Friday, August 25, 2017

Is there Any Organization Like the SAG-AFTRA in Nigeria?

Is there Any Organization Like the SAG-AFTRA in Nigeria?

The Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) is an American labor union representing approximately 160,000 film and television actors, journalists, radio personalities, recording artists, singers, voice actors, and other media professionals worldwide. The organization was formed on March 30, 2012, following the merger of the Screen Actors Guild (created in 1933) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists  (created in 1937 as American Federation of Radio Artists, becoming AFTRA in 1952 after merger with Television Authority).
SAG-AFTRA is a member of the AFL–CIO, the largest federation of unions in the United States.
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Nigeria is reputed to have the second largest video film industry in the world popularly known as "Nollywood", even though the Nigerian film industry includes Kannywood of the larger northern region, which actually was founded before the New York Times coined the word "Nollywood" in 2002. The difference between Nollywood and Kannywood is like the difference between Bollywood and Tollywood in India.

The Nigerian film industry is the largest in Africa, but not the biggest in revenues, because the biggest box offices in Africa are in South Africa and Egypt where the film industries are better organized with world class studios, more cinemas and professional bodies.
There are no world class studios in Nigeria and the professional bodies are not well organized. And the most disorganized is the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) which is an embarrassment when compared to the SAG-AFTRA.


The Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) at the moment is a joke, because it is not only dysfunctional, but misrepresenting the actors in Nigeria.
 The leadership of AGN is being abused and misused by a clique of Lagos based Nollywood actors jaundiced by cronyism and nepotism.
Are Yoruba actors, Hausa actors and other non-south eastern and south-south actors not members of the AGN?
What is all the nonsense of a clique jostling the leadership of the AGN and misrepresenting the actors in Nigeria?
As I told one of them earlier today, that the leadership of the guilds in the Nigerian film industry should not be abused and misused by opportunistic title chasers who in many cases are underachievers in the Nigerian film industry.

The AGN and Association of Movie Producers (AMP) don't have secretariats. They don't have any office where you can show or welcome local and international visitors, students and scholars who want to see the so called Nollywood.
It is really embarrassing to visit their offices in Lagos.  And the leaders don't feel embarrassed?

When the famous cofounder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg visited Nigeria in August last year, and wanted to visit Nollywood, because he thought it was a location like the famous Hollywood, it would have been a big disgrace to take him to the offices of the AGN, DGN and AMP. To save him from disappointment and save us from embarrassment, he was taken to Afrinolly Space in Oregun, far away from the shenanigans and squabbles in "Surulerewood".
By the way, Surulere is the location of majority of the Nollywood filmmakers and their associations in Lagos state of Nigeria.

~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, Publisher/Editor of NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series. https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima

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