Former Corporate executive now turned story teller, Ogochukwu Ekezie, has said she doesn’t regret leaving her more than two decades career in the corporate world to join the movie industry in Nigeria.
Currently the President of Red Sand Studios, Ogochukwu who came back from the US more than 20 years ago, armed with two bachelors degree in Journalism and Criminology started her journey in the corporate world in Nigeria as a brand manager at ARM Investment Managers before moving to other brands.
“I moved to Citi Bank as a Public Affairs Officer for Nigeria and Ghana. After that, I moved to Union Bank as the Chief marketing officer.”
Despite her success story in the corporate world, Ogochukwu said her love for the entertainment industry never waned. She would recall that even before she came into the country, her dream was to join the make-believe industry from the start.
“I had told my parents I wanted to come to Nigeria and open up movie theatres. And as true Nigerian parents would react, they had said nobody goes to the cinemas in Nigeria. Six months after I moved back to Nigeria, Silverbird Cinemas was opened. I am a great lover of films. When I was much younger, I would go to the movie theatres alone and watch movies.”
And more than 20 years after, Ogocukwu said it was time she pursued her dream
“Nollywood has made giant stride in the last two decades. I feel this is the right time for me to execute this dream and vision that I have had. I would describe my journey as from The Boardroom to Nollywood.”
And since the industry seemed saturated already with so many story tellers and producers, Ogochukwu feels there is a space for her especially when she intends to do things differently.
“Fundamentally, I think I want to be able to tell our stories and tell them well. I want to tell stories that would transcend boarders and barriers. I want when people watch our stories; they feel they are watching movies that have come out of Hollywood. I want them to connect with the stories. I want to produce movies that our children can watch in the next 50 years. I want to do movies that will stand the test of time.”
As she has set the ball rolling, with her debut project, ‘Were’, which has already been premiered at the New York African Film Festival.
Talking about the new project, Ogochukwu said it is a short story.
“’Were’ is an interesting movie. It is culled from a story – Under the Bridge- and we took the central character and turned it into a short film. The story is about a mentally ill woman who lives at the top of Ojota Bridge and relies on the generosity of a stranger who comes to feed her every day. When the stranger disappears, she comes out of her shack and mingles with the world. The three days she comes out to fend for herself, series of things happen to her. The movie features Belinda Yanga as the lead actor.”
Explaining here reasons for not using an A-list actor since this is her debut project, Ogochukwu said it was “deliberate”.
“I have my views about using a ‘big’ name. If I had wanted to generate noise, I may have considered that. But this is a short movie and the actors are also well known and they understand their craft in the industry. It was a deliberate choice. It was never a consideration for me to use a big name. I wanted somebody who would execute the concept. I am comfortable with the choices we made. My goal is for my work to speak for itself. One of the key things I want to do in this industry is to make new stars. We cannot rely on the same people that have been working in the last 20 years.”
With some other projects in the pipeline, Ogochukwu said she has a lot in store for the industry.
“We have a few projects on our sleeves. Our next movie, hopefully, will be based on a true story. I am developing a banking industry series. I have spent 20 years in the industry. The industry has more drama than the government. We also have a contemporary love story that deals with the ‘Osu’ cast system.”
