Stephanie Okereke-Linus: Breaking bounds through movies

(Laughs) How does it feel? It feels great. Well, I feel very happy about it but most importantly I’m happy that people are getting to know more about the cause of the film which is the child birth issue and the VVF and maternal problems we have in Nigeria. So, I’m happy that with this platform, people are getting to be aware of the firm and hopefully we pray that more things will be done concerning the situation that we find ourselves in this country.

There is no specific reason why I focused on child birth. There are so many other issues and we all need to talk about them. It just happened that this is something that was like a calling to me. The first time I heard about it was in my second year at the university when a friend of mine came back from University of Jos and she was telling me stories and I thought it was strange that we are all living in the same country and I am having a different experience and somebody else is having a different experience and I thought it was weird. I just found out that I am also lucky to the fact that I have access to education, I was able to decide what happens to my body, I was able to go ahead and marry someone that I love and certain things like that. So other people should be able to have access to those kinds of rights, education, health and everything and also been a victim of an accident, I had an accident and I knew my experiences and it was horrible and it’s just something that just propels you about things that need to be done properly that you might think that you are high up there but if something especially health wise happens to you in Nigeria, you are just going to be at the mercy of your own. We have amazing doctors but there has been a lot of talents that has gone out of the country just because the environment is not conducive enough for them, so if we as citizens do not demand certain changes in society, we are not going to have them and also we have to push our leaders to be more compassionate towards us. So I felt that as my role as a film maker, I was able to use the tool and platform that I have to mirror the things happening in our society and figure out a way to drive people to see things we are facing.

We have not finished with the film (laughs); someone just saw it a few days ago and she was crying and said everyone needs to see this film. I hope that in the next 3 years, it’s still going to be relevant and 5 years, you know because since we still have this issue, the film is still relevant and I need more people to see it. So, I’m not in a rush to go into any project for now because there is still a whole lot to be done with this film. The fact that it won this award does not mean I should move on to another project. I still need other people to see it and I still want that change, because the film is more like a catalyst, so I want this film to enforce positive change and I hope to see many good things ahead.

Yes, it should be, because most of these festivals, I got invited because they are the ones who heard about the film and invited me. I am an open person and aside, I want people to see it and with that I will equally push the film for them to see it.

Whoa!!  They loved it. The film was screened in Kano and they did not ask me to delete anything from the movie. Like I was saying few days ago, it is not a northern issue; yes we have a majority of people coming from there but we have young girls, teenage girls who are going through abuse, you have people who are being married out and VVF is here with us in Lagos. I have treated women in Ebonyi State, Akwa Ibom, Ibadan and I have people coming from Lagos, so it something that can happen to anybody regardless of the age. Actually, it is just that when you are younger, you are more prone to it, so it is a Nigerian problem and not just a northern problem and I balanced the film. It is like a question that we need to ask ourselves and in the film everybody sees the role they need to play. You the parent of the girl, we in the community, the government, people in the health care sector. Everybody has their own role to play and if we play our roles very well, we will all have an enabling environment to ourselves.

I know when I was away, I got an email from the Ministry of Health, and they also want to see how they can use this movie to create more awareness. I have partnership with Ford foundation, partnership with the MDGs because one of the millennium goals is to eradicate this; now they have changed it to SDGs and we could not achieve that (laughs), so we are still pushing to see how we can get this whole thing done and I have had like various other people who have come on board to partner with me. When I showed the film to SPENCO Nigeria, I showed the thriller to SPENCO and they were like, oh my God, what can we do and I said let’s raise fund and help the actual women who are going through this condition. SPENCO and Diamond Bank have come on board. Now we have been able to treat over 100 women who have VVF though; we donated medical equipment to some of the hospitals around and everything, we are also doing our little part but there is still a whole lot to be done.

Yes, I am going to release on DVD and I am also going to put it on different channels, hopefully so that many people can get to see it. Like I said, it is not only a Nigeria issue, it’s an African and world issue, so I am also going to do some African tours. African countries are calling me that they also want to see the film, so I am going to move the film around and release it for people to see. It’s just like a guy who worked up to me and said he does not understand it; some said he thought VVF was a sexually transmitted disease, so the movie opened their eyes and they became aware and they now understood it because they were seeing it through the eyes of the victim.

I hired some people to help get a girl because I told them that I needed someone from the north because I needed her accent to be authentic. They recommended a lot of people to me and they all came for audition and I saw people who were seasoned actors but they were slightly bigger and when she stepped in I said to myself, this one was just the right size and she was shy; within me as an actress and director, I knew I was going to be able to work on her, I know the things to say to her, how to handle her. It is more like you being able to handle a child; so that is your ability as a director to be able to bring out what they don’t even know they have inside, so I was able to work her through.

It is ridiculous, you know that is one of the speech that I actually forgot to have said that day and on my way home I realised that there is one more thing I needed to say (laughs) and I was like, ‘how did I forget this’. It still boils down that we live in a country where … (sighs); I don’t know what is wrong with our leaders. You know sometimes you see an industry or a sector that is employing millions of people, a sector that is striving very well, a sector that is the only export that you have, forget this oil that they are talking about, the movie industry is the only authentic export that you have and an export that has been able to grow on its own and has this massive fellowship and has this huge potential for you to tell your story, for you to not allow other people tell your stories for you. It can be used as a propaganda tool, so many things you can do with this platform and you are not doing anything to protect the rights of this people so that there will be sustainability. So it is really sad because regardless of people saying you have this gift and calling, we just need to strengthen the laws because it is not even about distribution. If you don’t fix piracy, distribution can’t stand. Make it a financial crime, criminalize this people. If we have to go back and revisit the law, if the law says if someone pirates your firm, you are going to pay so amount of money, let’s fit it in and tighten it and let people understand that you can’t be doing things with people’s creativity. You have to figure out a way to encourage this people. It saddens me when we have leaders who don’t understand what they have in their place. I can go into a country confidently that is why I said most of us will probably move out and if I move into a country, I can start an industry because of the amount of experience and what you can do. Different African countries as calling us to come in, come and help our people and then you have this amount at which we were able to move into Ghana and you saw what happened, the industry strung up. So you have this huge potential of millions of young people who want to be in this industry and you are not doing anything about it. It is like carrying a cup of water and pouring it into the ocean, if we don’t lock up the tap where there is leakage, it will continue to flow. It really saddens me and I think that the government don’t even need us to form a pressure group and people saying we are divided. That is not the problem because the fact that we are divided is not the problem. Piracy is you and me, even if you are my enemy, piracy is our enemy, it is a common enemy. They are supposed to ask what we want which is like the normal standard or check practices elsewhere in the world and see how you can put it in place to protect the work of your people. If it is a government that is cautious and understanding, they don’t even need anybody to tell them and again coming to us, if they don’t give it to us, we demand it. That is the problem we are having in Nigeria, we don’t demand for things, we just allow things to happen to us. That is why we like comedy so much (laughs); it’s like the suffering is so much and we don’t want to remember how suffering is. So let’s just continue but I tell people after laughing you wake up again and the suffering is still there so can we just pause the laughter a little beat to face the problem, then the laughter can be continuous. So those are the kinds of challenges we have and it really sad. Hence, the National Assembly needs to sit down; whatever bills they need to pass as to help this industry, they owe it to us to do that.

You know we have been doing that. My husband is the CEO of Delyork International and over the years he been fine and doing great. He partnered with the New York film academy and brought in a lot of lecturers and we have trained over a thousand students and we see all our students doing well. Even with the one month training they had, they have been able to shoot their own movies, get jobs and so many other things. So we are really happy about that and hopefully it is something we want to continue and do because we need a lot of talents, people to enhance their talents and redefine them. But at least we have been able to do different things in Nigeria so they should stop yabbing Nigerians.

(Laughs) The thing has not finished now, we have just started Abeg. Okay what will the title be? (Laughs) Maybe when I get there, I can title it. I can title it “I have seen”, maybe then I could but right now I can think of anything.

We should, it’s just because I heard there is a planning committee on Oscars and we should if people become unbiased. I heard there is a planning committee on Oscars, I don’t know. Even with this film, it should and it can. It is high time we show to the world that this part of the globe, we make good films.

Motherhood is the best thing that can ever happen to anybody. I am very much excited and enjoying every moments that have come my way; my baby is doing very fine and my husband has always been there for me from day one.

For me a lot of work was put into it and that is the more reason why it came out this way, but like we say to others, there is still room for improvement and I’m equally sure that next year will be bigger and better.