Pascal Atuma Interview

Pascal Atuma

Pascal Atuma is a Nigerian born, successful Hollywood filmmaker. Writer and producer of: Only In America, Hurricane In The Rose Garden, Capital Blues, My American Nurse 1 & 2 and No More Bloodshed (In pre-production). He has also starred in many Nollywood films, most recently, Through the Glass, I Surrender All, and The Governor’s Gift.

APINKE asks Atuma about his experience with Nollywood.

In your opinion, What does Nollywood need to do in order to catch-up with Hollywood? Nollywood needs to take time to grow; no need to rush to catch up with Hollywood. It took Hollywood many years to get to the point that they are today. If you watch Hollywood films of the early 1900s, you will see what I am talking about.

What would your advice be to actors, producers and distributors in Nollywood on quality production?

Training, training, training!! Lack of professionalism-People wake up any morning and call themselves directors, or actors or producers or whatever they chose in the business, without any atom of training or experience, and they actually go through with it, just riding in the business blindly, and actually hoping to compete in the international or local markets–Hell capital “NO”, it doesn’t work like that and it will never work. You might have all the talent in the world, but without training, you cannot become a professional, and professionalism leads to high quality of products. From A-Z in Nollywood needs to get trained or else it’s going to be a long time before the quality of the films come up to par.

How has piracy affected your movie production and how can Nollywood fight this?

The pirates are killing us, daylight robbery. The government have to step in and help pass laws like we have in the US and other parts of the world, and actually set examples with a couple of the pirates. Strong organisations should also be formed among the stakeholders in the business to form a strong force to fight these pirates .