With 24 didactic and acclaimed movies to her credit, as a producer cum executive producer, Ukpabio, also the General Overseer of Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries with headquarters in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria, is no doubt, a force to reckon with within and outside Nollywood.
Versatile and widely-traveled Ukpabio, also an accomplished author with over 28 published Christian books and literatures, was recently on set in Calabar, to lense another big budget movie entitled: Echoes of the Ancestors, with some leading lights in Nollywood.
Directed by Fred Amata in both urban and rural domains of the city, the movie is expected to go round major cinemas in and outside Nigeria, as well as some major film festivals, before being released on DVD. In this interview with Daily Sun, Ukpabio, a happily married mother of three, spoke passionately on the new movie and other germane issues.
You recently brought several Nollywood stars and crewmembers to Calabar to partake in your just completed movie, Echoes of the Ancestors, what was it like on locations?
Yes, I did that but it was very tedious, but we moved on and completed the job at a very huge cost. It involved so much, because we also tried to shoot differently from how we have been shooting in the past. We also imported several state of the arts equipment from Lagos, for the production. We have finished but the work dragged more than expected. The stars we flew in from Lagos to be part of this production include: Fred Amata (director), Zack Orji, Yemi Blaq, Bob Manuel Udokwu, Enebeli Elebeuwa, Vivian Anani, Moses Efret, Patience Oseni, Gentle Jack and a host of others.
You seem to have so much passion for this movie; we would like to know what stands it out from the other movies from your Liberty films stable?
Generally, my movies are educative; they also serve as warning to the entire world. Either I warn the world against God’s anger or impending dangers. The title of this one is: Echoes of the Ancestors and the aim is to let people know that whatever they do, they are leaving it to their offsprings to come and harvest. For example, the Bible said that Abraham paid tithes and even over paid it for the children yet unborn, so the time these children started coming, they benefited immensely from the good seeds that their father sowed. If you also sow wrong or evil seed, your children will also reap the repercussions.
And to give this movie the best in terms of production, we decided to shoot with higher HD Camera and its attendant accessories. We chose to continually raise our stakes in the industry, because people usually look down on Christian movies. But at Liberty Films, we want our works to be real with sound quality. Again, we are also setting the pace for others to follow. And its not usually easy setting the pace. Bringing all these stars and the equipment to locations costs us a lot.
Aside the normal location bottlenecks, what would you say was the major challenge you experienced on set while filming?
First and foremost, they were all eager to work, in fact, in my entire career as a filmmaker; I have never seen a set like this. In fact, since 1998 that I started, this has been my best set. Like I said earlier the only challenge was that the work dragged longer than expected and that over shot our budget.
Now that you’ve completed shoot, when should your teeming fans be expecting this movie? Do you also intend taking it to the cinemas before release?
We are spending so much on this film because we are shooting an international movie.
My expectations for this movie are wide. I also expect, that it will compete with other good movies around the world, by the time it’s released globally. We also intend storming cinemas and festivals around the world with this movie. We will release this movie after releasing Light Afflictions, which has been over-delayed by the Censors Board .I still can’t fathom why its taking the board over one year to censor my film, my lawyers also wrote them…
We would like you to share with us the synopsis of Echoes of the Ancestors?
Let me read you the synopsis, because I don’t like revealing much about my movies until they’re released. Echoes of the Ancestors are like shadows that are always there to interrupt and destabilize our shores. Sometimes they speak so loud and their influence very disturbing. In most cases, lives are taken, property lost or ruin as long as encounter with Christ is not there. Its only the power of Christ is his words that can chase out Echoes of the Ancestors. Don’t allow the echoes of your ancestors to silence and destroy your existence. This is my 24 film as one of the leading female filmmakers in Nollywood.
Among the numerous expository movies from your stable, which do you cherish most and why?
For me, Rapture 1 and 2 remains one of my best films. It is like that for me because it’s the greatest expectation of our age. Each time I go back to watch the film, I feel fulfilled and satisfied. Even the message was and it still relevant. It is also dear to me because it contains the end time story, which is what the whole world is expecting even though they pretend they do not know anything like that. Again, the picture quality of the movie thrills me a lot, even though it was shot in 2001. The preparation for the movie was great and we trained a lot of soldiers in the church. Some people even rumoured that we wanted to wage a war against Olumba Olumba Obu. We requested for 1000 guns from the I.G of Police, they gave us 500 and sent mobile police men to monitor us on set. It was a very big film, we spent over N20m, but our crisis with the Censors Board wrecked the success we would have recorded wit the movie then. As a woman of God and a true
Nigerian, I don’t like oppression or injustice. I watch the film very often and that gives me excess joy and happiness.
24 expository movies and still counting, where do you draw the inspiration to write and create these good and exceptional stories despite your busy schedule?
God has given us 24 hours and how you use yours is very important.
Sometimes when the environment becomes too familiar, I travel out and spend between four and five days to do what I was supposed to do here. I believe that we can programme our lives and even achieve more. You can achieve much if you want to and also achieve nothing if you also want to.
Among the several movie directors you have been working with, who among them do you look forward to working with always, especially in terms of technicality and expertise?
In answering this question you have to look at a lot of factors, but technically, Fred Amata and Teco Benson, are good, others are equally good.
Even with an operational office in Lagos, you still prefer shooting virtually all your movies in Calabar, why?
No, movies like: Kids Are Angry, Wasted Years, Grace to Grace and a few others were shot in Lagos. But I discovered that when it has to do with crowd scenes in Lagos, you’d have to look for people and pay them. And in Calabar, I have so many crowds here and do not know what to do with them. Again, since we produce Christian movies, I then decided to bring the locations down to Calabar, where we have our church’s headquarters. And that makes it easier for us to involve our church members in some production works as well.
You have done so much and also achieved so much with Liberty Films; so kindly tell us the next level?
I was one of the first people in the industry to acquire Apple Procut studio and HD Camera. I did that to upgrade the quality of our works. We first kept it in Lagos and later moved it down to Calabar here. I still want to go higher now that I have discovered that new cameras are out. After this production, I will look into that area. I hope to have a lot of equipment for my future productions, because I don’t like renting, at the end of the day, you end up paying the actual cost used in buying the equipment through rentals. Echoes of the Ancestors have been highly upgraded and we hope to see it in cinemas soon, not only in Nigeria, but also globally.
You spent over N20m, shooting Rapture, almost a decade ago, so how much has been expended so far on the set of Echoes of the Ancestors?
I cannot put things together now, because we are still spending. Paying the cast alone gulped over N5m. we intend to edit this movie abroad. The hotel bill is mind-boggling. But I can assure you that it’s going to be costlier than Rapture, when completed.
At the end of the day, do you usually recover all the millions you spend on these big budget movies?
My goal and aim is to transform souls. When souls repent, I’m fulfilled and happy. One of my expository movies End of the Wicked brought in over 800 people to the church and that made me real happy. This also led to our opening of 11 new branches in Calabar, in order to accommodate these new members. The Price, Coven and Child Rescue, are expository movies from our stable, they also brought a large number of people to our church. When souls are won through repentance and homes are settled and problems solved after watching any of my films, its gives me unending joy and happiness. I’m not looking at the money, because we all know that the movie market is dead in Nigeria. In the past, I used to shoot three films in a year, but I only shoot once in a year now.
Ma, your aged father was among the cast on the set of Echoes of the Ancestors, how were you able to pull the stunt?
My aged father is over 70 and we brought him on set to play a role in this movie. He’s a very strong man and spent several hours with us on set taking his role. He enjoyed his time on set with us and even danced heartily without any sign of fatigue. In fact, my father is 77, and danced for over three hours. I wanted to have a feel of my village in the movie, so I decided to bring my dad and other villagers to be part of the movie. My father is a strong man and he can trek from Cross River to Akwa Ibom. He’s a very natural man and lives by what nature provides, unlike us that constantly live on artificial things.
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