Tunde Kelani Protégé debuts own film, screening for September 26

Jamiu Shoyode, former production manager to renowned film maker Tunde Kelani, has gone solo with a movie he completely produced and financed.

Titled, Aliyyah’s Wish, the short film is scheduled for screening on Monday September 26 by 7pm at the Freedom Park, Lagos and is open to the public.

Mr. Shoyode told PREMIUM TIMES in an exclusive interview that the movie is about child neglect, a major form of abuse that advocates and families often overlook in this part of the world. Unfortunately, 75 percent of child abuse mortality is associated with the neglect of victims.

According to Shoyode, in 2005, an estimated 1460 children died as a result of abuse or/and neglect. He said most fatalities (76.6 percent) happen at the hands of parents.

He also addressed other issues, including claims of his causing a friction between his former boss, Mr. Kelani and Kunle Afolayan, another renowned film maker.

Mr. Jamiu, on leaving Tunde Kelani, had gone on to be a team lead on Mr. Afolayan’s picture, The CEO, which was being produced at the time. Critics in the creative industry had alleged the creation of bad blood between the two film heavyweights as a result of this. Mr. Kelani is quite known as a father figure to Afolayan.

Shoyode, however, debunked the claim. He said Mr. Kelani is a father to both him and Afolayan and was also a part of the production of The CEO, showing PREMIUM TIMES photos the trio had taken during the production of the movie, which has hit big screens across the country.

He further shed light on his moving on to The CEO‘s set after leaving Mainframe Productions. According to him, he had been trying to raise some 30,000 euros (€30,000) to go to a film school in Germany, and needed extra work to be able to do this. He is however yet to raise the total amount, although a part of what he had gathered so far also went into shooting Aliyyah’s Wish.

Mr. Shoyode also addressed the review of movie critics that The CEO got “lost” at some point, hence it isn’t a spectacular movie as being hyped. To him, it is a typical response in the creative industry for critics to say a scene or production could have been handled better. And, as far as he is concerned, “In movie production, certain scenes or actions are deliberate to elicit particular responses from the viewers. It could be laughter, sorrow, shouting among others. We achieved that with The CEO.”

Mr. Shoyode’s journey into professional film making began about six years ago, first as an intern at Tunde Kelani’s Mainframe Production, while a student at the media department of the Pan Atlantic University, Lagos.

“I chose to intern with Tunde Kelani, not for money but professionalism and I have no regrets whatever. Skills acquisition are more precious than money”, he said.