out after graduate school to make a big budget film, I wondered how I was going to make films at all. The idea of low-budget films was borne out of having nothing. I simply bought a camera and started shooting the African immigrant in New York City. They were all around me here and it seemed no one was pointing a camera at them. I found them touching and, of course, I could identify with them since I am African. I was also tired of the negative portrayal of the African on general American mainstream media. You could say I wanted to add a balanced view of this discourse from one who loved and understood them to pieces. The idea for the three films came about quite naturally from those early years after school. There are about a million stories of the African immigrant experience in America, so the stories were not that difficult to come up with.

The intended audience is both the American and the African, particularly the African living still in Africa. Both of these communities – the American and the African living in Africa – have a stilted view of what on earth the African is doing in America – this is to say, what the struggles really are. For the American, I am simply trying to blow down the stereotypes of how he views the African. I am trying to say that on a humanistic level, similarities abound. The African immigrant wants what everyone wants – security and the opportunity for his children to have a better future. For the African living in Africa – what I’m trying to show is the awesome difficulties and hardships that abound in living in America.

Your distribution approach entails direct release to DVD. What are the challenges and advantages of this marketing strategy?

In the beginning, I thought this is the best way to go. Make a movie, take it around to the African DVD sellers wherever. They would respect the trade in that I am the product maker and they the product seller. I would make a small profit and they will make the same. Not so! I learned that this market is brutal.

The African sellers want you to give them the movie at nothing, if you would be so kind. If you give it to them at something, they will buy 10 copies from you and never call you back. Behind your back, copies will be made as you are walking out of the store, and by the time you get to the intersection, someone will be selling the movie back to you! It was incredible, their speed of bootlegging. I could not keep up and quickly made no more movies on that scale to be handed to them. There are no advantages to be gleaned selling directly at straight DVD levels.

How would you situate yourself in relationship to Nollywood, have you been influenced by the influx of Nollywood films coming directly from Nigeria that circulate in the United States? And conversely, are your films distributed in Nigeria? What has been the reception? What is your relationship with Nigerian cinema?

My people will frown at me for this next statement, but I do no not make Nollywood movies. Not because I’m a snob, it’s just that I was not taught how to make Nollywood movies at Columbia. I have no relationship whatsoever with Nigerian cinema, I don’t even know who the players are. Having said that, I am proud of Nollywood – if for no other reason than showing Americans different views of Africa that they would never get a chance to see if the films were produced by Hollywood. If I can just solve the problem of breaking even after you make a movie, I do not swear off landing in Lagos one day and making a movie with Nollywood celebrities.

Your most recent work Honeysuckle is very different both in terms of theme and style. In your discussion about the film, talk about why you chose such a contrasting theme. The film is multi-layered: lesbianism, white woman-black woman in unequal positions as employer-nanny respectively, infidelity—in a most unexpected way. Who did you envision as your audience?

The theme of Honeysuckle is not really different from my usual fare. It’s still a story of an American with an African. They only difference, yes, is that the African plays second fiddle to the American. I made this movie to target a particular niche American market – the gay and lesbian market – so felt the lead had to represent a member from that community.

As far as style, in wanting to avoid the African DVD seller, I decided to go after the American. Hence, Honeysuckle is my biggest budget film to date. It was made so that I could make other high-budget films if the movie succeeds. At the present time, the movie is still in post-production, so the story as to its success or failure is still a thing of the future.

Now, as far as the different layers that you mention – i.e., lesbianism; white woman-black woman in unequal positions, infidelity, well, it’s a Vigil Chimé film and as such, I try my best to take familiar stories and turn them upside down.

You are also a writer. In your book, My Songbird Can Dance, you also explored the complicated relationship of a live-in nanny with the family for whom she works. Did this story influence in any way the film Honeysuckle? What inspired you to write the book and how do you work in the two mediums?

For the record, the movie came before the book, although the idea for the book came before the movie. Hmm, which came first? The chicken or the egg? I will say it’s a mere coincidence that the two stories deal with the nanny-employer scenarios. I wish they didn’t for it might give the impression I lack imagination.

I became a novelist out of frustration, by the way. Since it takes so much effort and time to make a movie, I am restless by nature and find I cannot just sit around working on any one thing for years. It is the easiest thing to write a book, and very rewarding in terms of immediate gratification. A book is done pretty much when you write THE END on the last page. After THE END on a script, the movie-making process has just begun. Then you have to go find the money to make it, then comes production then months and months, if not years, in post.

Writing books gives another advantage than making movies. My Songbird Can Dance yielded over 700 pages, giving me the opportunity to say whatever I damned well pleased about this world. Now, if I were to adapt the book for a movie, I would have to cut out much of that in order to fit the entire world into a 90-minute format. Most restrictive.

Your film production and distribution company Breakfast Pictures Entertainment, well the name is interesting? What are its mission and goals?

The concept of Breakfast Pictures is modeled on the idea of how I feel in general about filmmaking.  It takes too long to do anything! Therefore, I wanted a company that completed a movie, particularly the shooting of movies, in the same amount of time it takes you to eat breakfast. Believe it or not – that’s the reason. LOL!

Your active Internet involvement and presence, what role has it played in the production, distribution and marketing of your work?

My spirit is very independent. I like the idea that I can feed myself through my art. I only require three meals a day and a roof over my head. I figured the Internet would allow me to be independent while feeding me. I could do things my way, tell the kind of stories I want to tell without having to sacrifice my vision for someone else’s. If the Internet model works, it has the potential to accomplish both things for me.

Interview with Vigil Chimé by Beti Ellerson, October 2011

Links

Vigil Chimé Website

Breakfast Pictures Entertainment (no longer active)